The Wellesley Select Board usually makes pretty quick work of appointments to town bodies at its meetings, but its discussion and vote for members of the Council on Aging Board consumed about half of the Aug. 26 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording about 33 minutes in). These appointments are considered especially important in light of findings from recent COA audits and the need to hire a COA director following the recent resignation of the previous one (the COA Board also has a strategic plan on its agenda).

The Select Board meeting took place on the heels of the Aug. 21 COA Board meeting, during which four candidates for the board with a variety of good qualifications were unanimously recommended. More details on the COA Board recommendations can be found in the documents included in the Select Board agenda for Aug. 26.

Select Board Chair Marjorie Freiman kicked off the COA Board discussion by referencing a policy approved last year regarding the Select Board’s process for making appointments, including prioritizing certain criteria for candidates. The Select Board in May made a point of discussing the significance of upcoming COA Board vacancies, and Freiman termed the new appointments “to be critical ones” to advance the COA Board’s objectives for the Council on Aging. She went on to describe a COA Board candidate interview process that included her and Colette Aufranc, a current Select Board member who was Freiman’s predecessor as chair. Freiman also discussed during the board meeting the challenges the COA Board faces in focusing on policy without overstepping into operations.

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Freiman expressed frustration that the COA Board chair and vice chair did not include “leadership in town government” as a key criteria in evaluating candidates. She also said that COA Board members did not get to hear the qualifications of those who interviewed but were not recommended and did not see all applicants’ resumes (COA Board Chair Judy Gertler said all resumes were circulated to the board, just not discussed at the Aug. 21 meeting). Further, Freiman said requests for her and Aufranc to meet with the COA Board chair and vice chair ahead of the COA Board meeting and this week’s Select Board meeting in order to share feedback were declined. As a result, discussion of the recent COA Board leadership process by the Select Board couldn’t take place until the Aug. 26 meeting, Freiman said.

“One of our ongoing concerns in working with the COA Board leadership over the past year is that the board did not seem open despite repeated requests, suggestions, feedback, and consultants reports to consider how it might help itself to be stronger in the Wellesley decentralized system,” said Freiman, adding that it is the Select Board’s responsibility to present the COA budget to Town Meeting.

Aufranc complimented the candidates put forward by the COA Board, though said one gap was the lack of a candidate with “depth of town government experience,” someone who could help make the COA Board’s case before the Advisory Committee and Town Meeting. She said one candidate had a few years of Town Meeting membership, but other than that, there was no significant local town government experience to speak of. Aufranc suggested during her remarks that candidate Barbara Searle, a former Select Board member and key figure in the opening of the Tolles Parsons Center that’s home to the COA, be appointed. Searle did not make the COA Board’s cut. Aufranc suggested looking at overlapping skills among the other candidates recommended by the COA Board to decide which one could be replaced by Searle.

“I would say the Council on Aging has been in crisis, and this is our chance to make sure that they have what they need to move forward,” she said.

In discussing the situation, Beth Sullivan Woods applauded the candidates put forward by the COA Board as bringing new blood into town government and demonstrating significant leadership experience. Her comments triggered some discussion of the Select Board’s effort to support a diversity of candidates, but also to allow individuals with special skills to serve multiple roles in town government when there are synergies. Select Board member Kenny Largess also made a case for more new faces in town government, and pointed to the local town government experience already on the COA Board. Select Board member Tom Ulfelder acknowledged the points made by Woods and Largess, though also said he thought Searle would bring real value to the COA Board as the council is at a “critical inflection point” for organizational change. We’re at a point when the COA could be set to grow, such as with expanded kitchen capabilities and maybe expanded hours, both of which would have budget implications a strong COA Board could help to address, he said.

COA Board Chair Gertler emphasized during her remarks that selecting candidates who had a real interest in the 60-plus population was of great importance. She continued that they were looking for candidates not critical of past actions, but focused on moving forward. “We were looking for people again who saw the glass as half full, not half empty,” she said. COA Board leadership did seek people who had some knowledge of Wellesley town government, but “we did not have the same intense requirement that you seem to have of someone with a real depth of Wellesley’s government…,” she said.

The Select Board then voted the following appointments to the COA Board: Timothy Fulham, Bernard Horan, Margaret Lyne, and Barbara Searle.

It then took the Select Board less than 10 minutes to appoint members of the Kepes Panel Subcommittee. The members: George Roman, Tori DeFazio, Joh Shore, Robert Murphy, and Sylvia Rich. (More on the Kepes Panels.)