Tensions between Select Board members erupted Tuesday when chair David Golden faced a mini revolt about his handling of the board’s agenda.
After a heated exchange, the board voted 4-to1 – with Golden dissenting – to speed up certain items left off the agenda “for months.”
The most visibly upset was member Bill Keohan, who demanded a debate on several items he said he has long been asking to put on the agenda.
Among the topics were the role of town planning officials in creating more affordable housing and the inclusion of Town Square in a redevelopment plan to make it more resilient to climate change.
“These are things that I have been asking for for some time,” Keohan said. Golden interrupted him.
“We’re not going to sit here and pick meeting dates that we’re going to put items on the agenda,” Golden said. “Your items will be scheduled. I promise you that.”
Keohan insisted he was prepared to take votes immediately.
“They will be put on the agenda,” Golden said, banging his gavel.
“I have waited for months for these things to be put on the agenda,” said the normally mild-mannered Keohan. “I am looking for a vote tonight to put these items on the board before I am interrupted again.”
“It’s very challenging to fit in everything that you folks are asking,” Golden said. “I’m doing my very level best.”
Keohan then moved to put his items on the agenda. Board member Kevin Canty seconded the motion.
“They should be put on the agenda,” Canty said.
That’s when vice chair Dick Quintal appeared to ask for Golden’s permission to vote with Koehan and Canty.
“Are you all right with that?” asked Quintal, who usually votes with Golden.
Golden told Quintal his vote was his own.
“I was asking him if he was okay with what they were recommending,” Quintal told the Independent Thursday, explaining that he was trying to find a common ground between Golden and his critics. “I was trying to calm it down a little bit.”
With the 4–1 vote, the board supported Keohan.
Keohan and Canty have long complained that Golden has ignored their requests to schedule discussions on their topics.
Keohan wants to reconstitute the town’s water conservation committee. He wants to hear from the Herring Pond Wampanoag tribe about several issues, and from the Open Space committee about trails it is advocating. He wants the town to consider forming a facilities task force that would examine what it would take to maintain the town’s buildings, including Memorial Hall. He wants to discuss the maintenance of the 1820 Courthouse that forms a key part of Town Hall.
“We don’t want to see that building go into any condition that might make it more costly to maintain in the future,” Keohan said.
The board then proceeded to schedule Keohan’s items.
Golden said he had already scheduled the facilities task force for March 31.
Town manager Derek Brindisi said he had already been working on Keohan’s requests and had been ready to recommend the 1820 Courthouse and Town Square also be discussed on March 31.
Brindisi said he had also been ready to recommend discussion of the water conservation committee, the relationship with the Wampanoag tribe, and the Open Space Committee’s work on trails for April 7.
Brindisi suggested the board take up affordable housing and the Conservation Commission on April 21.
With that, Keohan – who said he had struggled unsuccessfully for months to get his items on the agenda – had all of them scheduled within minutes.
At this point Canty seized on the moment to put items he’s been struggling to get on the agenda on the board’s calendar.
He asked for dates to discuss whether the town should join a national lawsuit against the federal government to force it to provide a permanent solution to storage of nuclear waste, whether to make the Phil an orchestra in residence at Memorial Hall, and how many affordable housing units Plymouth must build before it can be protected from Chapter 40B, the state law that allows builders to bypass town zoning regulations if less than 10 percent of its units are considered affordable.
The lawsuit would have to be discussed in executive session at a date still to be determined, but Brindisi suggested April 21 to discuss the Phil and affordable housing. And Canty was promised a workshop he requested on how the town responds to storms would also be scheduled.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org