Wayland subcommittee hears competing models for Finance Committee appointments

WAYLAND — October 26, 2022 — Wayland subcommittee gathers more comparisons before recommending changes to Finance Committee appointments. Select Board member Thomas J. Fay and subcommittee colleague Adam Russell heard from Wenham Town Moderator Roger Smerridge, who praised his town's three-member appointing panel of Select Board chair, moderator and Finance Committee chair as "deliberative" and "collegial," and from Marblehead Town Moderator Jack Attridge, whose Select Board alone appoints a nine-member committee. Petitioner George Harris, citing the Collins Center, called Wayland's structure "increasingly anachronistic" and noted nine of 13 peer towns use moderator-only appointment; he defended a two-member panel with an alternating tiebreaker. Former Finance Committee member Bill Steinberg called the proposal "goofy" and "a solution in search of a problem," though he said he could back a three-member structure. The subcommittee unanimously approved Sept. 6 and Sept. 28 minutes and meets again Nov. 15.