NORTHBOROUGH – With the end of his first term on the horizon, Selectman Scott Rogers recently sat down with the Community Advocate to discuss his time on the board.
He was on the board during the town’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he had the opportunity to participate in economic development endeavors, such as the ribbon cutting for Brilla Coffee, and speak at the 2022 Memorial Day ceremonies.
Rogers recently announced that he did not plan to run for re-election this spring.
“Scott Rogers has been a positive member of the board,” said Town Administrator John Coderre.
He said he appreciated Rogers’ thoughtfulness on the impact of decisions on town staff.
“Everything that he says and does is to make the organization successful,” Coderre said.
His decision
Born in northern Idaho, Rogers attended grade school in the Los Angeles area before moving to the Seattle area for high school and college.
Rogers had had his eye on attending University of Washington in Seattle, and after receiving a brochure, he joined the Air Force ROTC.
“I said, ‘This is a great way to pay for school, to have a lock on what that job is going to be coming out,’” Rogers said.
His first and only assignment was to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford. Serving for about five years in the Air Force, part of his work involved overseeing the development of the communications hub at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado.
Though his degree is in electrical engineer, Rogers said that translated to computer science, and he went on to have a career in information technology. He currently works at UMass Chan Medical School.
Most of Rogers’ community service began with youth sports, stemming from his children. He started as a coach and then became a member of the youth soccer board.
When his kids moved to high school, Rogers began searching for town and community groups to get involved with.
He began attending different board and committee meetings. With his involvement on the operations committee for the Community Harvest Project, Financial Planning Committee clicked.
He joined the Financial Planning Committee around 2019. After a year, longtime Selectman Dawn Rand announced her retirement, and Rogers won election to the board in 2020.
While Rogers isn’t not ready to retire from his job, part of his decision is due to the phase of his life. He believes he will live in Northborough for the next three years, but he said there is a “little risk” regarding fulfilling the entire term. Rogers and his wife, Mary, have a longterm plan to move to the cape.
However, in regards to his decision, Rogers also discussed a focus on individual issues versus a perspective across the town.
“At the moment, I’m finding that we’re not able to put our whole and sufficient attention on the general business of town,” he said.
Part of that was due to stressors from the COVID-19 pandemic and an increased workload among all departments, Rogers said.
“Irrespective of that … I expect that individual issues – and as important as they are — I think those will continue to consume resources,” Rogers said. “It’s not inappropriate that working issues consume resources, but I think those will divert attention to some of the core business that we need to do.”
That’s something he said he’s seen already.
“My prediction is that I’ll be put into a position of offering opinions or making decisions at odds to those policies and procedures and process. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to, with respect a particular issue, make the wrong decision in terms of the overall town,” Rogers said.
Next steps for Scott Rogers
Rogers doesn’t plan to stop participating in town government and hopes to re-join the Financial Planning Committee.
“Ironically, I think it’s my seat that was left for the last three years,” Rogers said.
His advice for a future board member is to do their homework. It’s advice he shared while he was a member of the board’s interview subcommittee.
“Get involve with whatever your target committee, board, topic and get a level of understanding of how they operate,” Rogers said.
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