Mattapoisett prepares for Special Town Meeting

MATTAPOISETT — With only one issue on the warrant, Mattapoisett residents are preparing to debate the expansion of the Select Board at Special Town Meeting on Saturday, Oct. 4.

Since the expansion from three to five members was signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey on Friday, Aug. 22, the upcoming meeting vote is a “non-binding referendum” — meaning that the result of the vote cannot overturn the expansion.

While the expansion cannot be repealed at Special Town Meeting, residents are ready to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of expansion.

Created by Mattapoisett resident Nicki Demakis, the petition to expand the Select Board from three to five members was approved at Town Meeting on May 12.

Following the expansion’s approval at Town Meeting, resident Paul Criscuolo created a petition to maintain a three-person board.

Criscuolo received approximately 330 signatures on his petition in support of a three-member board, creating a legal obligation to hold the Special Town Meeting.

Demakis and Criscuolo have been rallying support for their respective causes from voters ahead of the meeting.

“We will be contacting the 335 plus people who signed our petition — we will obviously be talking to people,” said Criscuolo.

“We’ve done some phone banking. We’ve done a postcard that should hit folks' mailboxes this week — just reminding them that there is the Town Meeting on Saturday,” said Demakis, adding that expansion supporters have also “worked our hardest to spread the word through social media.”

Mattapoisett residents have also reported receiving text messages from unknown numbers urging them to support resistance to expansion at Special Town Meeting. At the time of publication, the sender of these messages is still unknown.

Criscuolo states that he created the petition because he believes the town is “well run” and an expansion of the Select Board is unnecessary, due to the lack of voting conflicts within the three-person board.

“It’s well-structured and runs properly,” he said.

Demakis created the petition to expand believing that it will increase diversity and efficiency within town government.

“Decision making becomes more transparent, more viewpoints are heard [and the] workload is shared,” she said.

However, Criscuolo argues that “there’s no guarantee from an election that you’re going to get diversity.”

Both Demakis and Criscuolo stated that they don’t want residents to view the issue as a partisan matter.

“I don’t see this as a political mission. This is not a Republican-Democrat issue,” said Criscuolo.

“It’s about good governance — not partisanship,” said Demakis.

Criscuolo discussed his potential options to take action against the expansion in the future.

“There are other means for us to go further in the future to figure out how to get this changed,” he stated, adding that “I think this also requires maybe another petition to see if we can reverse it as well.”

The Special Town Meeting will be held at Old Rochester Regional Gymnasium, located at 135 Marion Road in Mattapoisett, and will begin at 1 p.m. on Oct. 4.