Just months after the Plymouth Municipal Airport Commission sued the town for alleged interference, the Select Board ousted two longtime airport commissioners, including chair Kenneth Fosdick.
Board members denied their unanimous decision not to reappoint Fosdick and Douglas Crociati had anything to do with the lawsuit or retribution for filing it.
Both had been airport commissioners for more than 20 years.
“They were tough decisions for me,” said Select Board member Bill Keohan.
“It was brave of Fosdick to take the town to court,” Keohan said.
“Is he being punished for blowing the whistle? That wasn’t the motivation for my vote,” Keohan said. “In the end my fellow board members and I were looking for a change at the airport.”
Fosdick didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Appointed to fill their slots were Alan Costello, who has been a member of the Plymouth Airport Community Advisory Committee, a group representing airport neighbors, and Thomas Bodie, a West Plymouth resident who described himself as an expert in data analysis, project management and technical research.
In interviews before the vote, both said they would work to improve relations with the airport’s neighbors, long opposed to airport expansion plans.
In a statement filed by Fosdick as part of his application for reappointment, he acknowledged “our recent difficulties between the PAC and our town manager. We have and we will continue to work supportively with the Town Manager,” he wrote.
At the Select Board meeting, Fosdick said it would be “irresponsible” and “inappropriate” for him not to continue in the same role with so many things going on at the airport — such as the reconstruction of the runway.
Justin Fosdick, Ken’s grandson, was not reappointed to the Plymouth Airport Community Advisory Committee.
Most other members of the town’s more than 50 boards and commissions were not replaced.
But one of the town’s key panels, the Zoning Board of Appeals, will undergo major changes.
Chair Michael Main and Thomas Wallace did not seek reappointment and Peter Conner, who also serves on the Airport Commission, was essentially demoted from a full-time board member to an associate member — serving only when another member is unavailable.
Appointed to the full-time positions were Costello and Srinivasan Mukundan. Mukundan is a retired doctor and scientist, who served as an associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and chief of neuroradiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He’s also an Eagle Scout, according to his resume.
Wallace, a developer and founder of the Pinehills, said he decided against seeking reappointment to the ZBA because of the “enormous time commitment” required and the “hate” that often comes with rulings.
“Every time you make a decision, somebody gets angry and just spews venom,” he said.
Other boards with new members are the Conservation Commission and the Community Preservation Committee.
Board chair Deb Iaquinto said the many volunteers who serve on town boards and committees “keep Plymouth running.”
“We get so many resumes from people who have all kinds of skills, experience and talents,” she said.
“What we saw with this round is a lot of new folks who hadn’t raised their hands before,” she said. “That gave us an opportunity to appoint new people while making sure we don’t lose the institutional knowledge or momentum a committee had been building up.”
Town officials have been battling the Airport Commission since the commission filed suit on April 1. The case is pending in Plymouth Superior Court.
The commission alleged Town Manager Derek Brindisi was looking to seize control of the airport, making employment and other administrative decisions, including the selection of the airport manager and demanding employees report to him.
A superior court judge ordered Brindisi to stop interfering and said the Airport Commission would likely win the lawsuit eventually.
Brindisi then ordered all town employees to stop doing any work or providing any services for the airport.
Brindisi, arguing he was just following the judge’s order, instructed all town employees to stop doing any work or providing any services for the airport.
The judge, Gregg Pasquale, then directed Brindisi to rescind that controversial order, slamming Brindisi for being “cute.”
Andrea Estes can be reached at Andrea@plymouthindependent.org