Hudson selectmen delay town meeting, elections, accept Families First Act ‘as is’

913

By Dakota Antelman, Contributing Writer

Hudson – Selectmen delayed town meeting and municipal elections and contradicted an earlier plan to opt out of the Families First Coronavirus Readiness Act at their meeting April 6.

Gathering via the video conferencing app, Zoom, the board debated before a virtual crowd of over 50 viewers, many of whom logged onto their computers to see what was anticipated to be a highly impactful meeting.

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Selectman James Quinn said of the first major decisions of the night, to postpone town meeting and the similarly imminent town elections.

Those measures passed by unanimous vote, pushing town meeting to June 22 and similarly moving the elections to June 29.

Hudson joins a growing list of area communities by making such moves.

Southborough and Westborough postponed their elections and meetings within days of   each other last month. Grafton soon followed. Shrewsbury selectmen, meanwhile, met April 7 to debate postponing their own town meeting.

Later in the discussion, selectmen turned to a controversial proposal to opt out of two first responder paid leave provisions in the recently passed Families First Act.

Through its opt out, the town aimed to prevent first responders from claiming up to 12 weeks of federally funded time off to take care of children currently stuck at home due to school closures.

In an email to Executive Assistant Tom Moses initially available through the meeting’s online agenda, a representative from town contracted law firm Mirick O’Connell’s emphasized that this would not keep employees at work should they develop COVID-19 symptoms. Instead, the email said, the opt-out would help avoid staffing shortages should large numbers of employees claim time off.

The email also noted other “municipal clients” of Mirick O’Connell’s had taken such action.

Regardless, many citizens and first responders alike flooded Facebook groups with condemnation upon seeing the agenda late last week. Several said they then emailed selectmen directly.

“‘Opting out’ of a protection for First Responders, and Essential workers in town should not happen during a global pandemic,” the Hudson Firefighters Union said in its statement on the issue.

Seeming to heed constituent suggestions, selectmen bucked the initial proposal, voting to accept the Families First Act “as is” before praising first responders.

“We can’t thank enough, our first responders and everybody working in town,” Selectman Scott Duplisea said. “…All of the support that we can give them, we will.”

As all this took place, COVID-19 continues to spread in Hudson. Twenty-six residents had tested positive as of April 6. Of those, five diagnosed earlier in the crisis have since recovered.

With cases ramping up nonetheless, and broader data from across Middlesex county showing infections nearing 3,000, officials like the selectmen are urging adherence to social distancing guidelines while preaching strength.

“We’ll get through this,” Quinn said.

No posts to display