DEVENS -- Three community representatives attended last Thursday's Joint Boards of Selectmen meeting along with a representative of MassDevelopment. Chairman Tom Kinch of the Devens Committee, Vice Chairman Frank Maxant of the Ayer Board of Selectmen and Rico Cappucci of the Shirley Board of Selectmen met with MassDevelopment Land Entitlement Director Edmund Starzec.

Harvard has indicated it will attend meetings on an as-needed basis and has tapped selectman Tim Clark as a liaison to the JBOS. Devens alternate member Phil Crosby was also at the table.

As the JBOS forges ahead, it voted 3-0 to both extend its employment contract with administrative assistant Liz Garner and its services contract with the Montachusett Regional Planning Council.

MassDevelopment

The JBOS requested and was provided with an audit performed by MassDevelopment regarding Devens policing. While that wasn't discussed, it sparked another conversation over why the JBOS isn't being notified about the status of MassDevelopment's education contract with Harvard for educating Devens school-aged children.

"We (Ayer-Shirley) now have a regional school system here," said Cappucci. "My understanding is they might open the bid again...That's a large amount of money that could be contributed to the regional system. It's unfair that the JBOS has not been addressed on that." Cappucci said gathering such information is "our mandate."

"What I hear in the newspaper is (the Harvard

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contract is) pretty close to being signed," said Kinch. The Harvard School Committee voted Aug. 15 to approve the contract, which was signed Aug. 27.

Kinch said there's always been "a wall" between selectmen and school committees. Cappucci disagreed, "We should know that." Cappucci requested a status report on the education contract renewa.

"This is really an extension," said Starzec. "It was in renewal-at-will" before, but the newly inked deal will simply "take some of the risk out of saying 'We're going year-by-year.'"

"I see it different," said Cappucci. "I see it as a courtesy. We should have been included in it." Cappucci said the same goes for bidding on Devens policing contracts.

"It's the word 'transparency.' It's a big word," said Cappucci. "There's no transparency in this, there' s no transparency in that."

"That's what happens when you talk nice to MassDevelopment," said Maxant.

"I think you're making a case for good strong communication with MassDevelopment," said Kinch. An update on the education contract "rests with MassDevelopment and Harvard."

"They don't want to attend our meetings (but) they get whatever they want," said Cappucci.

"That's what we say about Shirley getting whatever they want," said Maxant.

"Well, we're here," answered Cappucci.

Crosby said there needs to be a "cultural change now, not five years from now. MassDevelopment can't operate in an absolute vacuum. Open those lines up."

Maxant stressed that MassDevelopment's decisions are made in Boston, and not at the JBOS table or the Devens level. "Unless we're talking to the governor, we're talking to the wall."

Crosby said communication didn't flow freely when the agency launched the New Year's demolition of the former base chapel by Rogers Field. "I get asked all the time" why the chapel came down, said Crosby.

Crosby theorized the agency decided "if we say too much, we'll be in months of haggling." Crosby rued that the community dialogue was missing. "Participatory democracy is a messy process."

You've "got to talk to the Statehouse," reasserted Maxant.

Cappucci said MassDevelopment's predecessor to George Ramirez as executive vice president for Devens Operations, Richard Montuori, was "a nice guy but he showed up only once in a while and said little."

Cappucci said he feels "blindsided" over Devens absent the communication flow. "You need to know these things when you represent a board."

Cappucci said "you can't make any recommendations" to MassDevelopment if the JBOS doesn't know what's going on.

"A decision-making group we're not," agreed Kinch. "If we can't do that, maybe what we do is ensure communications are open, consistent and accurate."

"We have no authority," agreed Maxant. "I see no change here unless we get to the governor's office. We need to learn it again, I'm afraid."

Put housing on hold?

Devens remains "in limbo" since the ultimate disposition over the final jurisdiction of the former Fort Devens Army base lands remains in the air, said Crosby. "As long as I've lived here, that's been the central core problem. We're left in no-man's land."

Crosby said "direct" and potentially "painful" discussions must be initiated with Ayer and Harvard to hash over "possibilities for the future." Until then, talk of large-scale housing on Devens should wait, said Crosby.

"Because you can't build it out and then say 'OK. We're going to decide what you are," said Crosby. The risk is creating a "six -headed hydra" of competing interests, said Crosby.

Crosby also called for "a change in attitude" from MassDevelopment.

"We assume we have the blessing" to proceed with Grant Road planning, said Starzec. "We hear a lot of 'follow the Reuse Plan.'"

The 1994 Devens Reuse Plan was approved by the three towns and includes zoning for a 140-acre residential development off Grant Road.