Select Board taps Howell as chair
Mark Howell took the gavel from Mary Hartman last month following a unanimous vote by his colleagues.
Three months after this year’s town election and six weeks after Town Meeting, the Select Board has a new chair, a new member at the table, and a new clerk.
Mark Howell took the gavel from Mary Hartman last month following a unanimous vote by his colleagues. Paul Boehm started his term replacing Terri Ackerman, who did not seek reelection.
Wendy Rovelli is this year’s Select Board clerk. Unlike the decision to elevate Howell, she secured her appointment by a 4-1 margin as panel colleague Cameron McKennitt made his own bid for the job.
Howell is in his third year on the Select Board and served as clerk last year. Rovelli and McKennitt won seats in 2024.
Hartman nominated Rovelli. When McKennitt threw his hat into the ring, she agreed he brings a “balanced perspective” to the conversation. However, she said he can fill that role as a regular member. She said the clerk’s position is “more of an admin” role with “quite a bit of back office work.”
McKennitt said the clerk’s seat has often been a stepping stone to the chair’s job and cast the lone vote against Rovelli.
Committees usually reshuffle leaderships after Town Meeting.
Lois Wasoff introduced herself as the Finance Committee’s new chair at a meeting of panel heads and joked that she was given the role “as punishment for my sins, I guess.”
In the late-June confab and her first meeting helming FinCom, she reminded colleagues that this year’s late Town Meeting due to Concord250 celebrations means they have less time to complete their budget tasks before next year’s session.
“We feel good about a lot of what we were able to do last year,” she told fellow chairs. “We want to build on that.”
