Chilmark officials recommend changes for community center management

Council president Suellen Lazarus expects to not run again when her term ends in February.

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Town-owned tennis courts at the Chilmark Community Center. —Eunki Seonwoo

In a recently released, preliminary report on the nonprofit that runs summer programming at the Chilmark Community Center, town officials are leaving open the possibility of bringing in entirely new management.

Several members of the Chilmark Community Center moderator’s committee — created on the town meeting floor earlier this year to review issues that have roiled the up-Island town — are recommending the town go out to bid for a manager of summer programs, although not until after this upcoming season.

The moderator’s committee also recommended a number of changes in the existing management group — the Chilmark Town Affairs Council — to better meet residents’ athletic and social needs, and foster more responsive and transparent leadership.

The recommendations in the Nov. 8 report are preliminary and subject to change, and are the seven committee members’ individual views. The members will work together on a final report, due to the town select board at the end of January.

But already, there are substantial recommendations. Three committee members authoring the Nov. 8 report were in favor of council president Suellen Lazarus not returning for summer 2025; Lazarus’ leadership style and alleged lack of transparency have been central to many complaints this year from the town’s tennis community.

The document also offers insights into the council’s management, in particular that 23 members have resigned over the past three years.

The 35-page report compiles findings from a series of public interviews, meetings, and a number of documents received since town meeting this spring. 

For the past year, if not longer, many residents have criticized the council’s decisions and alleged disregard of the community, which came to a head this summer when the council did not renew the contract of a popular tennis instructor who had taught there for decades.

In speaking to The Times on Tuesday, Lazarus said she expects not to run again when her term ends this coming February.

A throughline in the report sees multiple committee members also calling for the town to open the door for nonprofits other than the council to run the popular summer programs.

Committee chair Matt Poole recommended the town issue a request for proposals for summer program operations, amounting to a “‘reset’” in Chilmark’s current arrangement with the council. It’s a recommendation that the town’s legal counsel also made.

Poole, in his recommendations, noted that creating a request for proposal was the most legally appropriate way for the town to require specific things from any summer programs manager.

“An RFP process will allow the town to draft terms and requirements that reflect the town’s interests and responsibilities for managing a town property, and would position the town to essentially function as the landlord,” he wrote.

This could include, for example, requiring proposals from recognized nonprofits who have a certain minimum number of board members.

Lazarus’ council would have the opportunity to answer the request and ultimately be chosen by the town, but the process could be competitive.

If the existing council does keep management under its control, multiple committee members recommended changes in the council’s nomination process, in order to better represent the Chilmark community at large. Member Hillary Noyes-Keene noted that council membership currently leans toward the town’s seasonal population, as opposed to year-rounders.

The report also included critiques of the council’s leadership and structure.

Committee member Dan Karnovsky called for Lazarus not to return, citing complaints of her “using an authoritarian style,’” as well as behavioral complaints against her, and what he saw as leadership failures.

Lazarus told The Times on Tuesday that she expected not to run again when her term ends in February, but she noted that the town has to respect the council’s personnel processes if they maintain management of the programming. “CTAC has a governance process, and the moderator’s committee’s purview is not personnel issues, and they’ve made that clear … And they can make recommendations, but of course we’re an independent nonprofit,” she said.

Authors also pointed to a large number of resignations from the council under Lazarus, and the absence of multiple council committees called for in council bylaws. Karnovsky wrote that as of August 2021, 19 directors served on the council’s board. Since then, 23 have resigned and 12 have been elected, leaving eight active board members in total. Several current directors are related by marriage, he added.

Multiple members also recommended programming changes for the community center to better serve year-round residents, including through offering new programs for youth, and for elders in collaboration with the Up-Island Council on Aging.

Five members recommended that the town look into creating a parks and recreation committee to oversee Chilmark’s public spaces.

Poole told The Times on Tuesday that he expects his committee to present its final report at the annual town meeting in April.

Though the committee’s final report may recommend issuing an RFP, it likely wouldn’t happen before the summer 2025 season. In the meantime, the committee and council are considering revisions to their memorandum of understanding, the basis for the existing nonprofit’s summer programs on town-owned land.

How the MOU might be revised ahead of next summer remains to be seen, though Poole wrote that it could establish different “‘seasons of use’” at the community center, offering programs for townspeople beyond the summer months.

1 COMMENT

  1. The report indicates that CTAC lacks a functioning finance committee and that there are no immediately apparent financial controls in place, with Ms. Lazarus performing dual roles of Chair and Treasurer. These facts, coupled with the troubling statements made by the former treasurer, are enough to call the sufficiency of annual audits into question, and an external audit of the last several years is in order.

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