WARWICK — Town Coordinator David Young, who is also on the School Committee, could find himself in a difficult situation if conversations of school closures continue.
That was the Selectboard’s concern at its meeting on Monday night, when the board began discussions of Young’s potential conflicts of interest. The board came to no decisions on the subject, but still considers it “something to keep an eye on,” Selectboard Chairman Doc Pruyne said.
Young acknowledged the difficulty of holding the two positions, referring to times when, as the chairman of the School Committee’s budget subcommittee, he was making decisions that led to increases in Warwick’s tax rates.
“That is the tension,” he said. “I really felt that one.”
“What I find most troubling as a townsperson is that that distinction hasn’t at all been clear to me,” said Warwick resident Jennifer Core. “When I hear David (Young) talking in Selectboard meetings, I don’t see a distinction being made.”
Young’s two positions, Core said, could afford him access to information that others wouldn’t be privy to, and give him excessive influence over the School Committee and the Warwick Selectboard.
She went on: “I think that when you are a town coordinator and you are at every single Selectboard meeting … you have access and influence over a discussion, over information, over what gets discussed and how, what conversations get cut off and how. I think that in itself is an inherent conflict of interest.”
However, Pruyne and Selectman Jim Erviti maintained that Young has thus far been able to separate the two roles clearly.
Young said: “I know that the day comes that the Selectboard or the Town Meeting votes a position that, if it were contrary to what I felt my duty of loyalty as a School Committee member were, I would have to resign. … When that day comes, I’m cognizant of it. I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ext. 261.