It’s a mystery: How did a warrant article opposing the Grafton Super Park just disappear?
No one will admit to removing a Town Meeting warrant article to transfer funding away from the proposed Super Park — but its author is determined to restore it.
How determined? She’s already gone out once in a pandemic to collect signatures for her citizen’s petition. Now Colleen Roy says she’ll go out a second time to make sure it appears.
How political is this? Finance Committee member Roy is a candidate for Select Board in the June 23 Town Election, facing off against Select Board members Jennifer Thomas and Donna Stock as well as fellow FinCom member Mathew Often. The Super Park is championed by Thomas, who resurrected the now $2.6 million project after years of inaction.
Roy’s warrant article calls for Town Meeting to rescind the initial 2015 funding for the park and transfer the remaining $241,000 to the town’s Capital Stabilization Fund to fund a portion of the Fiscal Year 2021 Capital Budget. The article appeared on the proposed warrant at the April 14 Select Board meeting. At the April 21 meeting, it was missing.
“As far as I know, a citizens petition cannot be removed for any reason,” Roy said. “According to Chapter 39, §10 of Massachusetts General Laws, the Select Board is required to place this petition on the Warrant for consideration by the voters. They cannot alter it, declare it illegal, or remove it from the warrant.”
Here’s the full wording of the article:
To see if the Town will vote to rescind the vote taken under Article 5 of the October 19, 2015 Town Meeting that appropriated funds from Overlay Surplus for the creation of a play structure and surrounding park facility at the Perrault Property (4-6 Upton Street) and transfer the remaining funds ($241,000) to the Capital Stabilization Fund for re-appropriation by the Town Meeting to fund a portion of the Fiscal Year 2021 Capital Budget as proposed by the Town Administrator, or to take any other action relative thereto.
At the April 14 meeting, the Select Board and Town Moderator Ray Mead discussed the warrant and its four Super Park-related articles. The first Town Meeting warrant article will request $250,000 from the CPC fund. The second would allow the town to bond approximately $700,000 over multiple years. The third is Roy’s bid to remove funding and the fourth is a citizen petition filed by Lydia Bogar asking for Super Park money to be allocated instead to improve existing town playgrounds.
Roy’s petition was flagged since it did not specify the specific municipal accounts. She consulted with Mead, who told her she just needed to add the account name. When she emailed Town Administrator Tim McInerney to confirm, he wrote back “I don’t know it’s up to Ray.”
Changing the wording, she was told, would require another 10-signature petition.
“I specifically asked him why was my warrant article removed, did you ask for that?” Roy said of Mead. “He said he had nothing to do with it.”
McInerney, responding to an email from Grafton Common, wrote “As I understand it Ray would have ruled article out of order at TM — that’s why he was at the meeting on Tuesday to explain that. If petitioner wants it on that’s fine… we will add it back on… I thought we were keeping everyone on same page and giving people the opportunity to ‘fix’ it so it can get voted on by TM… if Ray allows it, it does not matter to me… we were trying to be helpful.”
Roy sent a letter to Thomas expressing concern and asked to be put on the agenda for the next meeting to discuss the change. Thomas refused.
“Citizens Petitions are outside the purview of the SelectBoard,” Thomas responded to a posting on Roy’s Facebook page. “On April 14th, Ray Mead, the Moderator attended the Select Board meeting for discussion of the Draft Warrant and Special Town Meeting Warrant. The moderator determined that Ms Roy’s citizen petition would be ruled out of order on Town Meeting floor and instructed her how to fix it. The warrant is open for Citizens Petitions until May 6th.
“Ms. Roy contacted the Board and I did respond to her. Her letter has been received as correspondence and will be read at the next meeting. Discussion of the Draft Warrant is already on the agenda. Section 6, Discussion, Review Draft Annual and Special Town Meeting Warrants.
“I asked Ms. Roy if she would like her original citizen petition back on the draft warrant and she has not responded to me. I have instructed the TA to include her original citizen petition on the draft warrant. The moderator has determined that that petition is invalid, not town staff or the Select Board. I suggested that Ms. Roy contact the Town Moderator.”
Roy said she found the handling of the warrant article to be “inappropriate.”
“Not only do I feel targeted, but I feel I’m getting the wrong information,” she said, adding that she will submit a new petition, with the new wording, with new signatures. “Now [there is} going to really be a lot of letters on there trying to stop Super Park.”
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