Mansfield Selectmen Vote Down Motion for More Oversight in Town Meeting Process

In an effort to clear up the process of selling or putting into conservation protection, the Mansfield Board of Selectmen voted 3-2 against adopting new measure.

Selectmen George Dentino, Kevin Moran and Jess Aptowitz voting against it Wednesday.

Selectmen Olivier Kozlowski, who brought forth the motion, said this would help to clear up issues during town meeting in which a board’s proposed article and a citizen’s petition article conflicted, and the Mansfield Conservation Commission got their article passed before the citizen could present his argument.

“What I'm trying to tackle with this, is when someone proposes to sell or conserve we look at all uses.” Kozlowski said.  “We make sure all aspects are looked at.”

Selectman Doug Aninno said he agreed with the motion, saying that citizens have brought it up to him.

“I think this is bringing up a lot of frustration in how things have gone in the last town meeting,” he said. “What I hear is that we should look at the whole process.”

Moran said he felt it was an honest mistake, and that, had the budget not been such a big issue at the time, it may have gone differently.

“We messed up last meeting, truth of the matter, is we punted it,” he said. “I think this is an overreaction to the fact that we messed up. There was a lot going on, it was a tough budget season. We missed this. We should’ve done this and we didn’t. That’s my feeling on it.”