Updated Feb. 11
Some Tisbury residents are proposing an expansion to one of the central governing bodies of the town.
A petition was filed with the Tisbury town clerk’s office on Jan. 27 by Mary Bernadette Budinger-Cormie, a Tisbury planning board member and town representative on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, to expand the Tisbury Select Board from three to five members. The number of signatures indicates it will be heard at the annual town meeting.
The select board is the executive office of Tisbury and oversees town interests like projects, prepares town meeting warrants, and sets many municipal policies.
The petition was filed only a day before Christina Colarusso resigned as select board chair following legal trouble and months of absences from public meetings. In her absence, select board members Roy Cutrer and John Cahill continued to run the daily operations of the board.
If voters approve the proposal in town meeting, scheduled to be held on April 22, it would make Tisbury the second town in Dukes County to have a select board with five members. Currently, all of the select boards on the Vineyard besides Oak Bluffs, which has five members, consist of three members.
Although rare in Dukes County, the rest of the towns in the Cape and Islands region have five members on their select boards except for Barnstable, which has a town council with 13 seats.
Lynne Fraker, a Tisbury resident who helped collect signatures, said the petition wasn’t aimed at any of the current members but stemmed from the recognition that if either of the two existing members is absent, the board cannot form a quorum. Fraker said adding more members would lessen the workload for the board members and bring a more “diverse expertise” and “robust discussion” at meetings. She said this has been an ongoing discussion among Tisbury residents, and she became involved herself in 2018.
“People are recognizing this is something that can benefit our town,” Fraker said. She added that a bigger board could also represent more parts of Tisbury’s population.
While the signatures are still being certified, Tisbury Town Clerk Hilary Conklin said she expects there to be 80 certified signatures on the petition. A home rule petition like this only requires 10 certified signatures to be taken up during the annual town meeting. The proposal would also need to be reviewed by the state legislature.
The proposal would mean two select board seats would be on the 2027 ballot, one for a three-year term and another for a two-year term. The new offices on the ballot would appear alongside the board terms expiring in 2030.
“The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes at the election shall serve for terms of three years, and the candidate receiving the next highest number of votes shall serve a term of two years,” the proposed warrant article reads.
Cahill and Cutrer declined to comment when reached by The Times, but they shared at the Feb. 10 select board meeting that they were unsure on whether they were in favor of the idea but would fall in line with what voters want.
The board also unanimously voted to have the third select board seat go on the May 12 ballot for the annual town election rather than hold a special election in April, which would give the new member filling in for Colarusso only a one-month term before new elections are scheduled to be held.
Editor’s note: Updated with comments from Lynne Fraker and details shared during the Tisbury Select Board meeting.
This issue will have its first public discussion at the Tuesday Feb 10 Tisbury Select Board Hybrid meeting. Zoom and in person.