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Date: 11/21/2023
SOUTHWICK — The Select Board has tentatively approved a seven-article warrant for the upcoming Special Town Meeting, and it will include an article that will ask voters to approve petitioning the state Legislature to allow three of the seven-member Conservation Commission to be elected instead of appointed by the board.
“It was already voted on by the town. This is step 2,” Select Board member Diane Gale said during the Nov. 13 meeting of the board.
Last May, Town Meeting voted to approve a citizens’ petition to reverse a decision made by Town Meeting in 1967 to adopt a local-option state law allowing members of the Conservation Commission to be appointed by the Select Board instead of elected by voters.
After the article was passed in May, it was sent to the state attorney general to be evaluated by staff attorneys. Gale said in September that the attorney general’s staff said it wasn’t in its “purview” to rule on the article and kicked it back to the town. Gale then proposed asking Town Meeting to decide if it wanted to submit a local-option petition to the Legislature.
Moglin said during May’s Town Meeting that he didn’t believe the article complied with state law, an opinion shared by town counsel Ben Coyle. However, Coyle did say there was “another way to do it,” as a local-option petition.
In September meeting, Moglin said he was against reversing the 1967 Town Meeting decision because it reduces “the authority of the [Select] Board.” He restated that position on Nov. 13 and added another reason.
“[Article 7] is a motion of this board, not an outcome of Town Meeting. The attorney general was clear that was not what was asked at Town Meeting [in May],” he said.
Moglin also said he didn’t think including the article requesting the local-option petition should be considered during a Special Town Meeting. When Gale questioned why, Moglin said an issue like this should be debated at the Annual Town Meeting in the spring, when there is typically a larger turnout.
“It is a more customary place to have this type of debate,” he said.
Moglin then made a motion to move the article from the Special Town Meeting to the Annual Town Meeting. It didn’t get a second from Gale or Perron and failed.
Currently, all seven of the commissioners are appointed by the Select Board for three-year terms. The petition would have those three of those positions converted to elected three-year terms.
The initial terms of the three commissioners would be staggered: one serving for one year; one serving for two years; and the other serving for three years. At the end of those terms, the commissioners would then stand for election to three-year terms.
Also on the draft warrant are articles that would modify the town’s zoning bylaws to allow recreational marijuana retailers in town; establish a 3% excise tax on marijuana sales; change the zoning at 157 Feeding Hills Rd. to accommodate the expansion of Crepes Tea House; and allocate $322,990 in Community Preservation Act funds to build six pickleball courts in town.
The Special Town Meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 5, in the auditorium of Southwick Regional School, 93 Feeding Hills Rd.