Tensions between the Town of Swampscott Select Board and Housing Authority (SHA) went from strained to stretched-to-the-breaking point when the SHA board wrapped up January by naming Charles Patsios an interim board member.
It’s not a gross overstatement to describe Patsios, the developer and Town Meeting member, as controversial.
He used the word “bribery” in filing a challenge to the 2020 Town Meeting article ending civil service for police and firefighters. Town Meeting approved the article, prompting Patsios to file a motion of reconsideration against the vote.
Town Moderator Michael McClung denied the motion and Patsios ran for moderator last year. McClung easily won reelection, summing up his victory by noting that voters focused on “issues,” not “rumors” in casting their ballots.
Even having Patsios temporarily as a trustee is sufficient to infuriate the Select Board with members chiding the SHA for conducting a “secret” meeting and Select Board member Peter Spellios declaring, “No one here should be surprised,” by the vote.
It was former Select Board member Naomi Dreeben who resigned her board position last September, creating the vacancy filled by Patsios.
Dreeben delivered a stern parting shot to her fellow board members, chastising them in a letter to the editor (Item, Sept. 27, 2021) for continuing to ignore the need for “substantive discussion” on long-term Housing Authority needs.
The town charter requires the four-member Board of Trustees and the five Select Board members to vote on filling a trustee vacancy. But it does not require the two boards to meet together to vote.
As an interim appointee, Patsios is to serve until April 26 when the Housing Authority seat will be filled by town voters. There’s no love for Patsios on the Select Board, but why not ride out the Patsios appointment for two months and then let the voters fill the position?
The Select Board is the supreme elected body in town government and the harsh criticism it is aiming at the Housing Authority is a discredit to Housing Authority Executive Director Irma Chez who has Authority tenants as well as the trustees’ support.
Housing is a big topic in Swampscott, with contentious affordable-housing-project proposals under review (one was just rejected by the state). Town residents are best served, in our view, if elected officials are on the same page when it comes to planning Swampscott’s housing needs.
Patsios will undoubtedly not be the Select Board’s choice for interim trustee, leaving the two boards at loggerheads at precisely a time when their members should be on the same page, as Dreeben said, to conduct “substantive discussion.”
