WHITMAN — How can the town balance its traditional July 4 Family Field Day with the free speech tenets on which the nation was founded and are celebrated on that day?

The Recreation Commission will be working with Selectmen in an effort to draft regulations outlining what type of political campaign activities are to be permitted at family events it sponsors in Whitman Park. Any such guidelines will be reviewed by town counsel.

On July 4, the issue boiled over at the annual event as area candidates — who had been asked to keep their presence limited to wearing shirts and/or badges and handing out leaflets — “got out of control,” according to Recreation Director Oliver Amado.

“I was contacted by several political parties, including my own party, regarding the Family Fourth event,” Amado told Selectmen Tuesday, July 10. “Basically, they originally wanted to put big signs up and everything and I told them that this was a family fun day, it’s never been used as a political event.”

Amado asked that they operate on the “Geoff Diehl approach” of setting up a table with their families and offering watermelon slices or other such refreshments without overtly campaigning.

“Most of the time you couldn’t tell that he was a candidate,” Amado said.

“He was just being there,” said Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, who later noted he had initially agreed with the request that candidates limit their role, but then changed his mind. “It’s a freedom of speech issue, it’s a freedom of assembly issue and I couldn’t see any other way around it,” he said.

“[Diehl] was just being there,” Amado said. “And that’s what I wanted and that’s what I asked. I never banned anyone from coming down.” He was trying to avoid a rally atmosphere with big signs and banners.

“That’s what happened and it got out of control quickly,” Amado said, adding that interference from the campaigns forced cancellation of two contests because of the time delay.

The incident led to a debate on social media about what kind of electioneering is proper at such “family events,” officials said.

candidate’s request

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said he had received a call on Monday, July 2 from former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, whose daughter is a candidate for the seat he once held, complaining that she was not being permitted to canvass at the July 4 Field Day.

Lynam called Town Counsel Michelle McNulty for guidance and to Amado for more information. He had to leave a message with McNulty, who returned Lynam’s call on Tuesday, July 3.

“I did have some concerns about our ability to limit those types of events,” Lynam said about his call to McNulty. “She agreed with my belief that speech is protected, that the park is a public place and people can attend these public events … wear campaign buttons, they can wear shirts, they can hand out leaflets.”

He underscored the Recreation Department’s concern that the event “is and always has been a family event” and past requests against conducting political activities has been respected.

“The directive was advised by me to not prevent any political candidates from attending, wearing their shirts, handing out leaflets or otherwise engaging people during the event,” Lynam said, explaining that decision was based on First Amendment considerations.

McNulty issued an opinion on the situation, which states political speech is protected in public places where there is no perceived cause to restrain it.

“When I was contacted, the issue was very narrow,” said McNulty, who attended the July 10 meeting. “The issue was, ‘Can we prohibit the candidates from being present at the town park during this event? Can we tell them they can’t wear campaign shirts or buttons or have leaflets?’ My answer to that was a narrow response that it is a public forum, that you cannot prohibit free speech in a public forum — you can have reasonable time, place and manner restrictions that are applicable to everybody regardless of affiliation.”

rally vs. forum

She said the issue was never presented as an intent to hold a rally, have balloons, tables or microphones.

“There is a difference between a political rally and just being present in an open forum … wearing a shirt that says anything on it,” she said. “I was frankly taken quite aback when I heard what had occurred, as well. … We all learn from incidents like this.”

The main issue that made the difference for McNulty was that it happened in a public park.

“It seems that something got lost in translation somewhere along the line,” she said.

Amado had explained that the candidates had been set up in a shaded area off to one side away from the contests and picnic tables and they were asked to place banners to face the street or take the signs down. By the time the bike and carriage decoration contest was over, “the signs came out — the big banner, bigger than a station wagon came out — and next thing you know, we had four or five of this particular group’s entourage rushing our area, handing out balloons to the kids and preventing us from kicking off on time,” he said. “Once they pulled out their signs, all the candidates pulled out their signs.”

Some residents at the event tried to prevent the candidates from interfering with it, according to Amado. Candidates were also asking Recreation Department staff, as well as Donnie Westhaver’s family who were DJ-ing the event, for use of their microphones to address the crowd. The candidates were refused.

Selectman Randy LaMattina said his concern was that the Recreation Commission had a plan in place to deal with the situation that “absolutely protected the First Amendment,” but preserving the integrity of a family event was paramount.

“This seems to be an ongoing thing … that decisions are being made without this board,” LaMattina said. “And this board is the elected chief executive officers of the town.”

Kowalski said he found it ironic that on Independence Day, “by which freedom of assembly, as well as freedom of speech is to be celebrated [that] people were asked to curtail their speech and to curtail the way they assemble.”

Selectman Dan Salvucci had been in the office signing warrants July 2 when Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green fielded Amado’s first call and was relaying Amado’s questions to him.

“I told her that, personally, it’s a family fun day — it’s a children’s day — I said we’ve always had people handing out watermelon or things like that because it’s a family fun day, but no big political signs,” Salvucci said.

‘disgusting’ behavior

Selectman Brian Bezanson was blunt in his criticism of the behavior of all candidates, noting that both the Republican and Democratic town committees have long had an unwritten agreement “not to pull this kind of stuff.”

“Just because it’s legal, doesn’t make it right,” he said. “As the chairman of the Republican Town Committee, I’m very disappointed, because I know what this event is and I know how hard the Recreation Commission works to put it together. … To have a family fun day literally ruined because of partisanship and political asperations, I find it disgusting.”

In other business, Lynam said Bridgewater State University professor Dr. Melinda Tarsi has provided more information concerning the planned community assessment survey. The next step will be a meeting of stakeholders to begin formulating questions to be included in that survey.

A list of those stakeholders will be prepared by the board’s next meeting on July 24.

“Sounds like she is expecting a large group of stakeholders,” Kowalski said. “She said we could use Bridgewater State if we didn’t have enough space here.”

“I’d like to think we’d get that kind of response,” Lynam said.

Hanson works toward reviving Main Street corridor

HANSON — The Main Street (Route 27) corridor near the Commuter Rail station continues to be a priority for the Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator Michael McCue, who described the area as “one of the gateways to the town of Hanson.”

“I am in continuing discussions with an entity down on Main Street that is interested in doing some redevelopment,” McCue said. He said he was also meeting during the week of June 25 with state agencies to potentially present a tax incentive financing (TIF) plan before the October Town Meeting.

“It is fairly complicated and there are a lot of moving parts,” McCue told Selectmen at the board’s Tuesday, June 19 meeting about the TIF issue. “I know the town has started an Economic Development Commission, I know in the past the town had an Economic Target Area (ETA) Committee, unfortunately at the next meeting [Tuesday, July 10], I’m going to request that the town create another committee.”

That panel will be a TIF Committee charged with meeting with the “potential project owner” to negotiate a TIF agreement to draw up a Town Meeting article including a length of time for the special tax financing along with percentages involved.

“It’s a negotiation and it needs people involved in the negotiation that have a bit of wherewithal on how all of that works,” McCue said. That committee should include either the assessor or representative, someone from the Planning Board, a Selectman and McCue. He noted that the Finance Committee could be asked for representation, but had declined similar invitations in the past.

“I think this could be an exception, because this is a real-life ‘it’s happening’,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “It’s going to impact the town, so I would rather err on the side of inviting them.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett noted that every member of the board, while on the campaign trail and since, has heard that residents want to see something happen there in terms of economic development.

A TIF can be in force from five to 20 years, according to McCue, who had reached out through the building inspector to the current owner of the old Ocean Spray building to perform some maintenance on sidewalks. That work has been going on for the past several days.

On Friday, June 29 workers were using construction equipment to pull saplings and undergrowth that had sprung up due to reduced use of commercial buildings next door and across an open lot to 999 Main St.

He has also reached out to owners of other nearby buildings to perform outdoor maintenance.

“It all goes back to that old broken windows theory that if you let one piece of property kind of go down the tubes, you have a kind of creep so the whole area looks that way,” he said. “I think the reverse is also true — that you have one or two of these locations clean themselves up and the other locations feel almost pressure to clean up. It really should be cleaned up.”

McCue said he wants to see something done, but cautioned against pushing too hard too fast and “scaring people off.”

“I think its going to reap the benefits fairly soon,” he said.

The Board of Selectmen will return to the issue of the proposed hiring of Eugene Gingras as the town’s new IT director when they meet Tuesday, July 10. A vote scheduled to adopt a fuel-efficient vehicle policy was also tabled due to questions raised by some of the town’s department heads.

In other business, June 19, Selectmen voted to close and post “No Trespassing” signs at town-owned land bordering Factory Pond where a rocket projectile from a WWII-era M-1, 2.36-inch, Rocket Launcher (called a Bazooka because of it’s resemblance to a trombone-like wind instrument copyrighted by radio comedian Bob Burns in the 1920s) had recently been found in the waters. The military had tested weaponry there in the past.

Even absent the launcher, the Bazooka rocket rounds are dangerously unstable. Police Chief Michael Miksch said the State Police Bomb Squad and a company working with the town of Hanover are being charged with removing such rounds, this one being discovered by a person using a metal detector to find that type of materials.

McCue noted that Hanover had already voted on June 18 to post “No Trespassing” signs along the shore on that side of the pond where all of the property is town-owned.

In Hanson, however, only two sections of land are town-owned and the “vast majority” of parcels concerned are privately-owned.

McCue consulted Town Counsel Katherine Feodoroff about what the town could do to control access to the pond from private land. She advised reaching out to discuss the issue with homeowners.

“The town can be treated, just like any individual, as a trespasser if you went on private property without permission, so you have to be careful,” Feodoroff said.

Chapter 103 of the Acts of 1955 gives the town of Hanson control of all ponds or lakes within the town, she said, adding more research into the extent of that control.

“The best approach is always to reach out to the residents and make them your partner,” Feodoroff said.

Whitman continues budget, purchasing discussions

WHITMAN — When the Board of Selectmen convene to begin the business of a new fiscal year on Tuesday, July 10, there will be some familiar action items before them — as well as a change in how board members report progress from their committee assignments.

Along with tabled or continued discussion on the possible call for a sergeant’s list for the Police Department and on proposed changes to the town’s travel and expense policy for municipal employees, Selectman Scott Lambiase continued to question the request to appoint Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green as chief procurement officer.

He again stressed on Tuesday, June 26 that his concerns were not meant as comment on Green’s performance in a role she already fills without the title, but center on who should carry the title and the need to finish policy changes now being made.

The prior assistant town administrator was also chief procurement officer, according to Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski and Town Administrator Frank Lynam, but Lambiase said he did not recall such a vote.

“He can delegate his authority,” Lambiase said of Lynam. “The recommendation from the [state] Inspector General is, if there’s nothing in your Charter, then it’s up to the Selectmen to decide. My concern with it is the person who ends up as the chief procurement officer is where the buck should stop — and it should be us or our representative.”

Lynam could delegate the authority to Green, whom Lambiase said is “exceptionally capable of dealing with it … but I think the top person on our food chain has to be the town administrator for a lot of reasons.”

Chief procurement officer is a title that goes with the position, meaning the town administrator, he argued — it doesn’t go with the person.

Selectman Brian Bezanson said he, too, recalled voting to appoint former Assistant Town Administrator Greg Enos as chief procurement officer in 2013.

“If that were the case, then there would be no point in this exercise,” Lambiase said, asking that past minutes be checked.

“We need to find out what did that vote in 2013 mean,” Kowalski said.

Lynam agreed to look into the matter further with the Inspector General’s office.

The sergeant’s list was tabled again to await the outcome of a personnel issue. There is a vacancy due to retirement and a possible second vacancy based on an issue now under discussion within the rules of executive session.

The travel and expense policy changes were given a first read and will come back before the board July 10 so department heads can review the proposal and offer feedback.

Rethinking agendas

Selectman Daniel Salvucci offered the suggestion that the traditional “around the board” session — in which Selectmen offer thoughts about items that may not be listed on the agenda — be ended in favor of a listed item pertaining to committee reports.

Kowalski replied he had been leaning that way, but a mention by Bezanson that residents should think about veterans with PTSD, or even the welfare of pets, before setting off illegal fireworks on July 4, led him to give it a second thought. Bezanson favors retaining the around the board tradition.

“You actually gave me a reason why it works sometimes, but it always seemed to me to be kind of awkward” Kowalski said. “This is a public meeting and people have the right to have a reasonable expectation of what’s going to be talked about at a public meeting.”

Personnel policies, performance evaluations, community assessment and budget will also become regular agenda items, Kowalski said. A Town Administrator’s report could also be an agenda item.

“I don’t see the Town Meetings being the High Mass of the year in which everything has to be done by that time,” he said. “I think there’s a manner of business that we need to adopt as selectmen that’s going to be consistent and when the Town Meeting comes, the Town Meeting comes.”

Preparing for Town Meetings should be one of the board’s considerations, but not it’s only goal, Kowalski said, suggesting the Finance Committee might take the same approach.

Finance Committee member Shawn Kain had asked about the timeline for and probable makeup of a proposed budget subcommittee during the meeting’s public forum, which in part inspired the discussion of changes to the board’s future agendas.

“Unfortunately, July and August are upon us,” Lambiase said. “I personally, would like to see that decision of who’s going to be on that committee made — when they are going to meet and what the charge is — by the end of July and certainly [to] have a good plan.”

Kain had indicated he wanted to see discussions about staff vs. salary reductions as part of that charge because of the W-H school district’s position as 15th from the bottom in terms of acceptable class size.

“If we went through another round of significant layoffs, that would hit the teacher/student ratio pretty hard,” he said. “I guess what I’m getting at is that the people who are on the committee are employees of the town, there’s somewhat of a conflict there.”

He urged Selectmen to include a citizen at-large seat on the budget subcommittee.

“That would have been my preference anyway,” said Kowalski, suggesting it, too, be added to the July 10 agenda.

Fish vendor

In other business, Selectmen approved a transient vendor license — subject to final inspection and approval of the Board of Health, Building Commissioner and Fire Department as well as proof of liability insurance — for Andrew Poce to sell fish on premises at 1113 Bedford St.

Poce, doing business as Nantucket Wild, said he bought the trailer from the previous vendor who operated out of the parking lot of the former Shoetown Tavern. A commercial fisherman who lives in East Bridgewater, he said it will be his full-time venture initially operating sales from Wednesday through Saturday. He said his “ideal scenario” would be combining it with a Chatham smokehouse business he opened in 2010, ultimately looking for a brick and mortar location in Whitman.

WHITMAN — Selectmen, on Tuesday, June 26, began the process through which they plan to survey residents on budgeting priorities — the first step in developing long-range budget plans.

The board heard Bridgewater State University political science professor Dr. Melinda Tarsi review survey methodology and strategies aimed at obtaining the most accurate information from the largest possible number of people in town.

Tarsi teaches survey methodology and public opinion research, and is chairman of the Halifax Finance Committee. She also recently helped the town of Millbury conduct a survey as part of its master plan research, achieving a participation rate of 20 percent in a town of about 5,100 people.

“It was quite good for a municipal survey with no incentives offered,” she said.

That short turn-around survey was in the field for two weeks, because of a scheduled public forum. Tarsi said results of a Whitman survey could be complete by October and that she could “reverse engineer” the process to meet a specific deadline.

“The point is to make it as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, to improve response rates,” she said. Adding other questions about health concerns and other issues of interest on the budget survey could help address other town government needs without creating survey burnout from too many questionnaires.

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, Selectman Scott Lambiase and Town Administrator Frank Lynam will be working with Tarsi and discussing which stakeholders sould be included in futher meetings with her, including WHRSD and SSVT, and  to begin talking about questions.

“More importantly, we need to reach out to the public,” Lynam said. “We can easily collect the information internally, it’s the getting the public involved that is [crucial].”

Tarsi said identifying and sitting down with stakeholders prior to the survey as a way to begin the formulation of survey issues and questions.

“I am a big advocate of beta-testing a survey, getting a lot of eyes on it and making sure that we don’t just sort of pass things around in our little bubble and think it makes sense to us without making sure that it makes sense to other people, too,” she said.

Kowalski noted that it was a good thing that Finance Committee member Shawn Kain also attended the meeting.

“Shawn has had a burr under his saddle for a couple of years now about the need for our town to do more long-range planning than it has done — especially around the budget,” he said. “Budget cycles go from year-to-year. We need to take, not only the short-term look, but we need to take a long-term look, too.”

Kowalski said it can be daunting to determine how to even begin determining goals and objectives of a community, which includes a statement of its priorities for immediate budgeting as well as long-range planning. He mentioned once receiving a survey on his cell phone regarding health needs of the South Shore that the opioid coalition with which his wife works was conducting.

“She said why don’t you just do a survey?” Kowalski said. He then spoke to Lynam who mentioned Tarsi’s work.

Tarsi said she was excited to work with Whitman on the project, suggesting Whitman use both a paper and online survey. She has a license for Qualtrix, one of the premier survey platforms at Bridgewater State.

She cautioned that the wording and order of questions was an important consideration, and would work with the town on doing that as a way to obtain the best data possible.

“I tell my students I think that bad data is worse than no data at all and I want to make sure that we’re crafting questions — and even ordering questions — in a way that ensures we get reliable information on what your residents prioritize when it comes to the budget,” Tarsi said.

Kowalski said he noticed, on some surveys, that police services and public safety are often at the bottom of the list when surveys ask people to rate public services.

Selectman Dan Salvucci suggested an alphabetical listing of town departments for surveying could address that concern.

“Something as simple as how you order responses, or having one question appear below another question, might seem inconsequential, but actually, from a political psychology point of view, it can have major implications for how someone views a question,” Tarsi said. “Those are the things I’d be very much attuned to.”

She also offered the services of her fall public opinion class members to code paper surveys as part of their service learning requirement at Bridgewater State. Students could begin that coding process when they return to classes in September.

As an academic surveyor, Tarsi said she would have to submit it to an institutional review board to ensure it does not unethically harm participants, which takes about two weeks.

Lynam asked if it was a good idea to distribute paper surveys through town departments as a way to ensure the interests of all stakeholders were represented. Tarsi said direct mail is the most efficient method for distributing paper surveys, but encouraged departments to advertise the importance of completing the survey on any of their social media platforms.

Reminder postcards also help spur people to return completed surveys, Tarsi said.

Travel policy

In other business, the board gave a first reading to proposed changes to the town’s travel and expense policy to permit town departments an opportunity to provide feedback.

Police Chief Scott Benton asked if department heads could ask questions as he had not seen the proposal.

“We sit down and talk with the union,” Benton said. “I don’t know why there wouldn’t be a conversation with the people that are going to be affected.”

Lynam said the biggest change involves “identifying reasonable limits” to expenses charged for travel on town business based on market fluctuations in geographic areas.

Kowalski asked that the proposal be distributed for review and the board could then act on it at the next meeting, slated for 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 10.

“We need to put in some policies to control our spending, plain and simple,” Salvucci said, particularly in view of the fact that residents are being surveyed about budget priorities.

Kain also asked if other policies with a potential budget impact were being reviewed.

“You’re going to see policies coming [before the board] with some regularity,” Kowalski said. “We have a personnel policy book that we pretty much finished awhile ago — until we started adding things to it and we’re polishing it now.”