SWAMPSCOTT — Town Moderator Michael McClung came before the Select Board during their meeting Wednesday evening to voice concerns about the board during its public comment segment.
“The town has heard absolutely nothing from this board about the citizen’s petition filed in early December, with over 200 signatures verified by the town clerk,” McClung said. He added that in hope of avoiding a disorganized Special Town Meeting, he had anticipated hearing discussion from the board regarding the petition.
Select Board Chair MaryEllen Fletcher took a moment to respond. “If Mr. McClung was so concerned about this, why didn’t he pick up the phone and make a call?”
Fletcher said that the town is in receipt of a petition, titled Article Submission Form 01-14. The petition does not request a Special Town Meeting. “Nowhere in the petition does it request a Special Town Meeting,” she said. “Which means, the individuals that signed that petition, they had no knowledge of a request of a Special Town Meeting.”
McClung argued that a Special Town Meeting should have been called by now, citing a provision–Chapter 39, Section 10–of Mass. General Law. “We can only assume that you have taken the extraordinary decision to ignore the existence of this petition,” McClung said.
“I think there’s some confusion, and if he had made a phone call, I would have let him known there was discussion on the petition was on the agenda for the meeting scheduled in the second week in January,” Fletcher said. “You know what comes from with using the word ‘assume’,” Fletcher said. “He could have avoided this by picking up the phone.”
The remedy of petition to Town Meeting is “one of the most important elements of our democracy, predating even the Declaration of Independence,” said McClung.
McClung also stressed that several town meeting members have inquired about the departure of former Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. “According to the Lynn Item article of December 3, the Town Administrator resigned more than a month ago,” McClung said. “Yet to date residents have heard nothing from the Select Board – not even an acknowledgement that he’d actually departed.”
“For the record, Mister McClung, Fitzgerdid not depart officially until the nineteeth of December,” Fletcher said. That being said, Fletcher noted their official first meeting after that was Jan 8. “Per our Charter, mister Fitzgerald appointed Gino Cresta as the acting-Town Administrator.” She added the town has had Crestain the leadership role consistently, and has received no calls or complaints stating concerns about lack of leadership in the town.
McClung said the day the news broke of Fitzgerald’s departure, he sent emails to the Select Board, Finance Committee and School Committee over how to move forward to comply with the Town Charter in finding a replacement. He also asked for a possible vote on an interim administrator.
“As far as him sending out emails to the member of Finance Committee, Select Board and School Committee, it is not his role to organize the search committee. His role is to appoint two members following the Selection from other committees. Once they’ve made their selection, he can add his two. All he’ll be doing is turning in his two names. We are following the charter,” Fletcher said.
McClung went on to say that discussion and appointment of a new administrator should have occurred in the hours following Fitzgerald’s departure, not more than a month later. “Who has officially been running the Town since then?” he said.*
She said once the three committees made their selection, the moderator will be able to add his two selections will be forwarded to the Moderator, where he can make his selections, and from there the Select Board will coordinate the process going forward. She noted that it’s his opinion and only his opinion.
“In short, am not sure what is driving the Select Board’s complete lack of communication and transparency with Town Meeting, town officials, and the public,” McClung said. “But your credibility – our credibility – is suffering as a result.”
She said Once again this is the moderator’s opinion. “I’m extremely disappointed in the Moderator’s behavior. I’m disappointed in him making things making this out to be political, and that he’s just grand-standing. I do hope that we can come together and just focus on business, and putting the town first.”
Fletcher noted, “With the departure of the Town Administrator, this involves personnel issues and privacy issues.”
“I thought we’d start off 2025 in a more collaborate and congenial manner,” Board member Danielle Leonard said. “It was clear after the town moderator’s comments that we haven’t.”
She said she’s disappointed by the way he approached the situation. “To take out his personal feelings on some of the board members feels inappropriate,” she said. “We need to come together and be more collaborative.”
She said once the three committees made their selection, the moderator will be able to add his two selections will be forwarded to the Moderator, where he can make his selections, and from there the Select Board will coordinate the process going forward. She noted that it’s his opinion and only his opinion.
