Provincetown Finance Committee member Mark Hatch re-elected chairman amid criticism
PROVINCETOWN — The Finance Committee re-elected Mark Hatch unanimously as chairman at its most modern meeting, regardless of him coming less than general public scrutiny in excess of alleged social media posts demeaning citizens and criticism of his governance on the committee.
Hatch retains his placement for the subsequent 5 months. Committee users will have the prospect to vote once again in July just after the Could 1 once-a-year town assembly, primarily based on the Feb. 16 committee vote.
Criticism of Hatch’s alleged social media posts on his non-public accounts demeaning customers of the public have dogged him due to the fact past summer season. A few inhabitants filed grievances in June with the Choose Board a person criticism was also sent to City Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar, the appointing authority for the Finance Committee. Commonly, Avellar maintains that private remarks on social media are considered free of charge speech and for that reason are not in her regulate to censor.
Criticism of Hatch escalated with the Nov. 19 resignation of Finance Committee member Dorie Seavey who criticized the board leadership for “cultivating a culture of silence.” Seavey brought up the committee’s lack of an annual election of officers and an yearly evaluation of the committee’s code of carry out.
The Feb. 16 election came 6 months later on than demanded by the city constitution.
“I do apologize that we did not do this previously, but we usually do it following city conference,” Hatch mentioned, mentioning the delays were being thanks to the COVID-19 risk, main the committee to meet up with considerably less usually.
The board also unanimously approved the code of perform and agreed to an annual evaluation moving forward. The code of conduct attracts from the state’s ethics code and the committee is supposed to vote on it each individual 12 months, but has not accomplished so as long as he has been on the board, Hatch stated. He was appointed in 2015 and grew to become the committee’s vice-chairman in that yr, and then chairman in 2016, a position that he has ongoing to keep, according to city documents.
The committee users get the state’s ethics test every two yrs, so the need for a code of conduct is obviated, Hatch claimed at the conference. The code of perform handles the committee’s fiduciary duties, regarding condition legislation, conflicts of passions and contracts, he reported. The problem of speech is retained separate, Hatch claimed.
“It is not something that pertains to anybody’s speech or what any person does exterior of this committee,” Hatch stated of the committee’s code of carry out.
Separate from the problems directed at Hatch, an additional member of the Finance Committee, Mark Del Franco, resigned Feb. 2. in a controversy with the Choose Board. Email messages from two Decide on Board members to other town officials named Del Franco as the human being muttering an expletive, and a phrase regarded a slur against women, during community feedback of the Nov. 23 Pick out Board conference, held almost. In that controversy, Choose Board Vice-Chairman John Golden admitted on Dec. 1 to using profanity, but not a slur against gals, as he was attempting to shut off the timer on his cell cellphone. Del Franco in latest days has sought redress with the point out Lawyer General’s business office and the town Charter Compliance Fee.
Hatch declared guidance for Del Franco at the Feb. 16 Finance Committee conference.
“The purpose why we have new members is for the reason that we had a member resign because of a bunch of lies that ended up forwarded to us and built a huge deal of,” Hatch mentioned.
Avellar forwarded the e-mail in question to Hatch, he claimed. With out corresponding with any individual from the committee, Hatch straight away went to the Nov. 23 Choose Board conference recording and listened to what experienced transpired, he mentioned.
“Everything in those e-mail had been not real as we now know,” Hatch reported. “If you just went to the tape and listened to it, you identified out [Del Franco] hung up just before the issue of what happened, and then afterwards it was obviously not Mark’s voice in the tape.”