HANSON – With a nod to the changing demands on town officials in general and Hanson’s in particular, voters in the Wednesday, Nov. 9 special town meeting approved staff additions to the Town Administrator and Conservation Commission offices. Both were approved during the session, which spanned just over an hour in length.

It was the second attempt to complete town business, as the town failed to draw a quorum on the original date of Monday, Oct. 3.

“I thank you very much, from the bottom of my heart for coming out tonight,” Town Moderator Sean Kealy said. “We worried we weren’t going to get a quorum, but I can officially declare that a quorum is present, and that, we, the special Town Meeting of the Town of Hanson is now in session.”

The meeting started with $1,490,984 in available free cash; $1,365,763 in stabilization; $187,637 in school stabilization; $1,426,920 in Water Department surplus; $135,512 in Recreation Department retained earnings and $166,108 in the solid waste retained earnings fund.

One of the staffing articles, sought the transfer $17,659.20 from free cash to make the conservation agent position a full-time one at 35 hours per week. The added 16 hours per week had originally been placed at $26,488.80 in the warrant, but was lowered at the request of the Conservation Commission, Kealy said.

“The number’s lower because the time frame for this fiscal year is shorter,” Commission Chair Phil Clemons said. “This lower number recognizes that it would be more feasible just to plan for January to June.”

He said the position is needed because the position was originally a full-time one and there is still a need for that. The fiscal crisis during the Great Recession in 2010 led many town departments to voluntarily reduce hours to help balance the town’s budget.

“Since then, most departments have been restored,” Clemons said.  “Conservation has not and the conservation agent is considered the head of the Conservation Department — the only non-full time department head.”

He noted that requests for services are up and a part-time conservation office is not serving the public well.

“The job is getting more complex, and more regulations and workshops are happening, and we can’t have our agent go to those things or answer the phones or handle issues,” he said, noting committee members are limited in how they can fill in.

But it was the statement made by West Washington Street resident Joseph O’Sullivan that may have changed minds in the room. He was an abutter of a project on County Road that would have built 10 four-bedroom houses on six acres that were surrounded by 40 acres of wetland.

“That project passed through every board except the Conservation Commission, and through their due diligence, it went through appeal after appeal and the DEP finally rejected it in a 14-page document that cited five different irregularities in what the company had proposed,” O’Sullivan said. “They are, in fact, our homeowners association, because they can use their judgment about the future impact of this.”

He pointed out that 75 people had written letters of concern from abutters about the houses which would have taxed the water system at about one million gallons of water each year.

While the Finance Committee did not dispute the need for extra hours, they recommended passing over the article because of the town’s fiscal position.

The meeting voted overwhelmingly to approve the article.

That recognition of needed help for overtaxed town employees carried over to the next article seeking the transfer $23,034 from free cash to Selectmen’s budget to hire a part-time administrative assistant for 15 hours per week.

Town Administrator Lisa Green spoke about the request, which was also approved.

“We really saw the value of that this past few months when we had an intern from Bridgewater State University work in the office,” Green said. He helped review policies, draft procurement paperwork and help with other projects that were overloading the office staff.

Resident Kathleen Marini about the fiscal responsibility of the move, noting a full-time person would mean health benefits. 

Ken Sweezey of Matakeeset Street asked if more interns could be sought in the future.

While Green replied that is always a possibility but the town may not always get one, but their intern was paid for 23 hours of pay while the college also offered a stipend. Internships are usually tied to a specific project and are not always available every day. There is also a growing call nationwide for all such internships to be paid positions. 

Green also said the position could be combined with the 19-hour part-time Planning Board administrative vacancy to retain staff.

“That position is, unfortunately, a revolving door type of a position,” she said, noting that people have been hired and trained only to leave for a full-time job in town.

Combining it with the Planning position will give the person hired a 35-hour full-time job — working 15 hours in the Select Board office and 20 hours per week in the Planning Office.

“It will cover the needs of both offices and it will create a position that will encourage the person to stay with the town, so we’re not a revolving door,” she said.

Frank Milisi asked why the Select Board recommended the hire and if they would  be involved in grant writing. Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said the board has “consistently” been getting feedback from everyone they have hired, and from those before their tenure, that the office is under-staffed.

“There was not one town with the same population that we have that only had a two-person office,” she said. “We, honestly, thought that we needed three people, but we felt that was probably an overreach at this point.”

She also mentioned the new salary levels that Whitman would be deciding on at their special Town Meeting Monday, Nov. 14.

“This is a very competitive environment right now, for anybody in the town administrator position,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We need to retain people.”

Former School Committee Chair Bob Hayes spoke in favor of the article before it was eventually approved, noting that regulations that had once been simpler are now much more complex.

“You have immense, immense things for the town administrator to do and for the paperwork that we all want done,” he said.

Hayes also pointed to the Conservation hours the meeting had just approved.

“I was against it until I heard Mr. O’Sullivan stating why it was needed,” he said. “The same thing is needed in the Selectmen’s office.” 

Select Board member Joe Weeks reminded voters that for several years, the town had the luxury of a well-seasoned and skilled assistant in Meredith Marini, who was able to serve as a temporary town administrator.

Corrine Cofardo, a volunteer on several town committees reminded the meeting that Marini also frequently worked on her own time at night and weekends to complete work. 

“That’s how the job got done,” she said. “That’s why we need this part-time position filled.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the board had received a letter from Impressed LLC earlier in the week asking that an article amending Zoning Bylaws regarding medical marijuana facilities and marijuana establishments be passed over until the May Town Meeting.

“They are tied up with trying to finalize their license and they felt that [May] would be a better time for them,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “They also thought by that time, they would have some financial experience to share with us.”

She said the board also asked to have the town assessor provide numbers to indicate the value of the personal property tied up in the building and business and what could be expected in the way of propery taxes.

The meeting was opened with a moment of silence for town officials and volunteers who died since the May Town Meeting: Carroll P. Gagnon, Ernest E. Jutras, Peter Muise, Richard Muncie, Della Snow and William Strait.

Before dealing with the evening’s final article, Kealy asked the meeting to join in a round of applause for Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan and Assistant Clerk Jean Kelly and the town’s volunteer clerks who checked people into the Town Meeing for their work on the state election the day before.

HANSON — The Select Board on Tuesday, Nov. 1 voted to appoint an associate and a voting member to the Zoning Board of Appeals, following a discussion regarding the ZBA and “future mitigation efforts, and to schedule a hearing in which ZBA members mentioned in the report of the investigation, may address information in it.

“There’s nobody here that’s going to tell you that investigation didn’t take far longer than we would have liked, and I completely recognize that for all of us — and I do mean all of us — it made a difficult situation even more difficult,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said of the delays in completing the probe. “There’s a lot of pent-up emotion around this investigation.”

She cautioned that discussion about the report had to be kept to a general basis because specific reference to the conduct of any individual could not be conducted in an open meeting unless it was posted as a hearing.

FitzGerald-Kemmett also said the report represented an illustration of how the town can improve it’s vetting process of applicants for town positions.

Applicants for the voting three-year term were William Cushing and Michael Fleming. Applicants for the three-year associate membership were Christopher Costello and Joshua Pratti. 

Cushing and Pratti have been serving in their respective roles before resigning rather than accepting a second temporary re-appointment earlier this fall.

Fleming was appointed to the voting member slot by a vote of 4-1, with Select Board member Jim Hickey opposed. Costello was appointed as the alternate member by the same vote.

FitzGerald-Kemmett noted that the town received the results of the ZBA investigation as they were meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 11. The investigation was prompted by a unanimous vote on a citizen’s petition at the October 2021 fall Town Meeting, and the Select Board approved hiring an investigator who was hired in November 2021.

Catching up 

The Select Board received it the following day and the ZBA were given copies and public the opportunity to view it the following week on the town’s website hanson.ma.gov.

“As the appointing authority of the ZBA, we knew it was our responsibility to do so,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting that Town Administrator Lisa Green was made the point person for documentation requests.

Difficulty in obtaining necessary documentation, personal matters the investigator had to attend to and some people’s failure to fully cooperate with the investigation contributed to the delay.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said there were things that came up during the investigation, that had it been assigned a probe of a wider scope, would have added to the cost.

“We tried to stick to what the original citizen’s petition was [about], so that we were reflecting the will of the people,” she said.

“It’s a learning experience, that’s all I have to say,” Select Board member Ann Rein said.

Board member Ed Heal said it would be very hard to keep to generalities and expressed uncertainty about the next steps would be.

“There’s a lot of individual information in here,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested the investigator’s points about reorganization and difference in style of minutes — which were too vague and open to interpretation — but he did not conclude that there was any detriment in the way the ZBA reorganization was done.

“At the very least, we probably want to do some additional training around disclosures and when they are required to be made, under what conditions and to whom they should be made,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said of the report’s recommendations, which could apply to all boards and commissions.

Regarding the issue of missing disclosure statements, first mentioned in July 2021, when Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan was asked about them. Up until last month, FitzGerald-Kemmett said, no one filed disclosures directly with the Select Board, they were always filed with the clerk, who would forward a copy to the board.

Sloan stated in an email to Green, that the disclosure from Kevin Perkins, during the scanning of the forms in fulfillment of public record requests from several individuals, “was not put back into the file.” She was later able to locate it and apologized to Perkins, when it was rumored there was no disclosure from him.

Cushing added the disclosure’s whereabouts became a concern when the state Ethics Commission called Perkins about it after he had called the clerk’s office looking for it and it was not on file.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she fully accepts Sloan’s explanation and apology and felt no need to question her.

Heal noted there have been recent by laws or rules changes instituted to improve the process, and echoing the thought that the situation has been a learning experience.

“It is very hard to do this without mentioning names,” Hickey agreed, describing the report as “65 pages of not that much.”

Vice Chair Joe Weeks moved that a hearing be held on the report’s findings concerning Perkins and fellow ZBA member Sean Buckley, who is an alternate. Hickey sought an amendment to the effect that Cushing be added to the list for a hearing if he were to be appointed back to the ZBA later in the meeting.

Cushing was a member of the ZBA until about three weeks ago, resigning in protest against efforts to reappoint him for a temporary term pending the conclusion of the investigation. Now that the investigation is complete, he is seeking re-appointment, and said he welcomes a hearing.

He specializes in permitting, disclosing during his 2015 application his profession as a builder and developer.

He said he is well-versed in planning and zoning, as well as in storm water management, permitting aspects of Conservation, Board of Health and all other aspects.

Cushing is a resident of Hanson holds a bachelor’s degree and has worked exclusively in the real estate business.

Fleming is a 15-year resident has been a member of the Agricultural Committee and said he was asked a few weeks ago to sign up for the ZBA. He said he sees the position as an opportunity to “get my feet wet” in town affairs.

A production mechanic for a Boston liquor company, Fleming said he has no conflict of interest disclosures to make. He said he knows Hickey and Rein, but no other members of the Select Board.

No friendship
conflict 

FitzGerald-Kemmett stressed it is no conflict for anyone applying for the ZBA or any other board to know someone or to be friends with someone on the Select Board.

“There is no one person here that makes anything different for me,” Fleming said, pointing out three other past and present town officials in the room who he knows.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she had been called out for not curtailing a cross-examination of an applicant about board members he knew and that she was not going to make the same mistake, before she halted the line of questioning.

“It is not our intention to make anybody who is applying for a volunteer position in town, particularly for the first time, to feel as though you’re not welcomed,” she said.

Pratti indicated he wanted to be considered for both positions. He served on the ZBA as an associate member before resigning over the temporary reappointment issue.

A licensed construction supervisor and home improvement contractor, Pratti holds a BS degree in electro-mechanical engineering. He said he is conversant in zoning regulations and Title V regulations from his work on septic and drainage systems.

“I don’t know how you could be more qualified for this position,” he said.

Pratti, for whom the investigation showed no information about his conduct, said he resigned out of frustration because he felt he and Cushing were considered guilty before the results of the investigation were in.

Weeks said he was wary of appointing someone who would “handcuff” the town in their own interests. Pratti countered that he only missed one meeting as an alternate, which speaks for his dedication to the position.

Seeking an alternate position, Costello is a 15-year Hanson resident who has worked in heavy civil construction for 25 years. He holds a degree in construction management from Wentworth Institute of Technology and is currently employed as an MBTA project manager overseeing new capital construction projects. He said he has no disclosures and knows no members of the Select Board.