Congratulations to Town Meeting for standing firm in its commitment to keeping Skip Viglirolo’s name on the new skating rink. And shame on the Selectboard for declaring after the vote last week that it would accept the Town Meeting vote as advisory only. It isn’t. It is binding. Here’s why.
The laws setting forth the powers of the Select Board and Town Meeting are clear that both entities have authority to manage town assets, but neither has explicit or exclusive authority to name buildings. In other words, both have the authority to name buildings. When the two entities disagree about a name, Town Meeting prevails unless the town charter or bylaws expressly give naming powers to the Select Board, but they don’t. And again, since Town Meeting shares this power with the Select Board, neither is “in charge” of naming buildings, but both have authority, so the only question is, what happens when they disagree? The answer is, Town Meeting wins. So their vote is not advisory; it is binding, and if the Select Board does not honor their vote, they could be sued.
The one fly in the analytical ointment is that the Select Board adopted a policy in 2018 giving itself authority to name buildings, and setting forth a process for how it makes decisions. It’s fine for them to have a policy describing how they make naming decisions, but that policy cannot take power away from Town Meeting. Policies can only be expressions of how the Select Board will carry out its powers and responsibilities. Policies cannot dictate that Town Meeting lacks authority. If Town Meeting wants to cede its naming authority to the Select Board, it can, but it hasn’t. The amendment proposed by Town Meeting member Angus Abercrombie would have taken naming power away from Town Meeting but it was not procedurally valid and in any event, Town Meeting will never vote to give up its naming power.
The Select Board knows (or should know) that its naming authority is weaker than that of Town Meeting. This is because it is the executive branch, or the enforcer of rules, not the maker of rules. The maker of rules are the people of Belmont, and they exercise their authority through Town Meeting. The Select Board carries out the will of the people; it does not dictate what that will is.
People would laugh if Gov. Maura Healey announced that she had issued a new “policy” giving herself the authority to name state buildings, and the legislature would scoff at the idea that the governor could deprive them of their naming authority with a swipe of her pen. The same goes for Belmont. The Selectboard is the equivalent of the governor, and Town Meeting is akin to the state legislature. The Select Board should have the sense to recognize why its desire to name buildings is not more important than democracy.
Wendy Murphy, Stone Road
Editor’s Note: Town Counsel (Anderson Krieger) has advised the Select Board that only the Belmont Select Board makes final naming decisions for Town-owned assets.