Selectmen redraft Town Manager Act amid library opposition

WAYLAND -- April 16, 2019, Wayland selectmen redraft Town Manager Special Act as library trustees mobilize against it. The Board of Selectmen spent more than two hours April 16 walking line-by-line through a new six-page draft with Town Counsel Carolyn Murray of KP Law, after 13 months of work on the proposal. Board of Library Trustees Chair Aida Jenis read a unanimous statement that her board "cannot support this proposal for the town manager special act in its current form," and the Friends of the Library warned of "serious concerns about the possible effects on the library." Murray told members the act would stand "on equal footing with every state statute" and conceded the position "does take power away from boards. There is no way of sugarcoating that." Tentative changes include requiring four of five selectmen to appoint or remove a manager, making the town clerk appointed, and giving the manager chief procurement and chief financial officer roles. The board aims for a fall special Town Meeting, with a finished draft needed by roughly Aug. 1.