In Plymouth, the Community Preservation Committee, or CPC—at their meeting on the 8th, continued the discussion with Town Manager Derek Brindisi concerning his recommendation that the CPC use staff assistance from Town Hall.
WATD’s Bobbi Clark has more:
From its inception 21 years ago, Bill Keohan, a volunteer, has led the CPC in the distribution of millions of dollars of Community Preservation Act funds to preserve historic sites and open space, create affordable housing, and develop outdoor recreational areas—without staff assistance from town hall.
But now town officials are looking to put that in place…
Town Manager Derek Brindisi:
“I came in to speak to the Community Preservation Committee as just another way to try to increase communication and increase collaboration with the committee and with Town Hall—and part of doing that, some strategies that I think we are all moving toward is to maybe have paid administrative staff that can help take the burden off committee members themselves when it comes to administrative duties.”
And, how would this staff person be paid?
“The town staff would be paid using CPC funds.”
CPC Chair Bill Keohan:
“We’ll continue to have these discussions, but we do believe that it’s important to have a Community Preservation Committee that is independent, that is moving its recommendations through Town Meeting, and working on its application process that doesn’t have any undue influence—because the town does apply for CPA funding and we don’t want to have a conflict there.
The CPC meets next on June 29th in the 1820 Courthouse when they will host an open forum for public input on the application process for FY 2024.
