Petition Started to Limit Selectmen's Power

A proposal to prevent Seeekonk selectmen from serving on other local boards might not need the support of town leaders to get on the agenda for the June town meeting. A petition for the proposal, started by Selectman Bill Rice, is circulating among residents. Rice needs to collect at least 100 valid signatures from Seekonk residents to get the measure on the agenda.

Selectman Dave Parker  that an item be placed on the town meeting agenda that would prohibit members of Seekonk's top panel from serving on other boards unless the board was in danger of not having enough people to meet a quorum. A majority of the BOS (Parker, Rice and Francis Cavaco) supported placing the item on the agenda, but a decision was delayed at the request of Selectman Gary Sagar, who said he needed another week to think about it.

Rice told Attleboro-Seekonk Patch that he started the petition even though it would not be needed if the BOS votes to place the item on the agenda because he was not confident he had enough support from his colleagues.

"No vote was taken [last week]," Rice said. "I'm old-fashioned that way; I like to see the palms."

Rice said at last week's meeting that it was a "misuse of power" for selectmen to serve on other town boards.

David Saad of  is helping Rice with the signature collection. He told Attleboro-Seekonk Patch that residents withdrew their names as nominees for the Board of Health last fall because Selectmen Cavaco and Bill McLintock made it clear they were going to appoint themselves to the panel. The two were appointed, with Cavaco later resigning and McLintock remaining on the BOH.

"This example is why we must prevent any member of the BOS from serving on any other boards," Saad wrote in an email. "They would have too much power and influence over boards that essentially report to the BOS." 

Parker said at last week's meeting that he proposed the measure because of the criticism the BOS received for the BOH appointments.

"Obviously, there are quite a few people in town who feel we should not be appointing ourselves to boards," Parker said. "So my thought is instead of arguing how we feel about it, why don't we just put it on town meeting and find out how they feel about it."

McLintock was the only selectman to oppose placing the measure on the agenda.

"I think this is a big mistake and I think it takes the power away from the people who have already voted all of us in here to do the job that they expect us to do," McLintock said at the meeting. "They should at least give us the credit that we're going to do the right thing or try to do the right thing in most cases, which is sometimes almost impossible sitting on these boards."