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All three members of the Harpswell Select Board recently expressed opposition to expanding the board to five members, addressing recent calls for the change.
David Chipman, the member who brought up the issue at a meeting on Thursday, Nov. 5, argued that a three-member board promotes transparency. Two members constitute a quorum, which requires a public meeting. On a larger board, he said, two members could discuss town business in private, without a public record.
“It’s worked very well,” Chipman said about the three-member board. “It’s very secure, it’s very open, and I see no reason to change that.”
“I don’t agree with you all that often, David, but you’re right on the money,” Select Board Chair Kevin Johnson said.
The board’s third member, Matt Gilley, echoed Johnson’s agreement and said there may not be enough candidates to fill a five-member board. Gilley ran unopposed in 2025, although Chipman and Johnson had opponents in 2024 and 2026, respectively.
Three residents have called for an expansion from three to five members in recent letters to the editor published in the Harpswell Anchor.
Orr’s Island resident Liz Taylor said five members would make the board more representative and reduce the chance of a deadlock when one member must recuse himself or herself from a vote.
North Harpswell resident Steve M. Musica said he managed towns with three- and five-member boards, and five was “almost a no-brainer.” He suggested one seat for each of three districts, along with two at-large seats.
Great Island resident Kathy Hirst called on the town to place the question before voters in March 2027.
At the Nov. 5 meeting, Chipman said he and the late Select Board member Elinor Multer explored forms of governance on a town committee in the late 1990s. At the time, some residents were interested in an alternative to the three-member Select Board system that Harpswell has used since its incorporation in 1758.
But at Town Meeting in 2000, Harpswell voters rejected two measures that would have expanded the board to five members, each by a margin of more than 2-to-1.
