Personnel Committee advances three Planning Board reappointments on 3-0 vote

MARLBOROUGH — February 26, 2024 — Marlborough committee unanimously advances three Planning Board reappointments after year in holdover. The City Council's Personnel Committee voted 3-0 on Feb. 26 to recommend reappointing Sean Fay, Barbara Fenby and Christopher Rust to five-year Planning Board terms expiring Feb. 5, 2029, on a motion by Councilor Samantha Perlman Brown. Mayor J. Christian Dumas's letter cited the members' "institutional knowledge" — Fenby has served since 1989, Fay since 2006, Rust since 2018 — at what he called "a critical time" for city development. Fay, the board chair, told the committee Marlborough has "some relatively large subdivisions coming." Councilor Kathleen Robey defended the simultaneous reappointments, calling the shared expiration date "irrelevant" and noting a prior mayor's attempt to replace Fenby had been allowed to lapse. Council President Michael Ossing praised recent subdivision-regulation updates before the committee adjourned at 6:42 p.m.