Polly Titcomb Charts Course As New Swampscott Select Board Chair

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Ongoing and increasingly aggressive weekly protests, human resources director, library director and police chief positions to be filled, the ripple effect of the town’s approval of a $98 million new elementary school, and the ongoing challenges of creating more affordable housing while preserving open space in a 3-square-mile town.

As new Swampscott Select Board Chair Polly Titcomb took the gavel for the first time this month, her plate was certainly full well ahead of the holiday season.

About 2½ years after first being elected to the Board, Vice Chair Titcomb was elected chairperson when former chair Peter Spellios stepped down from the position late last month — he remains on the board as a selectman. Long being someone not afraid to have her opinion heard or inject the need to find the hard truth in a difficult situation, Titcomb will be in charge of steering the agenda for the board at least through the end of her first term this spring.

"They are big shoes to fill," Titcomb said in an interview with Patch last week. "Of course, I am going to give it my all. We were really lucky to have Peter. I learned a lot by working with him and watching him chair meetings the past couple of years."

Titcomb was greeted with challenges subtle and far-reaching in her first couple of weeks guiding the board as she balances the desire for debate within the meeting with the knowledge that most of the board’s activity is seen remotely amid the lingering coronavirus crisis.

"It is great to be back in person," she said. "It was hard with COVID. I look back at that time and think, oh my gosh, we didn't see each other (in an official meeting) for a year-plus. It was so different having meetings all on Zoom.

"It's so nice being back together," she added, noting one minor change was putting chairs in a "U" shape so board members can engage each other while still being viewable on the livestream and video feeds. "It's natural to be face-to-face. To look at each other and have a discussion promotes more communication."

One of her first meeting topics was among residents and town law enforcement over what the town can legally do to protect residents — especially schoolchildren — from the ongoing, increasingly aggressive and often-offensive protests downtown.

It's one of several issues she'll tackle over the next few months, and she hopes pending re-election beyond, after the next annual town election in the spring.

"My hope is that after the annual town meeting in May to have on the agenda right away a conversation about the board's goals," she said. "I want to start to really formalize the process of annual goals for the board and for the town administrator — three or four goals that are well-defined that we can realistically tackle as a town."

In the short term, Titcomb is set to begin a budget season in which residents have already allowed for a debt exclusion for the new elementary school. She said filling the human resources, library and permanent police chief positions are also "a huge priority of the town."

Interim Police Chief David Kurz is helping the chief selection process, which will include public input, while a human resources consultant firm has been hired to help for what Titcomb allowed "is a tough position to fill these days."

One item on the town meeting warrant she is looking forward to hopefully passing is the official name change of the Board of Selectmen to the Select Board. The board has been unofficially using the more modern term for a while now, with Titcomb becoming the board chair seemingly an appropriate time for the gender-neutral name change to become permanent.

Longer-term, she said the ongoing debate about the Elm Place Project highlights the unique task of creating adequate affordable housing in a small, densely populated town that already contends with extensive traffic issues.

"We are having conversations about the best ways we can look at our affordable housing stock," she said. "We need to come to a consensus on what the town's goals are in that respect and how we can work to achieve them.

"We have a housing master plan that is being formalized. That will give us another level of guidance. It is a priority of the board, but it still needs to take shape. What ways can we encourage the appropriate development and locations for affordable housing?"

She said the town will also look for re-uses of the Glover building and the current Hadley Elementary School in the likelihood that will be up for redevelopment when the new K-4 Stanley School is finished in 2023 or 2024.

"We're looking at the next steps," she said. "It seems like a long way away, but things take a long time."

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(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.)