WHITMAN — As the town begins work on the fiscal 2020 budget next month, Town Administrator Frank Lynam informed the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Aug. 28 that early calculations show a very preliminary structural deficit of $1.9 million.

A budget committee is being formed with the aim of beginning its work in mid-September. Selectmen to serve on the panel will include Scott Lambiase, who is spearheading the project and Brian Bezanson. Finance and School committee representatives will also be named to the committee, which Lambiase said could also include department heads. The Finance Committee met jointly with Selectmen Tuesday before going into its own scheduled meeting.

“I want to put a working group together, as we discussed, with some members of Finance Committee, members of this board and we talked about hopefully including the School Committee, a couple department heads, Frank [Lynam] of course,” Lambiase said. “What we want to come up with, at least in my opinion — in my thoughts — was a sort of a formula that we’ll follow this year and then, hopefully, every year going forward.”

Lynam said Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak has also expressed an interest in that work and that WHRSD Business Director Christine Suckow would also be very involved. Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski also advocated including one or two at-large community members.

Early calculations

Lynam said he has been crunching numbers to get an early picture — “a very, very rough draft” — of what an FY 2020 budget may look like.

“There’s no magic associated with this,” he said explaining that the levy limit is increased by 2 ½ percent and then by new growth taxable this year. “The tax levy that we expect to see for 2020 is $26,514,684.”

Roughly $11 million additional funds are anticipated to come in from “all other sources.”

Under contracts for employees in effect for 2020, a 2 percent increase is factored in. The school budget is estimated to be up 5 percent, or $1.5 million over the previous year, according to Suckow.

“The 5 percent in and of itself is not necessarily a back-breaker until you consider that the $23 million we get from the state for Chapter 70 money, last year increased by $100,000,” Lynam said. “It’s minimal, which means virtually all the increase will be on the burden of the two towns.”

Other educational costs such as South Shore Vocational Technical High School and Norfolk Aggie are also expected to increase for the coming fiscal year, according to Lynam.

“When you factor in the money that we’re looking at for fiscal 2020, we have a structural deficit of $1.9 million,” he said. “That’s based on everything we know right now.”

He argued that the meetings Lambiase has in mind are intended to “look at how we look at the budget,” how it is estimated and if it can be broken down to critical and non-critical components.

Joint session

Lambiase said Tuesday’s joint meeting was meant to determine what each board is looking for and information they are obtaining to avoid duplication of effort.

“How can we work together to do it?” he said.

Finance Committee Chairman Richard Anderson said his board is “definitely encouraged” by the opportunity to meet with the Selectmen and said better communications would be helpful, suggesting that the Selectmen’s liaisons with various town departments could be helpful in that effort.

“We start meeting with department heads and talking about budgets, I think more communication would be better,” Anderson said.

Lambiase agreed and said he encourages participation by all boards concerned with the budget.

“They know their departments,” Selectman Dan Salvucci said, arguing they could help find alternative ways of funding equipment they need. “They know what they can and cannot do.”

Anderson also lauded the Community Assessment as a way “to find out what kind of community we really want to be” as Kowalski has said in the past. Lambiase said that process will be helpful, but that most of the information gleaned from the assessment will be more useful for long-term planning.

Anderson said planning is vital.

“[An] override, if that’s the direction that the town goes, fails at the ballot box, we need to have a backup plan,” he said. “You can’t make it in the short amount of time that we have and that we worked with last year.”

Regional agreement

In other business, Board of Selectmen voted to table a vote on the revised WHRSD Regional Agreement due to a change in Section 9B pertaining to the process by which amendments may be made.

Amendments other than withdrawal from the region must be initiated by a vote of the School Committee through a petition signed by 10 percent of the registered voters.

“The question raised is, if the Board of Selectmen in its role as the executive board of the town had a concern or issue with the agreement … prior to signing this agreement, the board would sign a proposal for an amendment, discuss it with the schools and if the board wishes to move forward, would place it on a Town Meeting warrant,” Lynam said. “Now we need 990 registered voters to sign a petition before we can raise that question.”

Lynam said he has sent word to the School Committee that he understands its wish to maintain its responsibilities and control, but the new language takes away the Board of Selectmen’s authority to act as an executive board for the town on an issue that may involve presenting an amendment.

“The question is whether that’s important enough to hash out,” he said.

Salvucci said, as elected officials, the School Committee has authority over the region.

“Wouldn’t that be in their hands and not ours?” he asked.

“They’re not accountable to us,” Lynam said, noting the region was set up as a separate political subdivision of the state. “The question that rises here, is whether the Board of Selectmen for town of Whitman or the town of Hanson — or any town that’s in the region — should be permitted to present a proposal to amend the agreement?”

Lynam said it only requires 10 citizens to put an article on a Town Meeting warrant and suggested it is an effort to make certain that it takes a super-majority of the towns to make a change in the agreement. Bezanson noted the town doesn’t always see 990 voters turn out for an election.

“That’s been my view all along,” said Selectman Randy LaMattina. “We’ve gone from powers of this board that have worked [and] now, for no apparent reason, giving them away.”

LaMatinna urged the board to make specific recommendations for how the agreement should be changed, but Lambiase had already made the motion to table it and declined to withdraw his motion.

Lynam said he had other concerns with portions of the agreement that were required by statute, but the amendment procedure is not covered by statute.

WHITMAN — How questions would be placed before residents on a planned community assessment survey were discussed in detail during a meeting with town stakeholders — representatives of W-H and South Shore Vo-Tech schools, the DPW, police and fire departments, town clerk’s office, Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen — and residents in the Town Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, Aug. 15.

“I guess the question is, between the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee, once those questions are answered … is, ‘Are you willing to have your taxes increased to pay for those [services] or do you expect other areas to be cut back?’” Selectman Daniel Salvucci said. “We can do anything that people want, but they  have to be willing to pay for it.”

Anyone with questions they would like included in the survey to be used to guide budgetary decisions should submit them to Bridgewater State University Assistant Political Science Professor Dr. Melinda Tarsi by Friday, Aug. 31.

Submissions should be sent to Tarsi at melinda.tarsi@bridgew.edu or by leaving phone messages with her office at 508-531-2404. She said email is the easiest way to reach her. Contact information will also be available on the town website whitman-ma.gov or questions can be submitted through the Selectmen’s office.

About two dozen town and school officials and residents heard a presentation by Tarsi spent about an hour outlining the process and format under which a community assessment survey would be conducted. She stressed that she is not being paid or receiving a commission for assisting with Whitman’s survey.

“I’m really honored to be asked to help out with this process and I think it’s going to be a great opportunity, not only for the town of Whitman, but also for my students because they are very community service-driven and very interested in doing things in the classroom that they can see the effects of in real life,” she said.

Tarsi said her students would be assisting her in analyzing the survey data when classes start in September with the aim of having surveys completed within four to six weeks to permit Tarsi to preset a full report to the town by December.

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said the stakeholders’ meeting was intended to establish some statements of value as the groundwork for the coming survey to guide long-term planning.

“We have some short-term things to deal with, in terms of budget for next year … but then we’re going to take the opportunity to maybe think about the town of Whitman over the long term,” he said. “Basically, the question that we are asking ourselves is what kind of town would we like to have — what do we value?”

A joint meeting between the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee is also scheduled for 7 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 28 to discuss the fiscal 2020 budget. FinCom Chairman Richard Anderson said they would be looking for some guidance in making plans based on information from the survey.

Kowalski noted that his job at Massasoit Community College has involved planning, adding that the survey was suggested by his wife, whose job as director at High Point Treatment Center frequently involves surveys about the opioid crisis.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam contacted Tarsi to help Whitman conduct a survey that produces the largest possible response while protecting the integrity of survey results.

Tarsi said her students’ assistance in the project is part of Bridgewater State’s program of community service learning, which connects classroom lessons with community needs. Her students have conducted a past survey and results report for Millbury said Tarsi who is also chairman of the Halifax Finance Committee.

In Millbury, close to 20 percent of surveys were completed and returned in a tight window during which the survey was in the field. Incentives such as raffled gift cards, could help increase responses or answers could be weighted according to U.S. Census data to account for the representation of entire town.

Result analysis can include both weighted and non-weighted information Tarsi said.

“Everyone in this room has taken a survey, or hung up on someone who called to ask them to take a survey — which I’ve even done — so we’re all sort of familiar with the respondent side of things,” Tarsi said. “But I wanted to get all of us on the same page as far as the data analysis side of things.”

She said survey data could provide a sense of people’s attitudes and preferences, patterns of attitude across different demographics or time in their lives, as well as the potential relationships of the two. But, she cautioned, survey data cannot provide information on people’s core beliefs and predispositions, their views on sensitive issues, their past preferences, cause and affect or produce unbiased responses.

She said identical responses can’t give information on how opinions were developed and that people are not always willing to admit opinions on sensitive issues. Measures can be taken to limit bias, but because human beings are involved, Tarsi stressed that no survey can be completely bias-free.

How the survey will be distributed, the length of the survey, as well as the wording and order of questions were all considerations Tarsi said had to be addressed.

She said the order of questions can be shuffled in random order for every respondent for the online copy and alphabetized on paper copies of the survey.

“I want to hear from folks the kind of questions that you think are important to ask,” she said to town officials attending the meeting. “What information is it that you need to do your job better or to make better decisions?”

She advocated both an online survey through the Qualtrex platform as well as a paper ballot, which are numbered and can be provided to town departments such as the Senior Center or Library as a pdf document to provide to the public. The latter prompted a question as to how it would affect the numbering of paper surveys.

Tarsi said she could think of potential coding mechanisms for the paper survey to track them while making them available to more people.

Length, especially for online surveys, has to be considered to help get the information required while respecting people’s time.

Wording a question order will be an important consideration.

“We know from survey research that the way you write a question has a direct influence on the way someone’s going to respond to the question,” she said. “If you answer certain questions before others, it’ll change your response to subsequent questions.”

Most of the questions during her hour-long presentation dealt with how the survey would be conducted, publicized, distributed and safe-guarded against individuals submitting multiple responses while allowing that more than one voter might live in a house using the same computer for online responding.

Multiple paper copies could be mailed to a single address and they could also bear a QR code, which could direct people to the online survey, if they preferred, according to Tarsi.

“Qualtrex does allow us to block repeated attempts from one IP address,” she said. “That’s the only identifiable information that Qualtrex collects.” All IP address information is stripped off before data analysis is conducted. Data analysis can help determine if IP addresses indicate a few people filled out the survey from an out-of-town work site or whether others try to affect the outcome.

“The incidence rates for double-dipping are really low because it would require people to really want to go out and expend additional time,” Tarsi said, noting that checks could be included to determine if a person has responded to more than one survey. The cost could be paid by a research budget Tarsi has through Bridgewater State and using the university’s mailing system as a way to demonstrate to BSU how such programs need to be budgeted.

Businesses could also be included in the survey.

“The more information we can collect, the better,” Tarsi said.

One homeowner wanted to know how the information would be used.

Tarsi said it is intended to help town boards with short- and long-term planning based on information they would receive from residents, some of whom may not feel comfortable making comments or asking questions at town meetings.

In Millbury, 77 percent of people answering the survey indicated they had never attended a town meeting, according to Tarsi.

She also noted social media is not a reliable method for people to express those opinions.

Lynam asked how detailed questions would be.

Tarsi said critical issues would be included, but the Bridgewater State internal review board’s confidentiality requirements limit how detailed responses can be.

Another resident asked how the survey would be publicized.

“If you drive into our town right now, you know that it’s time to sign up for Youth Soccer because there’s a sign on every yard,” he said. “But this meeting tonight, there’s not even anything on the town sign.”

Tarsi advocated for advertising by as many means as possible, including signs and the town’s online platforms. She said the concern about how town meetings are publicized could also be the subject of a question on the survey.

Opinions of young residents, who tend to respond to online surveys, are just as important as older residents as are those of new as well as established residents and those with or without children.

Resident Mary Box, former teacher, said this is an opportunity for residents to support the schools.

“I think what it’s going to come down to is money … and the primary things in this town are services for old and young,” she said. “You owe what you are today, a taxpayer, a citizen, to a teacher. … I’ve invested my life and I will gladly invest taxes in the youth because they are our future.”

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen has begun its review and discussion of proposed warrant articles for the Monday, Oct. 1 special Town Meeting.

Articles are due to the Selectmen’s office by Friday. Aug. 24 and will be closed on Tuesday, Aug. 28. Selectmen have to sign the warrant by Tuesday, Sept. 11 for posting by Sept. 13.

Town Administrator Michael McCue will be asking town counsel to review the amended recall article passed at the May Town Meeting to see if it covers ethical implications of situations like that of reports about an alleged affair between Rockland’s selectmen chairman and vice chairman.

Selectman Jim Hickey had suggested at the Tuesday, Aug. 14 meeting that Hanson return the recall issue to Town Meeting to address possible collusion that could result from a situation like Rockland’s.

“The collusion between the two of them outside the office — where they’d only need one other selectman to agree with them — yet, according to our recall right now, they could not be removed from office,” Hickey said.

“I don’t think that that’s true,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “We’ve got a clause … about some type of moral behavior.”

She said Hickey’s concern does not reflect an accurate interpretation of what the recall revision said. Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell agreed with FitzGerald-Kemmett.

“Based on our current recall, if that happened here, those parties would be recalled,” Mitchell said, urging McCue, who said he was not certain that FitzGerald-Kemmett’s and Mitchell’s interpretation was entirely accurate, to have town counsel review it.

“I think the voters have already spoken on what they thought a recall law should say,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I do realize that there is a vocal minority that was uncomfortable with where it was landing, but I do think the voters spoke … and they were pretty unanimous about it.”

Mitchell argued that bringing it back to Town Meeting six months later is “going down the wrong path.”

McCue noted that Hickey’s request was an effort to determine that Hanson’s recall provisions would apply in a situation like Rockland’s.

“I assure you it’s not going to happen here,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “This is like the perfect storm – I don’t think you could ever recreate this particular situation. Again, at least while I’m sitting on the board, it won’t be happening.”

She doubted it was possible to legislate to account for bizarre situations, but supported obtaining town counsel’s opinion.

“This was put on the agenda [in case] anybody has articles to put on it or any suggestions they want to talk about,” Mitchell said of the warrant article review. “Now would be the time to do that.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested an article looking at the process for accepting private roads. McCue said that was not necessary as the process is governed by policy, not a by-law.

McCue did say that Selectman Wes Blauss’ suggested ban on one-use plastic shopping bags could be included on an upcoming warrant, perhaps in May.

“I think we’ve both come to the agreement that we’d want to get the word out — a little more information — before we go to the voters and ask them to make a decision,” McCue said. “As far as other articles [for October], I really can’t think of anything else we talked about that we need an article for.”

He did suggest, however, a fund to study rubbish pickup and the transfer station concerning the facility’s ability to support itself going forward. Studies of staffing needs at the Board of Health and Planning Board were also discussed.

FitzGerald-Kemmett urged funding a study of the needs at the Hanson Multi-Service Senior Center.

“Mary [Collins, the Center’s director] is quite excellent at what she does and she’s very humble — she’s not going to ask for all types of stuff — but anybody that visits that Senior Center knows that is a very confined space [and] we need to do something to help out with that situation,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “If she hasn’t already gotten a study, I think we need to figure out what it is that they need for space and then maybe looking at existing space.”

There are frequent occasions when there are two or more programs going on in addition to the daily Adult Supportive Day Program in the same room, she noted.

McCue suggested a placeholder article, which may be passed over if necessary, that could include some future use for Maquan School, which could help solve both issues. He is still looking for and at public comment on the school matter.

Standard articles for the warrant will include unpaid bills, the supplemental budget, the tax classification plan, a stabilization article from the Finance Committee and school stabilization articles.

A proposed Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) program will also be on the warrant as well as a parcel of more than an acre near Hanson Middle School — 0 Liberty St. — to be sold as surplus property similar to the plan for Plymouth County Hospital superintendent’s house. Two general by-law articles on marijuana sale establishments are on the warrant, as well.

FitzGerald-Kemmett also suggested exploring what funding might be required for interim help for the Highway Department, on a project basis, to catch up with work created by the large number of trees felled by the March wind storm and street projects. McCue said it is in the works to rather explore bringing in a tree-removal or landscape firm to assist.

Can now be informed of early releases from rehab commitments

Massachusetts has taken another “step in the right direction” in the fight against the opioid addiction epidemic with the success of legislation to keep families apprised of early releases from rehab commitments.

Its success is largely due to one family’s resolve to save another family from the pain of losing a loved one to an overdose.

“You have to stay persistent,” former Hanson Selectman David Soper said. “That’s what this story is all about — persistence and luck and good people.”

Soper is the uncle of overdose victim Stephen Berry, who became addicted to opioids after oxycontin was prescribed for him to deal with pain following a dirt bike accident.

An amendment to the state’s Section 35 involuntary commitment law — requiring that a family member/petitioner is notified of any early release from the program — sponsored by Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, and state Sen. Viriato DeMacedo, R-Plymouth, has been included in the opioid bill that Gov. Charlie Baker is set to sign.

For Soper, the news came as a bittersweet victory after months of work toward saving another family from his own anguish.

“As you can imagine David was very passionate about making sure that this doesn’t happen to another family like happened to them,” DeMacedo said Monday, Aug. 6. “I’m honored to have participated in a small way in getting this amendment passed so this won’t happen to another family.”

Cutler was traveling and could not be reached for comment. No information was avaiable at presstime regarding the signing date.

“The closer we got [to the amendment’s passage] the more we started to reflect on what actually happened to us to get this done, and somebody had to die to get it done,” Soper said Friday, Aug. 3. “This is probably one of the most difficult things I have ever accomplished in my life. I had to stay on this.”

The change in the notification process was driven by family members of an overdose victim in Plymouth County and DA Timothy Cruz and the family of Soper, who testified in May on the bill.

“It spirals out of control so fast,” Berry’s father Thomas told television reporters after testifying in the May at a bill hearing.

Thomas Berry explained addiction runs in his family and all his son needed was “a couple of those puppies” to become addicted. Before long Stephen’s habit was deemed serious enough to have him involuntarily committed to the Bridgewater State Rehabilitation Center on April 3, 2017.

He was supposed to be there for 90 days, but was released after two weeks because he had a pending court date.

Soper said there was no professional guidance offered to his nephew, nor any notification to his family that he was being released.

DeMacedo said he was compelled by the common sense of the request and noted most people do not understand that many people committed to treatment under Section 35 do not complete the entire 30-day hold.

“I think this gets us one step closer to addressing these issues,” DeMacedo said Monday. “When we Section 35 somebody it’s because they are a harm to themselves or others and we want to make sure they are getting the help necessary.”

Soper credited DeMacedo, Cutler and Cruz for their work in support of the change, particularly DeMacedo after the bill died in House Committee.

“Senator DeMacedo took the verbiage and created an amendment to Gov. Baker’s Care Bill Section 35,” Soper said. “That’s pretty much what saved it.”

The late filing of the House Bill had put it at risk because of timing contraints, Soper said.

“The bill was strong enough to get a hearing, but there was just too  much work in front of them,” he said. What started as a 587 line bill had more the doubled in length by the time it passed.

He noted that state representatives serve about 49,000 residents, fielding some 500 calls a week for constituent services. State senators serve some 100,000 people, resulting in hundreds more calls for assistance.

“So many people fear government and say, ‘You have to be connected to make this happen,’” Soper said. “That’s absolutely false. If you just continue to ask questions, there is not a politician alive that will not return your call because it’s what they’re supposed to do, it’s in their best interest and they’re here to serve the people.”

Soper said Cruz was very warm and understanding to his brother in-law’s family as one of the most nimble divisions in government “that sees this opioid crisis for what it is” and is working with the medical community to get people the help they need.

“When we went up to Boston and testified, everybody seemed very receptive to the idea, because it really wasn’t a big change per se — but an important change,” Cruz said Friday, Aug. 3. “All it’s really doing is making sure whoever files the appropriate petition under Section 35, is they get notified if there’s a release.”

That’s where HIPAA privacy regulations had to be dealt with, Soper said. It took several meetings with Health and Human Services, the Department of Mental Health and other agencies to work the bill through.

“I talked to many people who said it was a violation of federal law,” Soper said. “People are dying. Since when does Massachusetts shy away from leading the way.”

DeMacedo said the federal law considers substance abuse rehabilitation a medical situation to which HIPAA applies, prohibiting the release of information without patient consent.

“We worked to try to find a way to get this idea passed,” he said. That meant the inclusion of a consent form at the time of commitment for a patient to sign permitting notification of their family should they be released early.

“If we were not able to get the consent, we would not have been able to do this,” DeMacedo said.

Cruz called the change an “important additional tool” to keep families informed as they try to help loved ones fight addiction.

“Everybody knows somebody, unfortunately, or a family that’s dealing with this terrible epidemic,” Cruz said. “It’s an ongoing fight. We have a lot of good things going on in our county, from Plymouth County Outreach and Plymouth County HOPE, the Drug Abuse Task Force, but even though I think we’re leading the charge, we’re still fighting the battle.”

He described the Section 35 amendment as one step to give hope to families, keeping their loved ones safe as they work to get them into another facility when the commitment is over or they are to be released early.

“Stephen Berry was an adult, so [the rehab center] didn’t notify the parents and there was a terrible circumstance in that they had things all lined up for him and because he was released earlier that what they were told, he ended up unfortunately relapsing and getting more drugs and passing away,” Cruz said last week.

Working group set to roll up sleeves to start budget process

WHITMAN — Selectmen agreed on Tuesday, July 24, to create a working group — to likely include the two members of the Finance Committee, two Selectmen, department heads and representatives from the School Committee — to draw up a set of policies, guidelines and procedures to direct work on the fiscal 2020 budget cycle and beyond.

The aim is to kick off the process with a joint meeting with the Finance Committee the first week in August. Vice Chairman David Codero said the Finance Committee supports the idea of a working group and the August kickoff meeting.

“The things we’re looking at in this particular context is: what is the information we need, how fast can we get this information and what can we do with this information — and are we duplicating efforts,” said Selectman Scott Lambiase. “We’re not looking to drag our feet on this. I’m passionate about getting this done and getting it out.”

Lambiase said he would like to see budgets coming from department heads by September.

“We’re asking for level-funded budgets, and we’re asking for budgets showing cuts,” he said. “We have to ask for that now. … We have to ask how cuts will affect a department. We’re not saying we’re going to put these cuts into effect, but we need to know … what are the effects going to be if we do go this route?”

Lambiase said he is hopeful budget figures could show a much rosier picture, but stressed he is not optimistic.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam stressed that fiscal 2018 still has not been closed out. Growth numbers to be used in the next budget will not be available until September or October, but draft numbers can be calculated.

Whitman resident Shawn Kain, a former member of the Finance Committee, said during the meeting’s public form, that it would be helpful for Selectmen to publish a budget document.

“People need to know the complexities of this budget,” he said. “They need to know why.”

Selectman Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski had stopped him at that point because the budget review is now a permanent agenda item and public forum is intended to permit the public to address items of concern not already on the agenda.

Finishing his statement, Kain said he was concerned about Kowalski’s consideration to privatize ambulance service.

“That’s not what I said,” Kowalski said. “I made it very clear that I was against privatizing the ambulance service.”

Kain stressed his point was that people need to understand why the state is not fully funding the regional schools and that town and school finances are going to get better when the town reaches target share for funding schools.

“The people need to know just how big the override is going to be,” he said. “Transparency is essential during this process if people are going to have confidence in you. Lots of people were upset when you mentioned privatizing the ambulance service. That, to me, is not only jumping the gun, it’s unethical.”

Kowalski said a budget document will be prepared.

“We’re going to go with whatever speed this committee — this town — can go on,” Kowalski said. “I made no recommendation … we have suggested that we invite department heads in and that we talk about the possibility of having either no increase next year or a small decrease in their budgets and to talk about those things.”

He had used a comparison study of the “costs to run the ambulance service as opposed to out-sourcing” as an example of that.

Resident Mary Box also argued for budget transparency and against expenses for out-of-state travel for staff development or networking. She also argued for pay freezes for town employees.

“This gentleman has been up at every meeting and he’s scoffed [at] every time,” she said about Kain. “You sit there, arrogant, and say we’re not giving you a timeline. Things don’t work that fast. Well, you can spend our money fast enough and I say no.”

Kowalski said the town is actually ahead of schedule in its budget preparations and planning.

“You can be safe in the assumption that our ambulance service is not going to be privatized,” he also said. “When people get excited about a possible override they have to have a reason to get excited about a possible override and they have to see what the cost is going to be. If we don’t come up with some other ways of dealing with our finances, there are things beyond our control — but there are things we can control.”

Resident Nita Sault reminded Box that there are federal and state training requirements for public safety officers that can include travel to out-of-state conferences. She also said that, while he has some good points, Kain often presents them negatively and that rumor has it he is laying the groundwork to run for selectman himself.

“Maybe you can be a little more positive and listen to what they’re saying so that, when you come up [to speak], we can actually learn from you,” Sault said.

Capital plan

Kain also spoke during the public forum portion of the meeting to ask if the Buildings and Capital Needs Committee had made progress on the town’s capital improvement plan.

He noted that Kowalski had said, during a recent meeting, that the Finance Committee failed to meet that objective last year. Kain, reminded Selectmen that such a statement was unfair.

“FinCom simply does not have the authority to implement policy,” Kain said. “That, as you know, is the role of the Board of Selectmen and, it is with this in mind, that the Capital Committee took a lead role on this last spring.”

He also referred to the state’s seven-step process toward developing a five-year capital plan, which the Capital Committee has begun reviewing.

“Nothing has changes since we last met,” Lynam said. “The office is awaiting fixed asset reports to use to build the model. Mr. Kain, I understand you have a driving wish to see everything done in a timeframe that you feel is appropriate. It doesn’t work when you’re dealing with that many people and that many pieces.”

Lynam said the state model has not yet been adopted.

“We have not completed that process,” he said, adding that work is continuing.

Sullivan’s say

In other business, state Rep. candidate Alyson Sullivan, submitted a letter to the Board of Selectmen regarding the Tuesday, July 10 discussion about events at the July 4 Family Fun Day in Whitman Park because she was discussed, but did not have the prior notice to be at the meeting.

Selectman Randy LaMattina asked if it proper to read her letter without Recreation Director Oliver Amado being present.

Kowalski said Sullivan’s letter was not intended as a complaint against a public official, but merely an attempt to set the record straight based on what she observed at the park. Sullivan began her letter by saying she had a great time at the event.

Based on her interaction with many Whitman residents of all ages, she wrote, Sullivan was surprised her attendance and participation were criticized.

“After watching a video of your meeting, I was shocked — shocked at the numerous false statements made to the board,” she wrote. “To be clear, what you and your fellow board members heard was simply not true.”

Sullivan said her campaign was specifically told they could have no political signs, T-shirts, buttons, balloons with her name on them, literature or politicking.

These clearly communicated prohibitions by the department head prompted a polite call to the town administrator to determine what was and was not allowed,” she wrote. “The town administrator expressed his disagreement with the restrictions being imposed by the department head and said he would get back to our campaign.”

Sullivan stated she was then called and told she could campaign without the restrictions communicated by the department head. She also contested the statements that: her campaign showed up with banners — plural — the “size of station wagons; her staff encroached on picnic tables and were instructed to move; that she had 20 signs planted in the ground; her group were an unruly entourage nearly all the residents stiff-armed; the group tried to use the event’s of DJ’s microphones and were unsuccessful.

Sullivan said a small table with a cloth bearing her name had been set up at one of the furthest points from the events while other candidates were allowed to set up near the picnic tables. Her staff was instructed to turn their table so her name faced the street, turning it back around only after other candidates put out materials bearing their names visible from the park. There were only four to five Sullivan signs near their table, like other candidates. Her group was made up of friends and family members, including a member of the Abington Board of Health, military veterans and young children, not one of whom was “stiff-armed” by Whitman residents. No one from her group asked for permission to use a microphone and no attempt was made to hold a rally or disrupt the event.

“It was obvious when I arrived, and during the day, the department head was offended and angry with my participation,” Sullivan wrote. “While I don’t agree with it, I understand it. What I don’t understand, and find most troubling, is a department head making knowingly false and malicious statements to you and your board about me and my participation at the event, knowing it could affect my reputation and decisions you and your board may be called upon to make.”

Liaison roles, ambulance comments challenged

WHITMAN — Selectman Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski received approval from the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, July 24 to assign Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green to research how other select boards make liaison assignments to determine if there is a practice the board can formally discuss and adopt. Selectman Randy LaMattina voted against it in the 4-1 vote.

Selectman Scott Lambiase said the issue should be resolved at the next meeting in August after assignments caused conflict last month.

Selectman Dan Salvucci said conflict of interest, and equality of   workload should be the main guidelines, other than expertise, considered in liaison assignments.

LaMattina had been removed from his role as a Fire Department liaison and posted his feelings on the matter on Facebook. Kowalski read a portion of the post at the July 24 meeting. LaMattina had also asked that the assignments be placed on the agenda and to be provided documentation of the board chairman’s authority regarding reassignments.

After providing some background on the issue and reaction to social media criticism of the move, Kowalski said there is no documentation such as LaMattina was demanding.

“It’s been a long-standing practice from years before I was on the board, but like a lot of other things, we don’t have written policies governing the way the Board of Selectmen itself carries itself,” he said.

background

The late Selectman Peg McGilvary was the Fire Department liaison for years, Kowalski noted. He assigned himself as her substitute following her death, holding the post for two years —fiscal 2012 and 2013. He appointed Lisa Green as liaison while he was undergoing cancer surgery and treatments, with Scott Lambiase appointed in 2017 when Green stepped down to become assistant town administrator. LaMattina was appointed in fiscal year 2018 because of his fire service experience and because Kowalski was scheduled to undergo surgery in the fall.

“I intended at that time to take it back if I got strong enough,” Kowalski said. “I did.”

He said he enjoyed his earlier two years as liaison and working with the fire service, especially as his great uncle, Bert Dyer, was the Whitman fire chief in the 1920s. Kowalski taught a number of firefighters in courses at Massasoit, including Chief Timothy Grenno, Tom Ford, Pat Travers, John Norton, Lloyd Plasse and Skip Fletcher.

Kowalski said that combatting the opioid crisis is also important to him and that he is proud of the way in which Whitman Police and Fire personnel have stepped up to the plate in that effort.

“Randy and I have not discussed his reassignment,” Kowalski said. “I learned about his thoughts on his reassignment when somebody forwarded me his Facebook post from July 13.”

On that post he noted he had been notified of the change at the July 10 meeting.

“I question this decision and I find it troubling in light of the chair’s remarks about privatizing our ambulance service,” Kowalski quoted from LaMattina’s Facebook post. Firefighter Richard McKinnon also posted a comment on the social media site.

“What type of a liaison will Mr. Kowalski be when, just this week he announced he wanted to look at the possibility of privatizing Whitman’s ambulance service?” Kowalski read.

“Somehow a connection was drawn between liaison assignment and our budget review,” Kowalski said. “There is no connection whatsoever between the liaison reassignment of Randy LaMattina and the discussion of ambulance service.”

He said LaMattina and McKinnon seemed to be inferring that there was “some sort of an anti-union bias on my part” — a point picked up by Whitman resident and former Finance Committee member Shawn Kain, who posted that “Maybe they’ll start busting unions as [Kowalski] suggested.”

“Never did I say anything about busting unions,” Kowalski said. “Both of those inferences are totally incorrect.”

He said any argument that he advocated privatizing ambulance service was fiction.

“Anyone reading the Whitman-Hanson Express or viewing the videotape of our meeting [on Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV] with anywhere close to an open mind can easily see that,” Kowalski said. “The idea that I have an anti-union bias is equally absurd.”

As an educator, Kowalski noted he has been a member of the MTA-NEA Mass. Teachers’ Association-National Education Association) since 1972, except for the years 1979-83 when he was dean of economic affairs at Massasoit Community College and could not belong.

“I am, however, sorry that my remarks on July 10 seemed to have caused such confusion, no matter what the motives are for those who were confused,” he said.

open meeting
complaint

Kowalski also said that, if he is found to have violated the Open Meeting law regarding the issue during the July 10 meeting, he would gladly apologize. An executive session on the matter was held at the July 24 meeting, adding that he takes the Open Meeting Law seriously.

“You can’t go into a little diatribe,” LaMattina said, interrupting at one point in Kowalski’s remarks. “Now you’re steering the conversation away from what I actually wanted to discuss about it and I have an issue with that, but that is my point of order.”

Kowalski said he was ignoring the point of order until he completed his remarks and then a discussion could take place.

LaMattina said he appreciated Kowalski’s sentiments after the chairman completed his explanation and background for the decision.

“I’d like to say I bought into it, but I don’t,” LaMattina said. “Because it’s not just the Fire [Department] that you took, it’s also Board of Health on which I formally have come to you with an issue you have overlooked. It’s also Recreation which we also had an issue recently and we’re going to get to that, obviously, next, and I lose that that night.”

LaMattina said he doesn’t have an uncle that was in the fire service.

“I was in the fire service,” he said. “I know what it’s like to be up on top of the roof. I know what it’s like to hold the line. I know what these guys go through on a daily basis.”

He said he also knows the concerns of fire management and there is no one on the board more qualified to be Fire Department liaison anymore than there is anyone more qualified than Salvucci to be liaison to South Shore Vo-Tech.

“In the time that we’re in, I think we have to play to our strengths for success,” LaMattina said. He argued being named liaison to W-H schools is not playing to his strength and had he known Kowalski would take back the fire assignment he wouldn’t have spent hours in negotiations with the Fire Department or researched several years of contracts in preparation for negotiating the chief’s contract.

LaMattina said he has attended Recreation events, Firefighters’ Memorial Sunday, Grenno’s swearing-in ceremony as president of the state fire chief’s association and he had not seen Kowalski at those events.

“For me, it’s [the reassignment] punitive and I’m sorry about that,” he said.

Travel expenses

Selectmen voted to impose a one-year out-of-state travel moratorium due to the budget outlook, in combination with new policy guidelines to be in place when the fiscal outlook improves. Selectman Brian Bezanson suggested the moratorium.

Lynam maintained his support for placing the authorization control of travel expenses with Selectmen. Lambiase — who has argued that while the proposed travel and expense policy is “well-thought out and fairly comprehensive,” he questioned whether such a detailed policy is needed —urging a completion of the issue “one way or the other” that night. He advocates a line-item approach as a guideline over a prior-approval approach.

“It’s extra work for me that I’m not interested in as a board member, it’s extra work for Frank that I think is unnecessary because a good policy … lets them know what they can and can’t do,” he said. “When they [department heads] don’t handle themselves appropriately, we’ll deal with it.”

HANSON — Questions still remain in the minds of Selectmen and Police Chief Michael Miksch, but the Board of Selectmen is aiming to make a decision by the end of September on whether Hanson will join the member communities of the Regional Old Colony Communications Center (ROCCC) in Duxbury.

The center’s Lead Dispatcher Michael Mahoney, a Hanson native, and Duxbury Fire Department Capt. Rob Reardon briefed Hanson Selectmen on the background, operations and benefits of the center on Tuesday, July 24.

“Over the past six to eight months we’ve been having an ongoing discussion about possibly switching from the [dispatch program] we have now, as far as 911 goes,” Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell said. “For me, saving money would not be the reason why I would go down this avenue — it would be a better product, from what I saw. … It would be nice to save money but that wouldn’t be my number one goal.”

In that six to eight months, Mahoney said ROCCC has made some changes and improvements to the facility’s operations.

Should Hanson opt to join, the time frame for implementation would depend on the time it takes to ensure departments are ready to go with the proper technology equipment — radios, repeaters, hammer systems.

Plympton and Rochester needed upgrades to phone systems and Rochester needed an alarm and camera system as their station was going dark with no overnight desk staff.

Among the questions selectmen have heard from residents are: how an out-of-town dispatcher can know local geographical references; what will become of current local dispatchers and overnight staff of the police station, which is located on a busy travel route and sees more overnight walk-ins than many other area stations.

Selectman Matt Dyer also wanted to hear some of the pitfalls to regional dispatch.

Mahoney said that, among his concerns was that the town would have to decide about overnight staffing of the Hanson Police station.

“That’s come up in every single town, whether they’re going to have a dark station or not,” he said. Rochester made the decision to go dark based on the low number of walk-ins to their station at night.

Miksch has said that is not the situation in Hanson.

“My issue becomes what’s the positives and negatives for Hanson,” Miksch said, noting that all the towns that have joined ROCCC so far are happy with it. “On average 218 people [per month] walk into the station and not everybody’s coming in for a pistol permit. I’m just not comfortable letting the place go dark. … You know as well as I do that someone walking in that station between midnight and 8 a.m. isn’t asking for directions. Usually, there’s a problem.”

Roots of ROCCC

“I was lucky enough to be the one who started this — to build the ROCCC,” Reardon said. “I saw where it came from and where it’s going.”

Duxbury was similar to Hanson when the project was started with one dispatcher also working the desk, he noted.

“It can get overwhelming,” Reardon said. “What we’re doing is different than the towns that have one dispatcher, not that they’re doing a bad job, but they don’t have the resources that we have.”

Foot traffic that can be distracting for a dispatcher working a call in a police station, is not a problem at ROCCC.

Established in 2013 as the Duxbury Regional Communications Center, it now also serves Plympton, Rochester and Halifax with all emergency 911 calls and business telephone traffic; calls for police, fire and EMS service; animal control calls as well as those for DPW and other municipal services are routed through the ROCCC.

“ROCCC was the first regional 911 center to deploy next-generation 911 [service],” Mahoney said, explaining that a fiber-optic network-based system with mapping software was installed two years ago. “It overlays house numbers and addresses right on the satellite picture and provides tremendous accuracy for dispatch.”

While Mahoney grew up in Hanson and “knows the town like the back of my hand,” Reardon said he could not remember the last time he hired a Duxbury dispatcher who grew up in the town or was familiar with it.

“That’s where we rely on technology,” he said. “I’m not going to know where Mary Smith lives, but I’m going to tell by the phone call you made where you are and I’m going to get you help.”

It is the first communications center outside Boston to take direct 911 calls from cell phones, Mahoney said. Currently, Hanson 911 calls are routed through the State Police, where calls are vetted by type of emergency and location and transferred to local responders.

“In a time where seconds count, that takes several,” Mahoney said. “In our facility, you call 911 and hit a tower anywhere in any other jurisdiction we serve, it rings in our room immediately — no transfer, no nothing.”

From the time the phone rings at ROCCC to the time a local responder rolls out of the station is 10 seconds, he said.

“That’s substantially below the national average,” Mahoney said. The national standard is 90 seconds, according to Reardon.

“Seconds really do matter,” he said.

ROCCC currently serves a population of 30,629 over 105 square miles with a capacity of 100,000 people. Hanson and Plymouth, which is also considering joining would come near to that limit, according to Mahoney.

Town input

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett has already toured the center and, while she still has questions about switching to a regional dispatch center, she urged the other members of the board to visit ROCCC for themselves. That said, she expressed concern that all member towns have “an equal voice” in the governance of the center.

“I want a completely equal say [for Hanson] at the table,” she said.

Right now the center is under the administration of the town of Duxbury, Mahoney said, noting that member communities pay an assessment to Duxbury. He works directly with member fire chiefs who have an equal voice and added that the state has approved allowing regional safety services to adopt a district form of government.

“Everyone hears the word district and associates it with the school system, especially here,” he said. “This is very different.”

A board of directors, made up of a selectman or town administrator from each town oversee the district, according to Mahoney and an operations board made up of police and fire chiefs deciding day-to-day operations.

The center features a fire communications desk as well as one for police and lead dispatcher. There are close to 100 monitors in operation as well as dispatch consoles, with all equipment funded by the state via 911 fees on cell phone bills. They also have the capability to monitor schools and do so already in Duxbury. ROCCC has just received authorization to do so in Rochester.

“If, god forbid, there’s a school shooting [reported] we can, at the push of a button, see what’s happening — who’s in there, where they are,” Mahoney said.

State grants are also available through its 911 Department, which has established funding tiers — with regional emergency communications centers the top priority.

“What that means for Hanson is that the cost of transition to ROCCC could, should and probably would be subsidized by state [funds],” Mahoney said. “Any wish-list items you have — the police department has, the fire department has, the town has — we can roll into future development grants.”

A grant is already permitting the center to expand its building in Duxbury.

ROCCC has three to five dispatchers, including a lead dispatcher around the clock, on duty at any given time so one person talks with the caller, another contacts local police and another contacts local fire departments to reduce response times, he explained.

Local dispatchers

While switching to ROCCC could save personnel costs to towns from payroll, benefits and other post-employment benefits (OPEB), according to Mahoney, that is not a guarantee for Hanson officials said.

“Besides whether the product is good, is this the right choice for Hanson,” Reardon said is the question officials must answer to their own satisfaction. “Rochester, without giving numbers away, cut their bill by almost two-thirds to come to us. They got a better service, they’re not paying benefits [to dispatchers] anymore, the state kicks in quite a bit to pay every year for them.”

Reardon and Mahoney also said current local dispatchers are able to apply for a position at ROCCC if Hanson joins, and that 100 percent of those local applicants have been hired despite what Reardon described as a rigorous process.

“With each town, we’ve added staff,” Mahoney said. “We’ve added positions. By doing that, we attract the best and the brightest in the dispatch community.”

“Why wouldn’t we want to take employees that know this town and have worked in this dispatch center and know the officers and firefighters?” Reardon said. “I think it makes for a much easier transition.”

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.”