After Long and Sometimes Nasty Debate, Wong the Choice

It's probably a good thing that Lisa Wong wasn't in attendance at Monday night's Select Board Meeting. If she was, the former Fitchburg mayor wouldn't have seen all the good things that attracted her to the town in the first place. No, she would have heard arguing, complaining, and a verbal slugfest more suitable to certain national debates going on now.

In a packed meeting room at Town Hall, the Select Board revisited the events of the past 10 days, all surrounding the search for a Town Manager to replace Richard Howard. If you wish to close your eyes and ears to what happened Monday, just know that your town will contact Wong Tuesday, offer her the job, and begin contract negotiations. Many would agree, she's a great fit for Winchester. The story can end here.

But if you're a fan of down and dirty politics, read on.

The seven-member Town Manager Advisory Committee received 40 applications to replace Howard. They narrowed the field down to three. One withdrew their application, leaving Wong and Philip Lemnios, who were interviewed by the board on June 11 and 13. But when both Wong and Leminos withdrew their applications days later, the field was down to zero. The board asked Leminos to reconsider. He said no. The board asked Wong to reconsider. She said yes.

It would all end there except for how the last Select Board meeting played out on June 15. As resident Peggy Schleicher stated, "On June 15 something very wrong happened in this room." Schleicher believes the board violated the state open meeting law that night and she filed a complaint with the attorney general on June 22. The Advisory Committee also apparently violated the open meeting law by communicating via email during this period. Fans of good opening meeting law talk were rewarded Monday night.

Meanwhile, board member David Errico was furious about the process, so much so that he hired Framingham attorney Christopher Petrini to file his own complaint with the attorney general against the very board he served on. Errico didn't understand how the final two candidates withdrew and then the job was offered to Wong. "If there was one more candidate we wouldn't be here," said Errico. "It's a divisive situation in town and it doesn't have to be that way."

Errico continued the theme that having just two resumes to look at to fill a $200,000 job was wrong. "It's so unfortunate. It didn't have to be this way. It's nothing to do with the candidates, it's all about the process. The process went awry. It's incredibly disappointing to me."

Errico was joined by board member Jacqueline Welch, who said, "This is about doing our job, taking more time and looking at additional candidates."

But board member Mike Bettencourt fanned the flames by saying the discussion has been "made divisive only through Mr. Errico's efforts." He pointed out to Welch and Errico that the Advisory Committee was tasked with "bringing us the most qualified candidates and that's what they did."

Welch responded by saying, "I will not be insulted by Mr. Bettencourt. He is completely out of order. It's beneath the level of this board."

After the board back-n-forth, the residents chimed in and six people starting with Schleicher voiced opinions.

A night filled with points of information, points of clarification, points of procedure, and points of order, finally came to an end with two votes. The first was a motion to not conduct further interviews for Town Manager. That passed, 3-2, with chair Lance Grenzeback, vice-chair Mariano Goluboff, and Bettencourt voting yes. The next vote was to offer the position to Wong, and the same three voted yes with Errico voting no and Welch abstaining.

The meeting wasn't over. But the room cleared out and peace was restored.

Photo by Bob Holmes