SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The ongoing debate surrounding the Swampscott Board of Assessors boiled over late in Tuesday night’s Select Board meeting when Chair MaryEllen Fletcher looked to refute Select Board member David Grishman’s charges of political bias within the board when it came to assessments and granting abatements.
Grishman used his Select Board time to criticize Board of Assessors leadership, which he said looked to give residents in some precincts a tax break while targeting other residents — including himself — for speaking out against the Board.
“Assessing is an incredibly important fiduciary function of this town,” Grishman said. “There has never been a more pressing need to make the Board of Assessors more professional and less political. Failure to act, and absent significant changes, these actions will undermine the financial cornerstone of this town.
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“This function is broken and needs to be addressed. And needs to be addressed immediately.”
But Fletcher fired back during her time, calling Grishman’s comments “incredibly disturbing.”
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“I am the liaison to the Board of Assessors and I think they are one of the best boards in this town,” she said. “And I am not going to discuss personnel issues of town employees but I do not think that Mr. Grishman has given actual facts. I think this should not be aired in public. But it’s going to be aired now.
“I am just really, really disappointed.”
Fletcher noted that the Board of Assessors meetings are public and televised and readily available for review from anyone questioning their actions.
“They are regularly being charged with trying to target a Select Board member,” Fletcher said. “I looked into these charges myself and found them to be false. So Mr. Grishman and I are completely at opposite ends of the planet with those accusations.
“I am very sorry that we are even talking about this at a meeting. It’s really disturbing to me.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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