Select Board changes meeting times, starts dialogue

Residents packed the Salah Meeting Room at Town Hall to share their concerns with Select Board members.

It’s only a start, but some progress was made at Tuesday night’s standing-room-only Select Board meeting in which many residents repeated their calls for greater transparency, improved communication, and stronger leadership from all members of the board.

The board agreed to change the start time of its regular meetings from 5:30 to 7 p.m. beginning September 12 to better accommodate residents with work or family obligations. Executive sessions, usually held at the end of the meeting, will now be held at the start of the meeting, and the public comment period will be reserved for the end of the open session.

The board decided to postpone action on setting a formal policy for the public comment period and will consider expanding the time limit of three minutes for each speaker and overall time limit of 15 minutes. The board also agreed to post its approved minutes on the Select Board page of the town website along with a list of which subcommittees each member serves on.

All of this came during Select Board Chair Tom Theodore’s agenda item of “Canton Moving Forward” as the town and its residents continue to be besieged by allegations from court proceedings and media coverage of the Karen Read murder trial. Read, of Mansfield, has been charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer and Canton resident John O’Keefe. Read, however, maintains her innocence of all charges while her attorneys and others following the case have alleged that a cover-up took place involving multiple prosecution witnesses and members of law enforcement.

Theodore asked residents to give the board ideas for how to improve communication, and some of the suggestions offered were longer, open-ended Q&A sessions; moving the meeting to a larger venue; and board members taking action on ethics and administrative code revisions.

At the same time, resident Rita Lombardi said the circumstances surrounding the death of O’Keefe, the way the investigation was handled by police, and the unwillingness of the board to date to acknowledge residents’ concerns are all driving the disconnect between the public and the town’s leadership. “This is what’s causing our pain,” Lombardi said, adding, “What we need is leadership from the board; we need effective listening skills. Some of you have demonstrated really great listening skills and some of you haven’t, and we see that and we’re not the only ones that see that.”

Several residents who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting were not happy with the public apology from longtime board member John Connolly, who made a dismissive and derogatory remark about one of the speakers at the previous meeting. Reiterating his apology, Connolly said he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him and he truly respects that everyone has a right to voice their opinion. Some residents felt that his apology was not from the heart.

Some residents are calling for Theodore and the board to require Police Chief Helena Rafferty to hold a public forum in a large venue to give residents an opportunity to discuss police protocols in murder investigations. Rafferty had previously indicated that she would be willing to meet with any resident one-on-one to discuss police practices; however, Theodore said she is not ready at this time to participate in a larger group forum.

It was also suggested at the meeting that the board consider hiring a third-party crisis management firm to assist with formulating a plan for addressing the public’s concerns. Others called for Select Board members to be required to take state ethics code training.

See this week’s Citizen for more highlights from the August 29 Select Board meeting. Click here to order your subscription today!

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Posted by Mike Berger on Sep 1 2023. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.