By Jean Perry, Neighb News Correspondent
Town Meeting approved the $1.2 million for the high school turf field project back in October, but not through the 2/3 vote required to borrow the money. Instead, School Superintendent Dr. Robert Baldwin made an alternate motion to take the money from free cash, which only needed a majority vote, and it passed.
Although the motion was perfectly legal, some Fairhaven Finance Committee and Selectboard members called this roundabout way for a department head to secure capital project funding a “bad precedent” and a “slippery slope” that undermines the progress achieved from the Town’s many years of financial planning.
On 11/30, the Selectboard and Finance Committee held a joint meeting to discuss ways to safeguard the free cash account from alternative TM motions that are incongruent with the Town’s financial goals. The town officials blindsided by the motion wondered how it even happened without their prior awareness or an opportunity to discuss it.
FinCom Chairperson Padraic Elliott wanted to learn something from the method through which the alternate motion was conceived and avoid it in the future, for example, by developing Town Meeting protocols to intercept alternative funding mechanisms for articles.
FinCom’s concern, and that of Selectboard member Bob Espindola and Town Administrator Mark Rees, was that the annual budget undergoes a rigorous process that “takes months to pull together,” said Mr. Elliott, and this year it needed free cash to balance it.
The night’s discussion was not about trying to change Town Meeting’s vote or argue the merits of the project, Mr. Elliott said, instead, it was to learn from the process.
Town Moderator Mark Sylvia emphasized that Town Meeting has the ultimate authority on how it disposes of every article. The process typically involves town counsel’s help in drafting motions while the Selectboard and FinCom make recommendations on article adoption. Still, any TM member can amend a motion or make an alternate one. He said TM members usually reach out to him in advance to make sure they prepare their motion properly, as was the case with Dr. Baldwin.
They discussed it a couple of days before TM and Mr. Sylvia told Dr. Baldwin the procedure, and also recommended “as a courtesy” that he should reach out to the chairperson of both the Selectboard and FinCom.
Mr. Rees said he got a call from Dr. Baldwin on the day of Town Meeting about the potential alternate motion.
FinCom member Bernie Roderick did not hide his frustration over how it all went down: “It would appear that more people knew that this was coming, but I have no knowledge of the Finance Committee being made aware…. We always meet prior to … Town Meeting for at least an hour to tie up loose ends; everybody knows that. “
He said he was sure the School Committee knew about it, was curious if the Selectboard knew, and said the FinCom had an “obligation and legal right” to be informed ahead of time. Free cash, he said, should not be used as a “piggy bank.”
“The Town has an obligation to install procedures to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” said Mr. Roderick.
Meanwhile, in the Zoom chat, “I respectfully ask for Mr. Freitas to wear his mask properly,” wrote Ann Espindola attending the meeting remotely while her husband sat near Mr. Freitas, who was wearing his face mask below his nose.
After confirming that no rules were broken with Mr. Baldwin’s motion, FinCom member Kevin Gallagher suggested “looking in the windshield as opposed to the rearview mirror.”
He suggested they discuss formalizing rules or guidelines that memorialize the “courtesies” of notifying the Selectboard and FinCom of motions such as Dr. Baldwin’s.
Some towns have such a rule in the books, Mr. Sylvia stated, and there are consequences to them. Most alternative motions are born on the floor “in the passion of the debate” or from a member’s compelling argument.
“We don’t want to necessarily quash the Town Meeting members’ ability to do their legislative work, but it’s a good point,” said Mr. Sylvia.
FinCom minority member Lisa Plante noted that School Committee Chairperson Brian Munroe’s motion to call the question ended the debate.
“We needed to explain to people the seriousness of taking the money out of free cash and what could possibly happen,” said Ms. Plante. “Nobody was given a chance.”
“I have just been taken aback by the whole thing,” said FinCom member Kathleen Carter, adding that she has received calls asking how the scenario happened.
“The optics were poor; the notification of everybody was just not timely,” said Ms. Carter, and suggested maybe requiring more than a simple majority for higher amounts of money spent. “I think it’s a slippery slope of setting a precedent and I think it’s a dangerous precedent…. We can do a lot better for the Town; I know we can.”
“I caution us trying to restrict quantums of votes for types of projects,” said Mr. Sylvia. “We’ve got to defer, in the end, to Town Meeting’s judgment.”
“The motion came as a total surprise to me,” Mr. Espindola said. “I was quite upset by the way it was unfolded…without the selectmen being notified in advance…especially when it was advanced by Dr. Baldwin, the department head, on behalf of the School Committee.”
Mr. Espindola said he later sent Mr. Munroe an email expressing his disappointment and concern about the motion setting a dangerous precedent. It was through Mr. Munroe’s response that Mr. Espindola said he learned that Selectboard Chairperson Daniel Freitas was notified in advance of the likelihood of the alternate motion.
“This information, however, about a $1.2 million swing in free cash, was not shared with the other two selectmen,” said Mr. Espindola, despite the board having met an hour prior to Town Meeting.
He said the Selectboard and FinCom could both met before TM and could have formed a message about why the motion was not in keeping with the town’s policies.
“This veering off from the financial policy goals that the full [Selectboard] signed onto without the debate of our board and without the opportunity to respond as a board at Town Meeting is totally unacceptable,” said Mr. Espindola.
He said the board and the town administrator worked for years to establish policy objectives, resulting in an improved bond rating and lower borrowing costs for the town.
“The last thing we want to do is to reverse our good work with careless financial management practices,” said Mr. Espindola. “I can’t honestly imagine a more flagrant breakdown in communication at a more important time than on the day of Town Meeting. The taxpayers of Fairhaven deserve better, and steps should be taken to ensure this sort of breakdown in communication does not repeat itself.”
Mr. Elliott asked Selectboard member Keith Silvia if he had any suggestions or comments.
“No, I didn’t have anything,” said Mr. Silvia. “I didn’t know anything about it, so…”
Mr. Freitas tore his mask away from his mouth and addressed Mr. Espindola directly.
“I had a one-minute call with Mr. Munroe,” during which Mr. Munroe asked Mr. Freitas, in Mr. Freitas’s words, “If this thing fails tomorrow, are you still willing to be on board if… asked to be brought through that?”
“I never spoke as a selectman,” Mr. Freitas continued, seeming to struggle at times for coherence. “I was on the committee for that, that stood for that, it was not a conversation that had anything to do with you two selectmen. I don’t know where you get the breakdown of this.
“I’m sure you got phone calls, Bob, did you call me? Have you spoken to me about this before? You said your little speech here tonight about how I’m wrong, and you, obviously, are always so right, Bob. I think you’re wrong, and I’m owed an apology, as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t do anything wrong that night — I’ll stand by all day long. If Brian Munroe told you he worked out something with me, then you need to work it out with him to find out what the lie was because I worked nothing out with him.”
Mr. Espindola said he never accused anybody of “working anything out,” and Mr. Freitas talked over him.
“There was a breakdown in communication,” said Mr. Freitas. “I don’t have to tell you my phone calls if somebody asks me if I’m supporting something. I will support what I want to support, correct? I can do that, or do I got to go through you?”
Mr. Espindola replied, “So if you know that something like this — with this order of magnitude — is going to take place, you don’t think the selectmen as a board should be discussing it?”
“As a matter of fact, I believe it was written down on the paper,” said Mr. Freitas. “It was already written down when I showed up there that morning, so I thought this would already be discussed with as many people as possible. I thought it would already be discussed from the top-down…. That night, me and Mark had a discussion. So my discussion with Brian had nothing to do with you two [Mr. Espindola and Mr. Silvia] at all… I was just assuming that, maybe wrongly, that there were conversations with everybody.”
Mr. Espindola echoed the word “wrongly.”
“Just like you don’t pick up the phone and call me with discussions that you’re having — ever,” said Mr. Freitas. “But I do want an apology for that because it makes it sound like it’s something nefarious.”
Mr. Espindola said he would not apologize.
“If I was the chairman of the board and someone notified me [that] this important of an article change was going to be made, and we had a meeting scheduled, I would have brought that to the attention of the board and said this is what I was told was going to happen,” said Mr. Espindola as Mr. Freitas continued talking over him.
“So, if you have a discussion at your home with somebody and then you feel that you need discussing with me because I’m sure that you’ve talked about politics at your house, you’ve never thought to call Keith or myself and say this is what’s going on, Dan, this is — I’ve had this discussion?”
Mr. Espindola started to say something, but Mr. Freitas drowned him out.
“Because, Bob, you’re going to get your five minutes of fame this week on the Neighborhood News, but that’s about all you’re going to get — you’ll get nothing else out of it. Most people can’t stand that paper — in fact, they can’t stand you!”
“This seems completely out of order. Could we get back to the motions, guys?” interjected FinCom member Christopher Fidalgo.
Mr. Elliot tried to get a grip on it as well, but Mr. Freitas, now nearly shouting, continued in his trajectory.
“I’m not going to continuously be called out during meetings by somebody who’s continuously trying to work against me,” said Mr. Freitas. “So that’s not going to happen. And if you listen hard enough, that’s exactly what that was. Nobody else has said the same thing on here….”
Just then, Fairhaven resident Diane Hahn unmuted herself and said, “This is ridiculous. Ridiculous! Mr. Freitas, please calm down.”
Immediately, Mr. Freitas put his mask back on as it was before, nose exposed, and folded his hands on top of the table.
“Keep your mask on above your nose and stop shouting. It’s dangerous,” said Ms. Hahn before she was muted by the Zoom moderator.
Mr. Elliot, trying to regain order, said, “I don’t think anything is going to be resolved here. Why don’t we move on…”
No one pointed out that if Mr. Espindola called either of his fellow board members to discuss town business, it would be a violation of the Open Meeting Law because they are a three member board and two members create a quorum.
The rest of the meeting unfolded with a few more suggestions on avoiding future free cash fallout— some deemed possible and others, Mr. Sylvia said, might not work for the largest representative Town Meeting in Massachusetts. One such way might be to require a 2/3 vote to transfer from free cash.
Mr. Espindola gave several suggestions, including having the Capital Planning Committee chairperson present at Town Meeting. While Mr. Espindola spoke, Mr. Freitas grabbed his phone and left the room. He returned moments later, his mask still below his nose, and played with his phone until Mr. Espindola finished speaking.
“We need to keep reserves for free cash,” Mr. Rees said. “That $1.2 million could have been used in the Capital Stability Fund for future capital needs that are identified in the five-year plan.”
The group will hold another joint meeting early in 2021 after the new town administrator starts.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Freitas apologized for his behavior.
“I apologize. I got a little testy,” he said.
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