By Christopher Haraden

With Wednesday’s joint light board/select board meeting slated to discuss the management structure of the utility, proponents of removing the town manager as light plant manager are pressing the issue on multiple fronts, including asking Town Manager Jennifer Constable to recuse herself from the discussion and gathering signatures to call a special town meeting this fall.

In May, voters approved annual town meeting Article 37 by a 116-83 vote. The article proposed returning to the independent management setup that was eliminated in 1993 when town meeting requested that a home-rule petition be filed on Beacon Hill. Although this year’s proposal was approved, Constable told the light board and select board that legal counsel had deemed Article 37 as “not actionable” because it did not include provisions about filing special legislation.

At Wednesday’s meeting, light commissioner Jacob Vaillancourt, who sponsored the town meeting article through a citizens’ petition, plans to ask the select board to request that Hull’s state legislators file the home-rule petition to enact the management change.

If the board declines to pursue the matter, other supporters are circulating petitions to call a special town meeting to vote on a new version of Article 37 that contains the required wording. The effort, led by Leslie Taylor, needs the signatures of at least 200 registered voters.

CLICK HERE OR THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR THE FULL PETITION.

Vaillancourt also has asked the select board to direct Constable to recuse herself “from any participation in Article 37 matters,” a follow-up to a formal complaint he filed in July with the State Ethics Commission, alleging that Constable “has engaged in a pattern of conduct constituting multiple, serious violations of the Massachusetts Conflict of Interest Law.” Among other allegations, Vaillancourt charged that Constable has a “direct financial interest” in the outcome of Article 37 as the head of both departments. He also alleged that because of “the pattern of treatment I have experienced, which has included retaliatory actions from the town manager since filing Article 37, the Commission indicated that I likely fall under whistleblower protections.”

On Wednesday, Constable said an Ethics Commission attorney provided her with a guidance letter on August 5, advising that “nothing shows that your financial interests would be affected by your participation in discussions, meetings, etc., or matters associated with Article 37/special legislation” because her contract is not expressly linked to the light plant’s finances.

The letter, signed by Assistant General Counsel Christoper N. Popov, also said that state law regulating public officials’ participation in matters in which they may have a financial interest excludes “enactment of general legislation by the General Court and petitions of cities, towns, counties and districts for special laws related to their governmental organizations, powers, duties, finances, and property.”

In an email sent Wednesday to the select board, Vaillancourt requested that if a special town meeting is called, Constable recuse herself from involvement in “all STM preparation, warrant drafting, briefings, and meeting administration.” He termed the “stalled implementation of Article 37” as resulting from the select board’s “dereliction of duty.”

Select board Chair Irwin Nesoff disagreed.

“Mr. Vaillancourt, the proponent of Article 37, was informed before, during, and after annual town meeting that his citizens’ petition was legally defective because it does not comply with home-rule requirements, prescribed by law, to effectuate a charter amendment,” Nesoff said Wednesday. “If there is a special town meeting it will be due to the proponent’s unwillingness to allow the deliberative and legal processes to play out, and not due to any supposed ‘dereliction of duty’ on the part of the select board as charged by Mr. Vaillancourt. Spending $35,000 on a special town meeting, when there is no emergency, is a waste of hard-earned tax dollars.”

The agenda for Wednesday’s select board meeting has not yet been posted. The board also plans to hold joint meetings with the redevelopment authority and school committee to interview applicants for open positions on those boards.

Like what you’re reading? Stay informed and support our work with a Hull Times subscription by clicking here.

Do you have an opinion to share? Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.