SOUTHWICK — Since the town learned in early January that a citizens’ petition adopted by two consecutive Town Meetings asking the state to allow the town to elect three of the seven members of the Conservation Commission, there were questions about the next step, until Monday night.
“It’s the purest form of government and the people voted for it,” said Select Board member Diane Gale looking over at fellow board member Doug Moglin after he voted against refiling the petition during the board’s meeting Monday.
Since the town learned the citizens’ petition was killed when it reach its third reading the state Senate, there have numerous questions about how it happened, or more specifically, if anyone in town torpedoed the bill, which had been engrossed by the House after its third reading, which essentially initially approved it.
In early February, the Conservation Commission unanimously adopted a letter to be sent to the Select Board formally asking it to refile the petition.
It was the consensus of the commissioners during that meeting that the petition was being killed because of “politics.”
But it was Commission Chair Christopher Pratt who went a little further than it just being about politics during the discussion.
“I can’t say it because it’s hearsay … but one person determines the fate of the town,” Pratt said referring to an unnamed person who may have had a hand in killing the petition.
It is still unclear why the bill was pulled, but it was early in the process.
Before getting to the governor’s desk, it must have three readings in the House before it is initially adopted and moves to the Senate, which also had three readings of the bill before movement on it stopped.
Another series of steps would have been needed, but those didn’t occur.
As Select Board member Jason Perron opened up discussion on the having the board vote to have the bill refiled, he explained the petition didn’t need to go before Town Meeting again but was unclear if the board needed to hold a vote.
He asked for a motion, which Gale quickly made. Typically, Moglin would have seconded it, but he didn’t and Perron made the second and called for the vote.
With Perron and Gale voting yes and Moglin no, the discussion ended there.
However, as the meeting was wrapping up, Moglin went on record about his opposition to the petition, one that he has maintained since it was introduced during the May 2023 Town Meeting where it was overwhelmingly approved.
Saying that his vote Monday stood for “itself,” Moglin said he was unsure how many communities in the state might have Conservation Commission members elected, but the town’s petition to the Statehouse was certainly “unique” and he credited the “wisdom of how it was set up” to those who drafted the legislation to have commissioners appointed.
“It has a lot of responsibility,” Moglin said. “It is a key functioning board … when it was [adopted by the state Legislature] that vested [you] with the responsibility for the Conservation Commission.”
He also pointed out that when two new commissioners were needed last year, both — Christopher Pratt and Dennis Clark — were appointed. Moglin abstained from appointing Commissioner Dennis Clark for a one-year term.
Because of those appointments, he characterized the petition as “moot,” or unnecessary.
He finished with: “I don’t see the need [for Southwick] to be that different from every other community in the commonwealth in regard to the appointment of the Conservation Commission.”
There is one town in the state that elects the members of the commission that functions as the Conservation Commission.
Since 1978, Wellesley has had an elected Natural Resources Commission which operates identically to a Conservation Commission, according to an staff member in its office.
