Chairman: No Campaigning at Selectmen's Meetings

Campaigning is not allowed at Salem Board of Selectmen meetings – and that extends to the board members themselves.

At the beginning of Monday night's selectmen's meeting, Chairman Everett McBride mentioned that the board received a request from an unnamed candidate for public office asking to discuss their issues with the board.

"The policy of the board is not to allow those to happen," McBride said.

He said this even extends to board members seeking reelection like Stephen Campbell and Mike Lyons.
"I'm not going to allow Stephen and Michael to pontificate about their campaign, so I wouldn't allow anybody else to come in and push their campaign. We've never done that in the past, we're not going to start as long as I'm chairman."

Selectman Pat Hargreaves then pointed out that Lyons was wearing a campaign button related to the schools, and McBride asked Lyons to remove or cover it up for the duration of the meeting.

"No buttons," he said. "It's campaigning. We're not campaigning."

Selectmen also received the following updates from Town Manager Keith Hickey on Monday:

• Unlike some other towns, Salem's snow budget is in pretty good shape.
• The annual financial audit got underway on Monday and is expected to last all week.
• The town recently received the latest ISO Public Protection Classification survey of the town's fire suppression delivery, and the news was good. The town's rating has improved, meaning residents may be able to get lower insurance premiums going forward.
• The Salem Police Department has begun the process of developing a hiring list. More than 200 people completed applications, and 102 passed a physical agility test. From that point, a written test will look to narrow the field to about 25 candidates for interviews.