NAHANT — The Board of Selectmen voted to reorganize its chairman, vice chairman, and recording secretary last week, taking part in an annual position-cycling tradition that’s been around since the 1960s. The only problem? It got the order wrong.
Last week, the board voted to make former Vice Chairman Mark Cullinan the new chairman, and former Chairman Eugene Canty the new vice chairman. That vote sparked confusion among the board, which was unsure whose turn it was to serve in the three positions.
After seconding Cullinan’s motion to appoint Canty vice chairman, Board member Joshua Antrim expressed confusion with the order of positions.
“I don’t mean to be a stick in the mud, but wouldn’t I become the vice chair?” Antrim asked.
Town Administrator Tony Barletta then assured Antrim that he was actually the vice chairman last year, to which he replied “I was?”
Each year, the three selectmen cycle their terms from recording secretary, to vice chairman, to chairman. In an interview Friday, Barletta said the tradition started in the 1960s, and was intended to let selectmen work their way up the ladder over the course of their three-year terms, while bringing a fresh face to the position of chairman each year.
Barletta said that the board did, in fact, mistakenly elect Canty to the vice chairman position when, according to the cycle, Antrim should have been elected vice chairman and Canty should have been made recording secretary. He said the Board of Selectmen will vote to reorganize again at its next meeting.
“It’s a nice tradition that the town has for the selectmen. I think it’s a good way to share the positions amongst the members,” Barletta said. “We actually made a mistake, and we’re going to correct it at the next meeting.”
Cullinan served as chairman during his first term in 2020. With a three-person Board of Selectmen, Barletta said the levels of authority within the positions do not differ radically.
In an interview Thursday, Cullinan said that as chairman, he will be responsible for drafting agendas for Board of Selectmen meetings.
One of his main priorities, Cullinan said, will be to expand multi-family housing in Nahant to comply with new zoning requirements, which require municipalities close to an MBTA station to contain a district allowing multi-family housing.
“One of my goals for this term is to create housing for seniors and for Nahant residents,” Cullinan said. “10 percent of our housing has to be affordable. Right now, we’re at 4 percent.”
