Select Board elects new chair, clerk after fireworks

The often perfunctory process of choosing new Select Board officers this year featured a standing-room-only crowd, accusations of a backroom deal, and revelations of a late-night surgery.

Members elected Wendy Rovelli chair by a unanimous vote last week. Cameron McKennitt bested Paul Boehm for the clerkship, 3-2. 

“You’re the man now,” newcomer Dean Banfield told McKennitt afterward. 

Select Board members often rise to leadership roles based on seniority. The clerk’s job is a common stepping stone to becoming chair. 

The chair runs the meetings and can allow — or disallow — public comment on agenda items. They’re also tasked with “organizing the agenda,” Rovelli told The Bridge.

Picking a new clerk laid bare frustrations from this year’s town election — and calls for more varying viewpoints in local government.

“There should be some disagreements,” resident Jim Macone told The Acton Bridge. McKennitt provides that contrary voice, he said.

Contested clerk race

Rovelli, who had been clerk for the last year, and McKennitt won election in 2024.

McKennitt, who made an unsuccessful bid for the clerkship last year, has often split from colleagues on controversial votes. He’s the youngest member of a board otherwise populated by retirees and is a vocal critic of Acton’s residential tax exemption.

During the May 18 meeting, he spoke of his experience and how he’s “battled through” since joining the panel. 

To illustrate, he said he felt stomach pain during the board’s January 27 meeting. He stayed to the end, but ended up at a hospital later that night to have his appendix removed.

“My dedication is unwavering,” he said.

Boehm was elected after McKennitt but also threw his hat into the ring for clerk. 

While he “can’t offer an appendix,” Boehm said he has “the availability needed for clerk, and even more so as a chair.” He also called himself a “team player” who supports decisions even when he’s in the minority.

‘Outright wrong’ 

Banfield and Select Board member Mary Hartman mentioned a pre-election email in which McKennitt backed Banfield’s opponent, Sam Hiersteiner. Other incumbents avoided publicly endorsing in this year’s race. 

McKennitt’s appeal “threw fire on that campaign” and contained “outright wrong” information, Banfield said.

To be a leader, Hartman said, “you need to be able to show respect for all opinions and all perspectives” — something she said she hasn’t seen from McKennitt.

Hartman backed Boehm for clerk. Rovelli supported McKennitt. Despite his criticism, Banfield cast the deciding vote in McKennitt’s favor. 

Nearly two dozen residents filled the room after Macone’s cousin, former Deputy Police Chief Paul Macone, warned residents via email that McKennitt was about to be “stabbed in the back by the present Select Board ‘clique.’” 

Boehm disputed claims of a “plot” and said there’s no “ironclad tradition that seniority is the leading factor in selection.”

Some meeting attendees celebrated on the Town House steps after the vote and ticked through larger frustrations about municipal spending, personnel decisions, and transparency.

In a busy year that will include prison redevelopment talks and a possible reckoning on the residential tax exemption, Rovelli acknowledged that “some people are feeling like the agenda is set behind the scenes” when it comes to Acton government.

“We’re going to do a little more foreshadowing about what’s coming down the pike,” she said.