by Frank Schroth

Kathy Fagan can run a campaign. Make no mistake about that.

About Kathy Fagan

Fagan moved to Milton 12 years ago. She and her husband have 2 children. One, their son, is about to enter the Pierce Middle School. The younger one, a daughter, is at the Tucker elementary school. Fagan elected to take “early retirement” when her daughter was born; leaving her law practice of 15 years to focus on family needs.

She did not, however, retire from public service. She joined the Friends of the Library and then ran for Library Trustee. She was elected and was serving as chair when the initiative to renovate the main branch got underway. “We ran it like a campaign. We went precinct to precinct.”

When James Mullen came up for re-election, several groups approached her about  running for the office of Selectman. She agreed. “You can only throw popcorn at the TV screen for so long,” she explains as one’s motivation for getting involved in civic affairs. Fagan ran a disciplined, methodical campaign, met a lot of people, and won.

Fagan’s term is up in April, 2010. Currently, she is planning to run for re-election. However, Ms. Fagan will carefully weigh family considerations before making a final decision.

What does a  Selectman do?

Fagan approached this question by breaking the tasks into the “macro” and “micro.”

On the “micro” level it involves responding to daily voice mails, e-mails, attending meetings with the town administrator, Kevin Mearn, and receiving police reports as appropriate. On top of everything else, the selectmen are also police commissioners, and, hence, get a briefing on whatever may have happened in the previous 24 hours that they should be aware of.

And at the “macro level”?  “Finding solutions to problems is the job of the Board of Selectmen. We need to be creative in how we do that,” states Fagan. There is one problem that just doesn’t want to go away and should not come as a surprise, namely, being a Selectmen requires performing an unrelenting review of finances and conducting a never ending effort to discover new sources of revenue.

Regardless of the micro/macro dimension; Fagan points out that, “We are town meeting. We evaluate every decision we make with regard to addressing the question: does the decision set a tone or a precedent for the town? And does it represent an improvement to the overall quality of life?”

What have been the lessons learned?

When asked about what she had learned to date, Fagan replied that she “was surprised by what residents found important, and unimportant.”

So, what is unimportant? She is surprised that residents seem to view “their ability to speak out on issues” as unimportant.

And the flip side, what is important? Well , traffic for starters. “Everyone wants a moat around their property but heaven forbid they hit a stop sign on their way home.” The inherent contradiction in that is not lost on Fagan.

Is there anything else residents find important?  Volunteerism. Fagan believes that the number of people willing to step up when the need for volunteers arises is larger than what most other town experience based on her conversations with selectmen from other towns. “It is a rare situation we don’t get a large response,” when putting out a call volunteers.

What should residents know about town government?

Her response to this question was quick. “Residents don’t understand the importance of their vote. Their vote absolutely has an impact on this town.”

This point was somewhat amplified when Fagan went on to say that residents may not be aware of the value of their town meeting representatives and recognize the need to communicate with them.

Lastly, Fagan wanted to remind people that the Board of Selectmen do not have any authority over the other various boards in town. “There are many elected groups in this town that are sovereign boards. (e.g. Cemetary, Planning, Library) and the selectmen cannot reverse or influence the decisions those boards make.”

What are the most significant achievements of the past year?

Ms. Fagan was quick to identify a number of accomplishments:

• Implementation of the cash voucher system which imposed more discipline in over all cash management at town hall. It gives us “better use of our funds.”
• The kick off of the wind turbine project and the consolidated facilities report which “gives us a plan for the maintenance of our buildings.”
• And food! “For the first time in twenty years there will be 2 full service restaurants with liquor licenses.” And there is a third one pending that will be located at 2 Adams Street.

But the  “biggest has to be this building (we were sitting in a room at the new library). I am so proud of the work done by so many to bring us this jewel.”

Now what?

Of course there is no end to the work. Going forward the challenges are multi-fold and Fagan ticked off several. First, there is the need to follow through and execute the initiatives that have been recently launched, specifically the consolidated facilities report and the wind turbine; “from the minute the blades start to turn, we are making money.”

There is the need to bring on a new DPW director. There were a total of 31 applicants, 9 of whom made it to the second screening, and 3 finalists who were passed along to the selectmen. (Note: Since we sat down, the selectment have unanimously chosen Jim Lynch to be our next director of the DPW).

The results of the town master plan survey conducted by the Planning Board are in and need to be carefully evaluated. Fagan intends to look at it with an eye toward what specific elements are achievable in the short term, realistic and get the biggest bang for the buck. “The biggest investment we have is in people and real estate.”

Of course no conversation with any official in Milton would be complete without some discussion of the override. Fagan was particularly pleased with the communication between town departments which was greatly improved in her opinion over 2008. There were no surprises. “In the last  6 weeks we really came together. The override was a huge achievement in unprecedented economic times.”