SWAMPSCOTT — After three years at the helm of the five-member Select Board, Peter Spellios officially stepped down as chair and handed the reins over to Vice Chair Polly Titcomb last week.
Spellios will continue with the board as a member. Neal Duffy was elevated to vice chair.
“As everybody else has said, your shoes are truly impossible to fill and that is clear to anyone who knows the amount of work you actually do, and how selfless you’ve been in this role as chair and other boards in general,” Titcomb said to Spellios during last week’s meeting.
“I am not going to try to fill those shoes; I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I appreciate you guys having enough faith to at least put it forward,” she added.
Spellios has been on the Select Board since 2015. Before that, he was a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals from 2004-13 and was chair of the Charter Review Committee from 2013-14.
Titcomb, who is a local attorney, has served five years on the Swampscott Finance Committee; she was named chair in the final year of her first term on the Select Board. She was initially voted onto the board in 2019, in a six-candidate run for two available seats. Her swearing-in made the board into a female-majority for the first time in 167 years, along with the presence of former members Laura Spathanas and Naomi Dreeben. Neither ran for reelection the following year, which ended that short run.
Chair of the Select Board is the highest-elected position in Swampscott, and requires duties such as controlling the board’s agenda, moving other members to decision making, guiding and facilitating decisions, and keeping members on track, among other responsibilities.
Spellios congratulated Titcomb as he handed her the gavel.
“Congratulations, Polly, you are officially in charge,” he said. “Make sure everything is fine and the world isn’t collapsing around Swampscott.”
Spellios explained the duty of chair is a day-to-day commitment but he believes Titcomb is the right woman for the job
“You’ll be great at it, you really will, and I’m grateful you are willing to make the sacrifice,” he said. “It takes a lot of effort but really, I really appreciate it, so thank you very much.”
Member Donald Hause thanked Spellios for his commitment to the board and for his years of service.
“Not only have you jumped into difficult situations with both feet, you’ve got a passion and it has come from your personal expense because you put yourself out there,” he said. “But I think, if not for you, our town wouldn’t be in as good of shape.”
Duffy also thanked Spellios, saying he believed Spellios has done “an unbelievable job navigating us as a board, and also our town through some really unprecedented, unimaginable issues.”
It was Duffy who nominated Titcomb at the meeting once Spellios announced that he was stepping down.
“I do hope I do an efficient job and I am always open for feedback,” said Titcomb when she accepted.
Member David Grishman made the motion to elect member Duffy as vice chair, and the motion carried unanimously.
