HANSON –The Selcet Board voted on Tuesday Dec. 17 to hold off accepting Veterans’ Agent Joseph Gumbakis’ resignation, which was to be effective Friday, Dec. 20, until officials could speak to him in hopes that he might change his mind.
Select Board Member David George said on Friday, Dec. 20 that he had spoken to Gumbakis, who has agreed to stay until a replacement can be hired. The position has been posted, Town Administrator Lisa Green said Monday, Dec. 23. Anyone interested may contact her office at 781-293-2131 for more information.
“He expressed his reasons why,” Green said during the meeting in response to George’s questioning whether anyone tried to talk him out of it. “I can only respect his reasons of why he is choosing to resign.”
She added that he spoke to her of his reasons for leaving, adding that they were things she could not talk someone out of, nor publicly share.
“He’s got personal things he needs to work on and with that, I don’t feel I can talk someone out of stating when they say to me, ‘I need to resign,’ for these particular reasons.”
“I spoke with Joe today and he said he’d stay on as long as we needed him to stay on,” George said. “He would work something out with the town. We really do need Joe. You might not need him and a lot of other people in town might not need him, but people like me and a lot of other veterans in the town need him.”
George said he is not going to go to another town to ask for benefits as a veteran.
“We have one in Hanson, he’s a good guy, and he knows his job,” George said.
“That’s never been an issue,” Green said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett strongly suggested taking the conversation offline at that point, as it seemed to be getting personal.
“We’re running the risk of potentially discussing somebody’s personal situation in an open meeting, which would be completely inappropriate,” she said.
“And I was not going to go in that direction,” Green said.
“If somebody is performing well and doing their job, we certainly want to retain people,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I think Ms. Green understands that, and in every instance where that applies, she does try to do that.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested George and Green discuss the matter so she could talk to him about Gumbakis’ reasons.
“He’s willing to stay on,” George said. “I don’t think he really wanted to quit.”
George said he wasn’t willing to discuss Gumbakis’ reasons in open meeting, either, but he stressed that he did not think the man wanted to quit right now.
“At some point in time, I know he wants to move out of state,” he said. “At some point in time, but don’t think it’s right now, and I know he loves working with the veterans.”
“Here’s the danger,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re talking about two different things.”
Noting that the board is not meeting again until Jan. 14, she reminded the board that Gumbakis’ resignation is effective at the end of December, she suggested letting Gumbakis know that, should he still wish to resign at the end of the month, the board would accept it.
“But we could also ask that you speak to him and, if he wants to revoke his request to resign, then we will empower you to retain him,” FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested.
The board unanimously supported the motion.
George said the weight of hours are difficult for Gumbakis, but “as a veterans’ agent … there isn’t anything that guy doesn’t know.”
“If he leaves, he’s going to be missed by a lot of us,” George said.
“Clearly, there’’s a level of passion here that none of us could understand to the level that David does,” Board member Joe Weeks said.