By Gordon Fraser
Staff writer
May 09, 2008 10:34 am SALEM — A special three-hour selectman's meeting scheduled for today has some residents angry because it's being held in another state. "They should be in town and easy to get to, and it should be televised and it should have a recording secretary," said Roland Theberge, a Budget Committee member who ran unsuccessfully for selectman this year. The Salem selectmen are holding their special meeting, which they're calling a retreat, at the office of attorney and selectman's Chairwoman Beth Roth. Roth's office is at 231 Sutton St., Suite 1B, in North Andover, Mass. The meeting is from 4 to 7 p.m. Meetings of the town's highest board are usually at 7 p.m. on Monday in Town Hall. Those meetings are televised, a recording secretary takes notes, and seats are available for residents and members of the media. But this meeting, which was suggested by Town Manager Jonathan Sistare, is different. It will serve as a brainstorming session for Salem's top officials, a chance for them to voice their concerns and start making long-term plans. It will be held without television cameras or a recording secretary, although a member of the board will take notes. Sistare said he wanted to hold the meeting away from Town Hall because that building is filled with distractions. Roth offered the use of her law office so taxpayers wouldn't have to pay to rent a space. "The meeting has been posted to the public. The public's invited. There's ample room for the public to attend," Roth said of the meeting today. Selectman Arthur Barnes agreed the meeting is a good idea. "Just about every organization I've belonged to, at some point or another, has had a goal-setting session," he said. The town faces a number of problems — rising energy costs, crumbling infrastructure and changing state laws — that need to be dealt with in a comprehensive way, Barnes said. The retreat will give the selectmen a chance to talk policy in a less formal environment, he said. Barnes imagines a free-flowing discussion, with the selectmen brainstorming lists and writing on dry erase boards as they come up with ideas, he said. But that doesn't sit well with Selectman Patrick Hargreaves, the only board member to speak against the meeting. "The Board of Selectmen represents the town of Salem and the people in it, and I believe that the meeting should be held in the town ... and available for the public to come and witness," Hargreaves said. He said he isn't sure whether he will attend the meeting. "If I do show up, it's like being a hypocrite," Hargreaves said. "But I still want to put the input in of the people who elected me." For Roth, the board's chairwoman, Hargreaves' complaints have come a little late and seem a little odd, she said Monday night. For one thing, Hargreaves was aware of the meeting's scheduled place and time well before this week. And, according to Barnes, the meeting time was changed from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. to accommodate Hargreaves' work schedule. But Hargreaves — frequently the lone voice of dissent on the panel — isn't the only one frustrated by the out-of-town selectmen's meeting. "I don't understand how you can hold a town of Salem selectmen's meeting in North Andover," said Paul Metcalf, a longtime Salem resident. "That just doesn't make sense. We have a big Town Hall." And while Theberge and Hargreaves both said they were more concerned with the appearance of impropriety than with actual impropriety at the North Andover meeting, Metcalf said he was suspicious of the board's motives. "Somehow, I don't have the faith in them that I used to have," he said. Several selectmen said they were disappointed, but not surprised, by the suspicion. "There's a culture amongst a few people, and it's a few, to find fault and criticize wherever they can," Selectman Michael Lyons said, "and that culture amongst a few is never going to go away."
—
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.