Williamstown Select Board Seeks Applicants to Fill Vacancy
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday issued a call for volunteers to occupy an upcoming vacancy on the five-person panel.
By a unanimous vote, the board set a Sept. 9 deadline for residents to submit a "government engagement" form and any accompanying materials for consideration. The board then plans to hear from applicants in open session and potentially vote on a replacement at a special meeting on Sept. 16.
The successful applicant will serve in the seat being vacated by Andrew Hogeland until the May annual town election, when the appointee will be able to run to serve the remaining year left on Hogeland's term, which expires in spring 2026.
At Monday's meeting, the board members weighed the pros and cons of appointing an interim member versus holding a special election, as allowed under Massachusetts General Law.
The appointment mechanism is enshrined in the town charter and is a legal alternative to the MGL Chapter 41, which reads, in part, that in event of a vacancy, Select Boards "may call a special election to fill the vacancy and shall call such election upon the request in writing of two hundred registered voters of the town."
Town counsel advised the board that the town charter, which is approved by the state Legislature, provides Williamstown with an exception to the special election rule.
Select Board members Randal Fippinger and Stephanie Boyd each made arguments for holding a special election. Fippinger began the conversation by suggesting a town ballot could be added when the town goes to the polls for the November general election.
"I'm less in favor of having us appoint someone," Fippinger said. "I'd rather have the town appoint someone for this position."
Boyd argued that the procedure spelled out in the charter does not prevent the town from following the course laid out in state law and that holding a special election would make Williamstown more consistent with other towns in the commonwealth. The city of North Adams, however, has appointed vacant council seats several times in recent years.
"I'd like to know more about the implications of a special election," she said. "Right now, I'm thinking leave it vacant [until May's annual election] or do a special election."
Chair Jane Patton was strongly against the former option, leaving the seat vacant, noting the number of times board members have been divided on issues — even on occasions when members in the minority ultimately voted with the majority — and suggesting that a four-person board could be stalemated on decisions in the months between Hogeland's departure and the spring election.
As for the implications of a special election, Menicocci told the board that the process is not as simple as it may appear. Given the pressures of a state primary in September and a potentially volatile general election two months later, Menicocci characterized a special election as a "heavy lift" for a town clerk's office already operating with the full-time clerk on leave.
"You're in crunch time now," Menicocci said of the process leading to the fall's elections. "Adding something now would be super challenging for staff at the expense of them as well as the town in terms of any money we'd have to put out."
Boyd noted that the Select Board has not had to employ the appointment mechanism for a Select Board vacancy in recent memory.
Patton countered that the board numerous times in her tenure has had to make appointments to fill vacancies on the Planning Board, Mount Greylock Regional School Committee and, most recently, the Milne Library Board of Trustees. She argued that the voters who elected the four remaining members of the Select Board [Hogeland has stated he will not vote on his replacement] to act in accordance with the charter, which itself recently was subject to an 18-month review by an ad hoc town committee.
Hogeland himself, who mostly stayed out of the debate, was asked by his colleagues for his thoughts.
"There are good merits all around," Hogeland said. "I'm inclined to do the appointment thing. … I think [a special election] does make it complicated without necessarily giving a better result.
"For a tie-breaker, I really defer to town staff. Everything we might take credit for [on the board] is really done by those guys. Give 'em a break."
Hogeland also pointed out that he has not formally submitted his resignation, a step that needs to happen before the Select Board can call a special election. That fact might have thrown off the timeline for getting candidates nominated and on the ballot in time for a November vote.
In the end, Boyd and Fippinger joined their colleagues in settling on an appointment process. Jeffrey Johnson suggested that a Sept. 9 deadline for applications would give the board members time to meet with any applicants one-on-one prior to casting a vote — whether that vote comes at the Sept. 16 meeting or the regularly scheduled Sept. 23 meeting.
Monday's Select Board meeting began with an opening statement by Patton that focused on her gratitude to Hogeland for his years of service to the town.
"Andy has been a steadying, calm, hard-working, knowledgeable presence on this board for all of these years," Patton said. "He is reasonable, sometimes to a fault — and by that I mean, that's when he doesn't agree with me. Then I don't think he's reasonable. The good news is, that didn't happen very often. Or, when we did not always immediately see eye to eye, Andy showed great restraint and respect in how he would speak to others regarding his point of view and was able to eloquently and elegantly, with an enormous amount of knowledge, convey his thinking in a way that you often found yourself persuaded for all of the right reasons."
"I wouldn't have made it through without him. I'm grateful for your mentorship, your stewardship, your professionalism and your friendship."
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