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Date: 6/14/2023
HUNTINGTON — Voters at Town Meeting on June 5 decided to begin the process of having the town’s clerk appointed instead of elected.
“I don’t want to leave it to write-in votes. It’s too important. I don’t want to leave it to chance,” said Select Board member Roger Booth Jr. when he was asked by a voter why he wanted the change. “It’s harder and harder to find people for these positions.”
Select Board Chair Edward Renauld reminded the approximately 50 residents who participated in Town Meeting that the town did the same thing when it changed the treasurer-collector position from elected to appointed.
One of the primary reasons the town wants to make the change is because longtime Town Clerk Linda Hamlin has announced she is retiring at the end of January 2024. There are two ways to make the switch: One is to pass articles at two consecutive Town Meetings, and one is to have the state Legislature pass a special law. Voters on June 5 started the town on both tracks, passing the first of a possible two local articles, and also passing an article petitioning Beacon Hill to make the change.
If the Legislature approves the change, another vote at Town Meeting wouldn’t be needed — but proponents warned these types of petitions can take six months or longer to pass both chambers of the Legislature and get signed by Gov. Maura Healey
Since Hamlin has announced she will retire next January, if the petition hasn’t been acted on by then, the Select Board can appoint a new clerk to serve until the 2024 Town Meeting.
Budget approved
When the fiscal year 2024 budget was presented, Renauld said it was a “good, thoughtful budget.”
The only line item that generated discussion was an increase in the IT Tech Support budget from $11,000 to $55,428. Booth said the town really didn’t have a choice about spending the additional money to harden its network from computer hackers.
He said the state has mandated that all town networks must be protected by two-factor authentication, and those that don’t will not receive any state help if their system is compromised and hackers demand money to restore it. Booth said the computer networks in Hatfield, South Hadley and Deerfield had been hacked, so it makes sense to protect the town’s network.
“We’ve got to do it … we’ve got to bite the bullet,” Booth said.
Voters approved the town’s $6,407,768 budget, which included its share of funding to the Gateway Regional School District of $4,072,066.
Of that $4,072,066, $841,691 was allocated for student tuition for students who attend vocational school out of the district, and $88,459 for transportation of those students.
Other articles approved were: