SOUTHAMPTON — Shannon Cutler resigned her seat on the Select Board in June, complaining of wrongdoing by fellow board members even as some residents were beginning a recall petition due to her absences from board meetings.
She was so disgusted with town politics, Cutler said, that she was moving out of town.
But that wasn’t the last Southampton would hear from Cutler. She stayed on as interim director of the town’s Council on Aging, a part-time position that pays nearly $20 an hour. And in that capacity, she recently tried to use the office’s “Our Senior Scoop” newsletter to lob another shot at her former colleagues.
Taking issue with the Select Board’s decision to appoint a new member to the Council on Aging board, rather than incumbent Kathy Winkler — whom COA board members had endorsed for a three-year term — Cutler wrote that it was “another example of decisions being arrived at outside of an open meeting.”
“How could this happen? A person wanting to serve, fully committed with credentials be rejected by the Selectboard?” Cutler wrote, after describing Winkler’s service to the town, which she said included playing a lead role in obtaining funding for a “Dementia Series” program and generally taking a “can do” approach.
“This should all give us pause,” she concluded.
Cutler had initially included such criticisms in the August edition of Our Senior Scoop, which was posted to the COA website at the end of July. But the remarks were subsequently taken offline and not included in the printed edition of the newsletter after COA board Chairwoman Nilda Cohen intervened.
Cohen said the director’s message generated unnecessary ill will. As soon as she got back to the office on Monday morning, July 31, Cohen had that portion of the newsletter deleted.
“It needed to be addressed,” she said.
Cutler said Our Senior Scoop is funded not by tax dollars but through advertisements. She said she was simply using the publication to inform seniors on what happened at the Select Board meeting.
“I use it to tell them what’s going on,” she said, adding that many seniors do not attend or watch the video recording of the meetings.
Cutler declined to comment further on the issue and said watching the July 11 Select Board meeting — when board members John Martin, Maureen Groden, Charlie Kaniecki and Jim Labrie appointed Josie Alderman to the COA board rather than the incumbent — provides all the information needed to understand her criticism.
Martin defended choosing a candidate who hadn’t won the COA board’s endorsement. He said town leaders have heard complaints from seniors about poor communication from Council on Aging board members and about the board’s failure to name a permanent director for more than a year.
“It was clear, as we went along, that we needed change on the board,” Martin said.
The COA is funded with about $25,000 in town funds and another $12,000 from the state, according to Town Accountant Vicki Moro. The COA board comprises seven volunteer members who serve three-year terms. The office offers services to seniors including aerobics classes, chair yoga classes and bingo.
Winkler’s term was up for reappointment and another incumbent decided not to serve another term. Normally, the COA director collects applications from people interested in serving in the volunteer position, then makes recommendations to the Select Board, which has final say.
At the July 11 Select Board meeting, Cohen, the COA board chairwoman, said she and her colleagues had endorsed Elizabeth Plouffe for the vacant position and Winkler for another term.
Normally, COA officials say, the Select Board simply endorses their recommended candidates. But in this instance, town leaders asked those two candidates to answer questions and then requested information about more candidates.
The Select Board reviewed written applications from Plouffe and Alderman. Since Winkler was up for reappointment, Cohen said she did not have her submit an application. However, Select Board members said during the meeting that they would have liked to review her credentials, according to a video of the meeting.
After talking with Plouffe and Winkler, Select Board members voted unanimously to appoint Ploufe. In the same vote, they also passed over Winkler to unanimously select Alderman.
Although Alderman was not present at the meeting, Select Board members said they are familiar with her experience on other boards in town. Martin said her experience in human resources would benefit the COA board in its search for a new director. She has also worked as a registered nurse.
“Quite bluntly, we’ve been having concerns with the COA. The board needs some changes to go in a different direction,” Kaniecki said at the July 11 meeting. “If we have to take an incumbent out of a position and put someone else in, I’m comfortable with that.”
Cutler was not. For the August newsletter, she wrote on the director’s page: “The COA Board unanimously voted to reappoint Kathy Winkler. The Select Board decided to interfere in this process, required her to stand before them to justify why she should be reappointed.”
Cutler suggested that the Select Board had not given Winkler fair consideration before passing her by.
“The script followed by the Select Board in interviewing Kathy Winkler was well rehearsed,” Cutler wrote. “Another example of decisions being arrived at outside of an open meeting session.”
The tension over this appointment is unusual. Cohen said in the past there has not been competition for board positions.
“There hasn’t been a popular contest,” Cohen said.
Winkler said she was not prepared to answer questions from the Select Board and had expected to be reappointed without controversy in the July 11 meeting. Cohen said she was also surprised by the questioning, which was a departure from past appointments.
“I felt like I was being attacked,” Winkler told the Gazette. Winkler said she felt like she was being held responsible for all the issues that have recently faced the Council on Aging.
Winkler has served on the COA board for two years as treasurer. She said the greatest challenge was after the permanent director left last fall, board members helped out in the office from October until January when Cutler was hired for the interim position.
The search for a new director has taken some time due to issues with the job description and getting it approved by the town’s Personnel Policies and Procedures Board, said Cohen. The position is now posted on the Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging website.
Alderman, the new board member, said she loves the senior community and is interested in increasing the number of activities and programs at the senior center.
Alderman, has worked in the past as a registered nurse and has experience in human resources, serves on the town administrator search committee and is on the Personnel Policies and Procedures Board. According to minutes of the July 11 meeting, Select Board members were impressed by her credentials.
Alderman said she hopes to play a constructive role in speeding the hiring of a permanent COA administrator, moving beyond the interim post now held by Cutler.
She told the Gazette, “I felt that my background in human resources would be very helpful in recruiting and selecting a new director.”
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.