SWAMPSCOTT — The town Finance Committee has elected Eric Hartman as its new chair, and Matthew Kirschner as its new vice chair.
“As always there are many things that can be done better, so take it as an opportunity to rethink, have meetings around, and all,” said former Swampscott Finance Committee Chair Tim Dorsey.
Dorsey, who opened the discussion, reminded the members of the committee that according to the protocol for those positions, people could nominate somebody else or even nominate themselves.
The motion to elect Hartman and Kirschner was passed without rebuttal and Dorsey congratulated them on their election shortly after, offering to provide any further assistance he could.
“I look forward to heckling you from the Town Meeting floor in the future,” said Dorsey.
Hartman thanked the conference and Dorsey, who had been “a strong guiding voice” in the committee, and said that he learned a lot from him over the years, and that he would certainly stay connected with Dorsey “to the extent you can handle it or take it,” said Hartman.
Hartman added that even though he still felt like the new person in the group, he would try to lean on the committee a bit more; “try to make sure we are all aligned to move forward.”
“I still kind of feel as a newbie in this group, even though I have been around for a few years now, so I will ask the committee in general and Matt specifically. I don’t know how to do everything the way Tim did certainly, so I will try to lean on the committee a little bit more,” said Hartman.
Hartman also said that he will continue down the same line of his predecessor and try to focus on “fighting the battle that Tim always fought to try to get our information as soon as possible from Town Meetings and try to make it a priority.”
“That has always been a challenge to us to the extent possible,” Hartman said.
Dorsey also congratulated the new vice chair, Matthew Kirschner, who said that he served as a member of the Finance Committee for three years.
“Ultimately, I want to continue the progress that we have made in the Finance Committee, but more importantly support Eric as the chairman to the committee. I am the vice chair and my job is to support him on the committee,” said Kirschner.
After the election of Hartman and Kirschner, the conference proceeded with a discussion on the new liaison openings and possible reshufflings connected to them. Committee member Cinder McNerney said that historically there was a way of filling up the liaison positions, but the committee hasn’t been following that tradition for quite some time.
“Historically the vice chair was the liaison to the School Department. And I tell you why, because that’s the biggest department, and so it was thought that the vice chair got the needed time to get to know the department, then when the vice chair becomes the chair, typically they would be very familiar with that biggest department of the town,” said McNerney.
The committee will reconvene with this discussion in a future meeting.
Oksana Kotkina can be reached at [email protected].
