New Saugus board member pushes to give voice back to citizens

SAUGUS – Tuesday might be the Board of Selectmen’s first working meeting post-election but Maureen Dever already has a motion to make.”I will make a motion at the next meeting and I would hope you consider supporting it,” she said during last week’s organizational meeting.Before the swearing-in ceremony came to an end Dever asked her new colleagues to consider reversing the Citizen’s Forum guidelines the previous board adopted in August.”Many became involved in this campaign because of this issue, that people’s voices were not being heard,” she said. “Whether it’s perceived or fact it was the number one issue.”Both Dever and newly elected Chairman of the Board Ellen Faiella based their campaigns on the idea that residents felt disenfranchised and disrespected, and were not being heard by selectmen.Dever called the guidelines that then-Chairman Michael Serino introduced and the board adopted, restrictive. The guidelines curtailed residents’ ability to come forward when part of the board’s job is to listen to constituents’ concerns.Citizen’s Forum, in the past, has been the portion of the regular board meeting set aside to give residents a chance to speak on essentially whatever is on their minds. According to the rules currently in place the forum is for Saugus residents only and all topics must be on the board’s agenda. Residents can have an item placed on the agenda simply by asking the board’s clerk but must do so no later than 3 p.m. on the Wednesday prior to the board’s Tuesday meeting. The board generally meets twice a month, therefore if you had an issue on the Thursday before the meeting you might have to wait three weeks to be heard.Speakers are limited to three minutes and board members will have 30 seconds to respond. Conduct deemed improper or defamatory or abusive remarks “are always out of order,” no personnel complaints will be heard and speakers should refrain from using names.The guidelines also state that no citizen can speak more than once without permission of the chairman and the chairman reserves the right to extend or reduce the timeframe depending on the number of people waiting to speak.”I strongly suggest we reverse the guidelines set forth a few months ago and abide by the open meeting law,” Dever said.Under the state’s open meeting law, as long as board members make no decision, take no action or express an opinion, anyone can comment on just about anything, within reason, Dever explained.This is not the first time Citizen’s Forum has been an issue. In November 2009 the board voted to do away with the portion of the meeting and instead require residents to send a letter or call and ask to be put on the correspondence portion of the agenda if they wanted to speak to the board. By January a petition has been started to repeal the ruling and several weeks later it was and citizen’s forum was reinstated.Dever has asked her fellow board members to make this the first item that the new board deals with when it sits down Tuesday in Town Hall at 7:30 p.m. for its first official meeting.