Posted June 24, 2020 at 8 p.m.
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — Kathryn Manupelli was voted to continue to lead the Select Board as its chairwoman for the second year in a row at tonight’s reorganizational meeting.
The meeting was held virtually at 6:30 p.m. following last night’s annual Town Election. Ordinarily, this would have occurred the day after the annual election in May, but that election had been postponed to June 23 due to COVID-19.
At one meeting per year, the gavel is passed to Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto to open the nomination process from the Select Board members to get its reorganization underway. Rich Wallner nominated Stephen O’Leary for the role and Liane Gonzalez nominated Manupelli to continue in the role. O’Leary then offered seconds on both nominations to enable the discussion to begin.
With no other nominations made, Gilleberto called for a roll call vote, starting with Manupelli, who voted for herself, as did Gonzalez. O’Leary voted for himself, as did Wallner.
This left the deciding vote to the board’s newest member, Vincenzo Stuto, who ran unopposed for the seat vacated by Andrew Schultz after he chose not to run. Prior to taking his first vote, Stuto asked if he could make a comment. “I just want to let everyone know I met everyone on this board at the same time and I have no prior relationship with anyone. I just wanted that on the record. I know no one here. I don’t know their house, I don’t know their kids,” he said, before stating: “I vote for Miss Manupelli.”
Manupelli thanked the board members for being given the honor to serve in this role for another year.
After handing the virtual gavel back to Manupelli she called for nominations for vice chair. O’Leary, who has been serving as vice chairman this past year, nominated Wallner. Manupelli followed by nominating Gonzalez. Stuto offered a second for both nominations.
On the roll call vote, Gonzalez won by a 3-2 vote with Manupelli, Stuto and Gonzalez voting in favor.
The final nomination was for clerk, which typically goes to a junior member of the board, and tonight would be no exception. O’Leary nominated Stuto and Gonzalez happily added a second. She had been serving as clerk during her first year on the board. There were no other nominations offered. Stuto accepted his fate. “I get the hazing… I understand completely,” he quipped. “I appreciate it.”
O’Leary commented, “It’s interesting because you get to see a lot more than you normally would. It’s a good experience. Liane survived it.”
“I did survive it,” Gonzalez said, adding, “at times it was close.”
After winning the role for clerk unanimously Stuto asked, “Am I ever going to be in a contested election?”
“I’m looking forward to working with all of you in the coming year,” Manupelli said. She then gave a “Happy Birthday” shout-out to her husband Anthony before calling for adjournment.
Meeting June 29 at 4 p.m. before Town Meeting
The Select Board will meet next on Monday, June 29 at 4 p.m. for approximately one hour. It will be a virtual meeting to discuss loose ends related to the Annual Town Meeting prior to the members meeting in person three hours later, on the floor of Town Meeting. The meeting will be called to order at 7 p.m. in the NRHS gymnasium by Town Moderator John Murphy. Town Meeting will mark the first time since March 9 that the board members have met face-to-face as a board.
Subsequent to their March 9 meeting, Gov. Charlie Baker issued a state-wide lockdown on extended contact with non-household members (defined as closer than six feet for longer than 15 minutes without PPE) to stem the spread of the SARS-CoV2, which is the strain of coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
