When it comes to chutzpah, former Southampton Select Board member Shannon Cutler may have the market cornered. After skipping so many board meetings that residents began a recall drive, Cutler quit the board in a huff and moved out of town this summer, saying she was sick of what she called secret dealings by her former colleagues.
But Cutler didn’t stop there. Acting as interim director of the town’s Council on Aging, Cutler used the “Our Senior Scoop” newsletter as a platform to take one last shot, criticizing Select Board members for the way they appointed a member of the COA board and suggesting it was another backroom deal.
“How could this happen?” she wrote. “This should all give us pause.”
Cutler’s screed made it into the online version of the August newsletter, only to be erased from the website and print edition by COA board Chairwoman Nilda Cohen. But Cutler’s words got out into the community, and they stung.
Town officials have criticized Cutler, saying it was wrong for her to use the newsletter — normally a vehicle for information about activities such as bingo, luncheons and chair yoga — to pick a political fight. Cutler defends her words, saying she was simply trying to inform seniors.
There’s a difference between reporting news and trumpeting opinion. Had Cutler merely reported the Select Board’s decision, her words might have served her readers.
But with the edge of angry opinion, the piece rang with what sounded a lot like personal ax-grinding, a wrong move for someone in a taxpayer-funded position. At the same time, Cutler raised a fair question about the way the Select Board made its appointment.
The COA board has seven members, all volunteers, who serve three-year terms overseeing an office funded with about $25,000 in town money and $12,000 from the state each year. Normally, when vacancies arise, COA board members say they accept applications from would-be colleagues, make their selections and then pass the names on to the Select Board for routine confirmation.
But on July 11, something different happened, as Select Board members passed over COA-endorsed candidate (and incumbent) Kathy Winkler, appointing instead another candidate, Josie Alderman. Cutler’s newsletter column blasted the move, suggesting that it ran afoul of the state law requiring that such decisions be made in public.
“The script followed by the Selectboard … was well rehearsed,” she wrote. “Another example of decisions being arrived at outside of an open meeting setting.”
While Cutler may have raised a fair question about the process, there’s no evidence we can see that supports her charge of secret dealing. As Gazette staff writer Caitlin Ashworth reported, Select Board members made clear during their public meeting on July 11 they were concerned about complaints seniors had raised about the COA and decided to introduce some fresh perspective.
“Quite bluntly, we’ve been having concerns with the COA. The board needs some changes to go in a different direction,” Select Board member Charlie Kaniecki said, according to a recording of the meeting. “If we have to take an incumbent out of a position and put someone else in, I’m comfortable with that.”
Nobody has asserted that Winkler did anything but good work during her tenure. As Cutler pointed out, she brought a “can do” attitude to the work and played a lead role in securing funding for a series about dementia. But her replacement, Alderman, is also clearly qualified, a person with experience in human resources and health care who was already an active volunteer in other areas of town governance.
The Council on Aging has some issues that need to be addressed, including complaints from seniors about poor communication and a long delay in permanently filling the director position now held by Cutler. The Select Board was within its rights to want to address such issues with a qualified candidate who can bring fresh eyes.
We hope the council will soon find a dynamic new director, and that all involved can move beyond the current rancor. And speaking of moving on, it’s time for Cutler to put down her sword and focus on serving the seniors who expect more from her than another war of the words.