SWAMPSCOTT — Residents voiced their frustrations with how the Select Board and Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald have conducted themselves and handled certain issues in town at the board’s meeting.
Resident Maura Lau took the microphone and encouraged the Select Board’s members to improve their “tone and tenor” when speaking to each other and their constituents.
“I’d like to address the tone from last week’s meeting, because it is the thing that stands out to me as the most upsetting,” Lau said.
She said the board needs to set a better example for the town’s younger generations.
“This is where they start their lives,” Lau said. “They start their lives electing folks to pass out paper plates. This is how students begin. So as I would say to my children, knock it off (Board member) Peter (Spellios), please.”
Lau was not the only speaker to criticize Spellios, as resident Brenda Sheridan accused him of laughing during previous public-comment sections in the board’s meetings.
“If you don’t stop mocking and laughing at the people that are making comments, you should leave now and not finish out your term,” Sheridan said.
Spellios later responded to Lau and Sheridan’s comments, citing the upcoming Town Election and the Board’s inability to respond to the public comment portion of its meetings as reasons he believes criticisms were levied against him through that platform.
“For years people have clamored for there to be more debate and dissent among Select Board members, now that they have this debate and dissent, instead of debating the merits when they disagree with you, they elect instead to just criticize the words or tone of anyone who they disagree with,” Spellios said. “Some residents regularly show up to the public comment period at Select Board meetings – or lecture the Board through zoom from their living room – to score political points and to take shots at town employees and volunteers knowing that the Select Board and staff do not respond to public comment. This has especially become the norm during town election season. It is sad that this is the current political environment here and around the country.”
Swampscott Public Library Board of Trustees Chair Neal DeChillo said that his board was not involved in the development of the idea for the new library, which was announced at April 5’s Select Board meeting.
“The library board understands that the April 5 presentation was an initial idea of a potential project,” DeChillo said. “We believe there needs to be an open and transparent process, which seriously considers a wide variety of options and includes input through a broad representation of town residents.”
Resident and Save King’s Beach co-founder Andrea Amour became emotional after she heard Fitzgerald’s recommendations for American Rescue Plan Act funding usage, which did not include efforts to improve the sewer system and mitigate pollution at both King’s Beach and Fisherman’s Beach.
“Not only are you ignoring the suggestions of the federal government, but you also aren’t listening to the town constituents,” Amour said to Fitzgerald. “Sean, you are not listening to people.”
Fitzgerald proposed accumulating funds through the town’s sewer enterprise fund instead.
“Both the $1.8 million and additional work under phase two and the $1.7 million for Fisherman’s, I believe we should run through the sewer enterprise costs,” he said.
According to Director of Public Works Gino Cresta, the sewer enterprise fund is not currently operating at a deficit. However, funding the projects in this way would result in a significant increase in sewer rates, he said.
