A Year of Agreement for the Select Board

The Hopkinton Select Board met 28 times in 2023, either independently or in a joint session with other boards and committees.

They voted a total of 227 times, and in 221 instances the motion under consideration passed unanimously. Notably, the Board disagreed just 6 times last year, resulting in a split decision.

• On February 7, Irfan Nasrullah voted against approving the Hopkinton High School graduation parade, while the other four members voted to approve it.
• On February 14, Muriel Kramer, Mary Jo Lafreniere, and Shahidul Mannan voted against Hopkinton joining the Regional Emergency Communications Center (RECC) while Amy Ritterbusch and Nasrullah voted for it.
• On April 11, Kramer was the lone vote against issuing a temporary alcohol license to the Hoyt Foundation, expressing concern that a beer garden would be operating at 10:00 in the morning.
• On May 23, the Board was split on whether to suspend the Upper Charles Trails Committee (UCTC), pursuant to a vote at Annual Town Meeting. Ritterbusch, Mannan, and Lafreniere voted to suspend the committee until July 11, while Kramer and Nasrullah voted to keep it.
• On June 6, Lafreniere voted against the relocation of a utility pole on Cedar Street.
• On November 7, Lafreniere voted against the appointment of Ken Weismantel to the Board of Registrars, offering no comment.

In summary, the Select Board agreed 97.3% of the time.

The concept of “Groupthink” was developed by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972. Janis introduced the term in his seminal work, Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. He defined groupthink as a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, where the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, leading to the suppression of dissenting viewpoints, and the isolation from outside influences.

In the book If You Ask Me, author Nick Smith asserts, “Countless management-level errors can be traced back to Groupthink“. Since its inception, the theory has been linked to major global blunders, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion, Pearl Harbor’s unexpected assault, the deepening of the U.S. role in Vietnam, and the Watergate scandal.

“In my time on the Board I can’t remember a single meeting where we all agreed on everything in front of us,” wrote former Selectman Brendan Tedstone. “The idea of an unbalanced board is awful for all involved, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican and there are no checks and balances on this board. It is a diversity of thoughts and opinions that creates the best outcome for the citizens of Hopkinton.”

In other business, the Hopkinton Select Board unanimously confirmed 23 of Town Manager Khumalo’s hires (at least two who joined and departed in 2023), and directly appointed two new hires, both police officers. Khumalo’s hires were primarily in the Library and Finance departments.

Much of the Board’s work was procedural in nature; renewing alcohol licenses, issuing parade permits, and constructing the warrant for Annual Town Meeting. However, the following decisions were more consequential:

• On February 14, the vote for the Regional Emergency Communications Center (RECC) failed.
• On February 28, the Board endorsed the School Committee’s $158 million plan for the Elmwood School replacement.
• On March 14, the Board announced that they had finalized contract negotiations with the Chief of Police and the Police Union.
• On March 14, the Board authorized the Town Manager to sign the Intermunicipal Water Supply Agreement between the Towns of Hopkinton and Southborough. Eventually, this will enable Hopkinton to connect to the MWRA for clean water and retire town wells.
• On April 4, the Board approved spending $1,094,024 from the School Special Education Reserve Fund and $973,414 for additional costs of the PFAS treatment project.
• On May 23, the Board voted to pause the work of the Upper Charles Trail Committee.
• On June 20, the Board renewed the contracts for Miyares & Harrington LLP as Town Counsel and Mirick O’Connell as Labor Counsel. Both firms went on to play a large role in the Sgt. Tim Brennan controversy.
• On September 5, the Board elected not to consider the promotions of Detective Gregg DeBoer and Officer Matthew Santoro.

Both Kramer and Nasrullah have signaled that they will not run for reelection in May. It remains to be seen if the composition of the next Select Board will be just as agreeable as the last.