Times change
Holding up a copy of book titled “Auditor 1913,” provided by town Treasurer Dean Carman, she said it list only men. “I think it’s time to get with the times,” said Rowe, who is completing the term of Steve Byrne, who resigned in December. She encourage younger women to run for the board.
Rowe, along with 10 registered voters, including three selectmen and the board administrator, proposed the article.
Mahon said that seven or eight years ago, when she, Rowe and Annie LaCourt served on the board, they had discussed changing the name, but the idea “did not go anywhere.”
Greenfield statement
Naomi Greenfield, a Precinct 15 Town Meeting member, expressed her support in a statement that she read. She recalled that at her first Town Meeting, last spring, she saw how men outnumbered longtime Selectman Diane Mahon and Christine Bongiorno, director of health and human services.
“I know that changing the name of our board from Selectmen will not immediately change the people who fill those seats,” Greenfield said. “But maybe it soon will. Because words matter.”
Read her complete statement >>
Board Chairman Joseph A. Curro Jr. said the body had been called the Board of Selectmen and Overseers of the Poor.
2016 appeal, some history
In May 2016, Mel Goldsipe, vice chair of the Human Rights Commission, publicly suggested the name change to board members. Speaking during the reading of correspondence, the town resident said 19 other Massachusetts municipalities have made the change. Mahon called Goldsipe’s suggestion a good one and should be discussed at an appropriate forum.
As reported in 2016, Richard Duffy, an author who knows town history, wrote that “the Board of Selectmen,” as a term, has existed since Arlington became the independent municipality of West Cambridge in 1807.
A list of Arlington selectmen from 1867 to the present shows the first women to serve were Peg Spengler and Ann Mahon Powers. Spengler served from 1973 to 1979. Powers was appointed in 1973 and served in the elected position from 1975 to 1981.
Others comment
Selectman Dan Dunn, whose mother had been a selectman, said a new understanding of unconscious bias persuaded him that change should come.
Curro said he is the father of two civic-aware daughters, who he said were “jumping for joy” after they heard the potential would be discussed.
Kevin Greeley, saying he had been slow to support this change, will do so now “wholeheartedly.”
The board unanimously approved support for Rowe’s article.
Members also voted 5-0 for two articles presented by Carman. They address closing a loophole in collecting delinquent fines and fees and removing a pie chart from real estate tax bills.
Town Counsel Doug Heim told the board he had received 50 warrant articles, fewer than usual. He said the number could change as some may be consolidated or held for a spring Special Town Meeting.
The spring Town Meeting is scheduled to begin Monday, April 23, and new members will be seated following April 7 Town Election.
Feb. 6, 2017: A plea in Arlington to curtail stereotypes
This news summary was published Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018.
