Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer told the Current that he is developing a new protocol to ensure all articles approved at Town Meeting are implemented properly after the delay of a popular decision to expand the Board of Health from three to five members.
Last May, Town Meeting voted 522-90 to add two seats to the Board of Health. But the change is likely not to be implemented this election season due to a delay in sending the article to the state Legislature for approval.
All three current members supported the article, which required sign-off from the Legislature. The Board of Health has dealt with personality conflicts as well as a series of Transfer Station renovation setbacks.
“Oh my God,” said Board of Health member Tom Massaro when he learned about the delay at a Feb. 18 meeting.
“I’m disappointed,” said Board of Health Chair Helaine Hazlett, adding that it is difficult to have meaningful discussions with a three-member board given the state’s open meeting law requires a posted meeting whenever two of the three members meet.
“We thought we had solved an issue,” Hazlett said. “Now, we find out that somehow or another, something fell through the cracks.”
So what went wrong?
Kezer said typically article sponsors (whether residents or boards) shepherd their own articles through the process to make sure they get to the Select Board for certification and then the Legislature if required. In this case, the sponsor was the Board of Health.
“We have so many projects going on, so many things happening, we’re not going to be able to bird dog every moving part,” Kezer said. “If somebody doesn’t flag it, it’ll get missed. Last year after Town Meeting, we were trying to deal with the impact of the MBTA zoning vote.”
Kezer continued, “It’s helpful to take a team approach. In the Air Force, we would say it’s the wingman approach.”
But Hazlett said the language in the article made it clear — it was the Select Board’s responsibility to take the next step.
The article read: “To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Select Board to seek special legislation to amend or supplant Chapter 43, Acts of 1801, An Act to empower the Town of Marblehead to choose a Board of Health, such that, post-amendment, the Marblehead Board of Health shall consist of five (5) members, each elected for a term of three (3) years. “
“We’re public health people; we’re not lawyers,” Hazlett said. “We were going by the language in the article. The article speaks for itself.”
New protocol
Kezer laid out his new plan.
“After Town Meeting is done and everything is certified in the [town] clerk’s office, we will sit down and go through all the approved articles and decide who is going to take the lead on shuffling things through,” he said.
Select Board Chair Erin Noonan said moving forward, everyone will work together to make sure nothing gets lost after Town Meeting.
“For sure, we can all learn to work collaboratively to make sure that it gets sent to the board for a certification,” she said.
Where things stand
The Select Board certified the article on Feb. 12 and sent it to state Rep. Jenny Armini, who forwarded it to the counsel’s office in the House. The counsel’s office made some language changes, and the article is now being sent back to the Select Board for another vote.
Armini does not believe there will be time now to approve the expansion before the June ballots are printed.
Board of Health member Tom McMahon said he had heard from a couple of people interested in joining the board.
The one seat up for election in June is filled now by Hazlett. She said she has not decided whether to run for re-election.
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist.
