Written by At tonight’s Board of Selectmen meeting, I made a motion to move forward with a process to change the name of our board to the gender-neutral Select Board. It’s something that’s long overdue, and something that I wanted to get started before my term was over. The motion passed, 3-2, and now needs town meeting approval (and possibly approval of the state legislature).
I’m proud of the board for backing a move toward this simple change, which I believe will bring greater equality, fairness and inclusion to town government.
Boards of selectmen in Massachusetts go back nearly 400 years, and the town meeting form of government is one of the purest forms of democracy in the world. I do not want to change how we run our town. Recently, however, communities across the commonwealth are changing names as a way to be more inclusive. This past month, the Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association voted unanimously to change its name to the gender-neutral Massachusetts Select Board Association. And almost 90 towns — including West Boylston, Harvard, Grafton, Leicester, Princeton and Westboro in our part of the state — have also made this change. More are coming, because it’s the right thing to do.
After 170 years — in which only two women have served as selectmen — it’s time for Clinton to do the same.
We owe it to every member of our community to improve outreach and show them that anyone can serve their town. If there’s an obstacle to entry when it comes to local government or community service — whether real or implied — we need to remove it.
I’d like to thank Ed Devault and Michael Dziokonski for their support of this motion, and I look forward to taking this to town meeting voters in June. This name change will hopefully communicate to everyone in Clinton that we are their representatives, and they are always welcome to serve.
Sean Kerrigan, Clinton Select Board 