Danvers Select Board Member Sanctioned For HRIC Candidate Interaction

DANVERS, MA — Danvers Select Board member Matthew Duggan will be prevented from posing questions to candidates for town committees indefinitely after the Select Board voted to sanction Duggan for his interactions with candidates for the Human Rights and Inclusion Committee at the Board's last meeting.

Select Board Chair Dan Bennett chastised Duggan for what he said were actions that violated the Select Board's code of conduct and apologized to the candidates, saying that on behalf of the Board he wanted to "acknowledge their mistreatment with non-factual statements made by Mr. Duggan."

"Matt, your inability to engage in respectful conversations with people of different experiences and backgrounds causes me to declare that you will not be called on to question future volunteers before us," Bennett said, adding that Duggan will be restricted to submitting written questions to the Board in advance of appointment meetings.

Duggan refuted claims that he badgered the candidates and said he was asking "legitimate questions" related to the candidate's connection to the North Shore Chapter of the NAACP and its media communications related to the hockey hazing accusations at the high school during the 2019-2020 school year and how the town reacted to those accusations.

"I don't regret (the questions)," Duggan said. "For the rest of this Board to sanction me, or censor me, I am free to say what I think. I don't believe that I was disrespectful. There were questions that were legitimate."

Duggan said he was questioning whether one of the HRIC candidates agreed with what he called the NAACP North Shore Chapter's attempts to engage the media to promote their findings about the hazing accusations, the culture of the hockey program and the harm that he said the public campaign brought the town.

"They kind of tarnished every single resident in Danvers," Duggan said of the NAACP's report, which he said was based on hearsay. "I wanted to know if the candidate supported that approach."

HRIC candidate Johann Hunter said at the appointment hearing that while she was a member of the ad hoc committee that investigated the town's response to the hazing accusations, she was not involved with issuing the report or the communications surrounding it.

Bennett halted Duggan's line of questioning during the appointment hearing and the two candidates were quickly confirmed.

"The way that Select Board member Duggan questioned Johann seemed intended to give him the floor to share his opinions about the NAACP rather than learn about how this Black woman's experience in Danvers could be of value," Bennett said.

Select Board member Gardner Trask also issued a public apology to the HRIC candidates on Tuesday night for not speaking out sooner on Duggan's line of questioning.

"I was remiss about not speaking up immediately that night," Trask said. "This is a pattern. As Mr. Duggan has noted, this is a pattern. But it's not a pattern of Mr. Duggan having an alternative view on a decision we are making as a Board. It's not a pattern of an opposing view on tax rates, or other actions we take as a Board. This is a pattern of his behavior on the Board."

HRIC Committee Chair Dutrochet Djoko sent a letter to the Select Board expressing how "troubled" he was with Duggan's line of questioning and said on Tuesday night that the interaction was "extremely painful."

"We've still got a long way to go," Djoko said. "We will continue to do that work until we see it through."

This is the second time that Duggan has been reprimanded for his interactions with a resident. In December 2021, the Select Board issued a statement saying it was "appalled by the actions of Mr. Duggan" regarding his interaction with a homeowner and that "a majority of this board has voted to publicly condemn the actions of Mr. Duggan."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)