The turbulence began with a proposal to indefinitely postpone the appointment of assistant assessor Emily Schilling to the city’s Board of Assessors. The councilor making the move admitted it was unusual before explaining the reasoning behind it.
“Given the sensitivity and the technical demand of this position, I found it disturbing that the mayor did not supply a resume for the candidate with her request on this motion on the agenda and I had to actually request it personally," said Ward 2 city councilor Charles Kronick. “The position of assistant assessor requires certification from the commissioner of the state and completion of required assessors training program. This candidate will not be able to complete the duties of an assessor, and is not fit for this job.”
Kronick’s continued protest of Schilling’s appointment prompted an intervention first from Ward 7 city councilor Anthony Maffuccio and then city council President Peter Marchetti.
“To give that person the job and to say that that person is qualified is in fact completely false," said Kronick. "She is actually unqualified, with the opportunity to become qualified, true. But we're taking somebody on board who is not qualified. We will be training her [to] become qualified at some point, presumably, and then hope we have a qualified candidate. It doesn't make sense to me, you don't hire people, appoint people to a position that has qualifications unless you're, who don't have them unless you’re really desperate.”
“Point of order, do we have to sit here and be critiquing the candidate?” asked Maffuccio.
“That’s not a point of order," responded Kronick. "And I'm not critiquing the candidate, I'm critiquing-”
“You’re critiquing-” said Maffuccio.
“Stop, guys," shouted Marchetti. "We're not going to have this. We're going to stop this right now.”
Kronick demanded the city prove that Schilling is properly certified.
“She is certified by the Department of Revenue as to being an assistant assessor. She has completed course 101, which is the requirement from the Department of Revenue to sit as an assessor," said Chief Assessor Laura Catalano. “She has also completed course 200 and is working toward her [Massachusetts Association of Assessing] certification. She has completed both of those, she will also be attending UMass.”
Marchetti was the first to reprimand Kronick for his attack on Schilling’s candidacy.
“First off, I'm going to suggest to you, because I don't like where tonight went, and I don't care who the candidate is that's sitting out there in the audience- If you have questions about someone's qualifications, it is your job as a councilor to find that information out ahead of time and not attempt to embarrass them in a public venue,” said the council president.
Ward 5’s Patrick Kavey spoke up in support of Schilling.
“I'm not sure how many of you have actually worked with the assessor's office, but I've had the pleasure of dealing with Emily before and I think that she's competent and I think that her resume is just fine," said Kavey. "And I apologize for my colleague’s behavior”
Dina Lampiasi of Ward 6 said Kronick was incorrect that Schilling’s resume was not provided to the council.
“I just want to be clear that the resume was provided to us, and I did not have any concerns about the candidate’s qualifications," said Lampiasi. "However, if I did, I would have reached out directly to the department head and ask those specific questions.”
Maffuccio spoke up next.
“I apologize for my outburst," said the Ward 7 representative. "But I'm not going to sit here while we publicly embarrass a candidate that’s sitting out there. That’s where I'm standing from, and I will interject again if that happened, because that is not- That is inhumane to do that to somebody right on public TV.”
Kronick maintained that he only got a copy of the resume when he specifically asked for it, and defended his decision to interrogate Schilling’s credentials.
“I don't consider it to be an embarrassment," he told his colleagues. "It is part of the job of an application to be submitted to the scrutiny of the council, which is expected to fully vet. I do apologize for not understanding that course 101 is a prerequisite qualification. It is not presented on the resume, however, as being such. And I do not stand corrected.”
The council ultimately approved Schilling’s appointment to a three-year term on the Board of Assessors pending Mayor Linda Tyer’s approval.
