Tags
Tonight the hubby and I got back from Boston in time to make the Select Board meeting. It’s a weekly meeting presided over by the Chair of the Select Board, my hubby, and the two other members. Obviously, the meetings are open to the public, the Selectmen secretary takes the meeting minutes which she then posts on the Town’s website for all to see. My hubby is very committed to transparency and accountability. The Town’s website went from, basically a cover page, to a well-informed website with numerous links to every department in just a few months. My hubby worked quite closely with its webmaster to make the website as user-friendly as possible.
Sitting in the front row seat listening to my hubby open the meeting and calmly and decisively take care of old Town business and guide the meeting through a potential contentious issue of financial reconciliation between the tax collector, the treasurer, the town accountant and the finance committee chairman, was a little stressful for me. I dislike conflict and knowing how sensitive the involved players are, makes me anxious because many different personalities are involved and when public money is in question, the persons responsible for keeping track of the dispersal of public monies and the collecting, tend to get defensive when called to the table to answer questions from the Board. Tonight was such a night and my hubby kept everyone assured that no one was being personally attacked and their jobs weren’t in jeopardy.
Afterwards, all new business breezed right through, a new school committee member was appointed to serve interim until the May elections, whereby they will have to run for election. A few other items were pushed to next week’s agenda, the most important being, the landscaping of the Town park. I got to visit with a dear friend of mine when the meeting was adjourned and my hubby and I said our good nights to everyone and walked home. Small town politics at its best.
laurieanichols 