Meetings in Truro are often held remotely. Go to truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you are interested in for an agenda and details on how to join.
Thursday, Aug. 7
- Website Training and Drop-In, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Community Center
Monday, Aug. 11
- Board of Registrars, 4 p.m.
- Energy Committee, 5 p.m., remote
- Part-Time Resident Advisory Committee, 5 p.m., remote
Tuesday, Aug. 12
- Select Board, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 13
- Council on Aging, 8 a.m., Community Center
Conversation Starter
Complaint Withdrawal
Dennis O’Brien has withdrawn his complaint against Robert Panessiti, acting Town Manager Kelly Clark confirmed in a message to the Independent on July 30.
It wasn’t a concession. He still stood by his complaint, O’Brien wrote in a July 23 email to select board chair Susan Areson: “I feel I have no other choice but to withdraw it at this time.”
Panessiti is chair of the finance committee and a member of the ad hoc building committee that is looking for a less expensive way to build a new DPW facility.
Panessiti had dismissed claims made by Anthony Garrett, who, like O’Brien, insisted on the superiority of alternative building plans put forward for the facility by a self-appointed “study group” even after the town’s project manager pointed out serious omissions in the group’s calculations. In an email, Panessiti used a vulgar term in referring to Garrett’s arguments.
O’Brien’s withdrawal of his complaint came the day after select board members chided him and Tim Hickey for making what they viewed as an “egregious” complaint against another ad hoc building committee member, Robert Higgins-Steele.
That complaint was “dense with speculation, innuendo, and political theater” and constituted an “egregious misuse of the town’s time, resources, and processes,” said board member Nancy Medoff at the meeting on July 22. The board voted that Higgins-Steele had not violated the town’s communications policy, as alleged. At the time, the select board was planning to discuss the complaint against Panessiti at a future meeting.
The select board reappointed Panessiti and Higgins-Steele to the ad hoc building committee on June 24 despite the two complaints. O’Brien did not respond to emails from the Independent seeking comment. —Lauren Hakimi
