Smith Upsets Incumbent Schell; Dykens Wins Another Term

CHATHAM – Former Harbormaster Stuart F.X. Smith not only won a seat on the select board in last Thursday’s annual town election, he got more votes than either of the incumbents.

 Smith attributed his win to a growing “disconnect” between select board members and residents. A major example, he said, is the board’s practice of only allowing public comment at the beginning of meetings and not during discussion of business items. The town is losing input by this arrangement and creating a disconnect between officials and residents, he said.

“And we have to fix that,” Smith said, adding that he’ll push to change the policy so that the public can comment on every agenda item.

 Incumbent Jeffrey Dykens won re-election to a fifth term on the board, but Michael Schell came in third in the race for two seats and leaves the board after one term.

 Voters also approved borrowing of $32 million to finance the next phase of the town’s sewer expansion project.

 Smith, a town employee for 39 years — 25 as harbormaster — received 1,019 votes, the most of any of the four candidates for the two three-year terms on the select board. Dykens had 752 votes, Schell 573 and Brian Phillips 331, according to the town clerk’s office.

 Smith said the results were a sign that voters are dissatisfied with the current direction of the town, which has revealed itself in recent discussions at board meetings and town meeting.

 “It may not be comfortable, but I think we’re going to have to address it,” he said. He believes that officials have “drifted away” from the town’s home-rule charter. Smith served on the original commission that developed the charter.

 “There’s been less and less checks and balances within town government,” he said, “and the board is taking much less of a role and not fulfilling its requirements under the charter. We need to fulfill that role. If we do that, things will begin to operate a lot better.” He sees no substantive changes that need to be made to the charter. “A lot of it is the relationship between the select board and town manager, how that was supposed to work, now it was designed to work, and how it’s not at the moment.” 

 Dykens thanks voters for entrusting him with another three-year term on the board. Protecting the town’s waterways and waterfront infrastructure and continuing to work on affordable housing are priorities for the new term, he said.

 Dykens said Schell had worked hard on the board and he was disappointed he wasn’t re-elected. The two campaigned together and came in for some criticism for running campaign ads together.

 “I really liked working with him, but the voters have spoken, and we’ll move on,” he said.

In an email, Schell said serving the community, both year-round and seasonal, was a privilege and an honor. 

“I have been as enriched personally as I hope I have contributed to our town,” he wrote. “Of course, I am disappointed with the outcome of the election, but I am proud of what I believe Chatham has accomplished these past three years. At the same time, I now have much more time to devote to other worthy causes and communities, to my extended family and friends and to my own somewhat more leisurely enjoyment of life. In sum, and with thanks to a much more famous source, ‘It hurts too much to laugh, but I am too old to cry.’"

On Friday the board met to reorganize. Dean Nicastro was named chair, Dykens was voted vice chair, and Smith was elected clerk.

 In other election results, Katherine Nickerson was unopposed for a five-year term on the housing authority. There were no candidates for a single three-year term on the Monomoy Regional School Committee. Former school committee member Stephen Davol ran a low-key write-in campaign; he received 122 votes and was declared the winner. 

 The sewer borrowing question, which passed at the May 10 annual town meeting by a two-thirds vote, was approved 1,057-350. 

 A second ballot question asking voters to urge officials to prohibit the dumping of radioactive waste into Cape Cod Bay by the owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant also passed, 1,278-164.

 A total of 1,565 of the town’s 6,136 registered voters cast ballots, a 26 percent turnout, according to the town clerk.