By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Let the campaigning begin!
The April 11 Town Election will feature a contested race for Select Board for the second straight year. Lynnfield Historical Society Treasurer Bob Gillon jumped into the race at the last minute, and is facing off against Select Board Chairman Phil Crawford.
Crawford is running for a fourth three-year term while Gillon is running for Select Board for the second straight year.
“It has been my honor and privilege to serve the residents of Lynnfield over the past 10 years,” said Crawford in an email sent to the Villager. “I look forward to continuing my service as a member of the Select Board. My values have always been based on my compassion and commitment to the town of Lynnfield. I take great pride in my leadership and integrity to do what is in the best interest of the town.”
Gillon ran an unsuccessful campaign last year; Select Board member Dick Dalton easily crushed him 971 votes to 386 votes. Dalton was re-elected to a third three-year term. Gillon pulled nomination papers just minutes before the Town Clerk’s Office closed at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17, which was two days before the Feb. 21 deadline to pull and return nomination papers for the April 11 Town Election. He returned the nomination papers on Feb. 21.
The Villager emailed Gillon four questions about his candidacy, but he did not respond to the questions before the newspaper went to press.
The Historical Society has been at war with town officials since March 2021, which is when the town suspended its relationship with the Society due to the nonprofit organization’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status getting revoked in September 2011. The Historical Society’s nonprofit status was revoked because Society officials did not file a Form 990-series return form for three consecutive years. According to Town Counsel Tom Mullen, the Society “failed to file tax returns for several years.”
Mullen noted in an August 2021 letter sent to the Select Board that a Town Meeting vote in 1960 authorized the Historical Society to operate and maintain the Meeting House on the town’s behalf. He expressed concerns about the town continuing its relationship with the group because the town allowed the Society, without a written agreement, to “arrange rentals of the Meeting House, to collect rental payments and to apply the proceeds to the cost of maintaining the building, all without periodic accountings.”
“I have reviewed the 1960 Town Meeting vote that purported to authorize something like this relationship,” Mullen stated. “Whatever the state of the law at that time, it is clear that the vote did not (as, indeed, it could not) convey the real property to the Society (a private organization), and that it gave the selectmen (as they were then known) veto power over any expenditure made to repair or improve the building. I have been informed that it has been many years since the Society sought or obtained approval for such expenditures (if it ever did). Under current law, no private organization such as the Society could be given control of a town-owned property to run and profit from it as it sees fit, at least without a public bidding process under General Law Chapter 30B, designed to ensure that the town received the most advantageous terms possible.”
The Select Board unanimously supported Mullen’s recommendation that the Historical Commission, a government board that is not affiliated with the Historical Society, be put in charge of maintaining and coordinating rentals of the Meeting House permanently. The Historical Commission started overseeing the Meeting House after the town suspended its relationship with the Society in March 2021.
Gillon and his wife, former Historical Society President Linda Gillon, and a number of the Society’s members have blamed the Select Board and Historical Commission Chairman Kirk Mansfield for causing the Society’s relationship with the town to be severed.
“The Society has sought legal remedy,” the nonprofit organization wrote on its website.
Mullen also issued a cease-and-desist letter to Lynnfield Historical Society attorney Douglas C. Reynolds last spring after local officials learned Linda Gillon had been sending emails that urged several people not to rent the Meeting House.
There has also been a lot of bad blood between Crawford and Gillon over the past two years. In a Letter to the Editor sent to the Villager last March, Crawford criticized Gillon for not filing the annual financial statements and the required paperwork with either the IRS or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts even though former Society President Nan Hockenbury repeatedly requested him to comply with the legal requirements.
Crawford also criticized the Gillons for not seeking town approval before a new roof was installed on the Meeting House and the building was repainted in the fall of 2019. He also criticized the Society for allowing Bob and Linda Gillon to serve as the nonprofit organization’s treasurer and president respectively. Peabody resident Ron Sarro succeeded Linda as the Society’s president last spring, but Bob still serves as treasurer
Gillon was infuriated by Crawford’s letter and responded to it in a candidate’s statement that appeared in the Villager last April. He said Crawford should have been “ashamed” of the letter, and stated that he believed Mansfield wrote it. He also challenged Crawford to “address this letter in an open forum in order to get to the truth.”
The Historical Society treasurer stated in his 2022 candidate’s statement that he supports increasing the Select Board from three to five members, which would require a change to the Town Charter.
“I believe that a five-member Select Board is warranted as a more effective way to manage the town affairs,” Gillon wrote. “An expanded Select Board broadens resident representation, and adds two additional perspectives and allows for more diversity. Lynnfield is all about diversity. The current structure of the Select Board no longer serves all the residents. The size of the town, along with the sizeable budget, begs for changes to the composition of the Select Board.”
Uncontested races
In addition to the contested Select Board race, there are six incumbents running unopposed in the April 11 Town Election.
School Committeeman Jamie Hayman is looking to serve a fourth three-year term.
Planning Board Vice Chair Kate Flaws is running for a second five-year term.
Town Moderator Joe Markey is looking to serve a fifth one-year term.
Library Trustees Chair Robert Calamari is running for a sixth three-year term.
Board of Assessors member Bonnie Celi is looking to serve a fifth three-year term.
Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Vice Chair James Wilkie is running for a second five-year term.
Residents will have the opportunity to vote-by-mail in the April 11 Town Election. Application forms are available at https://www.town.lynnfield.ma.us/town-clerk/pages/vote-mail-application-2023, but residents can also send Town Clerk Linda Emerson a letter requesting a vote-by-mail ballot. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Tuesday, April 4 at 5 p.m.
For more information about the Town Election, residents can call Emerson at 781-334-9400 or email her at lemerson@town.lynnfield.ma.us.