Mansfield Select Board appoints five to Planning Board amid budget debate

MANSFIELD — June 3, 2026 — Mansfield Select Board fills Planning Board vacancies and hears financial risk warning from town treasurer. The board Wednesday appointed Bryan Haworth as a full voting member and Kaitlyn Malkin and Michael Parsons as associate members of the Planning Board, restoring capacity after quorum problems this spring; Haworth, the sitting associate member, was elevated to a full seat expiring December 31, 2027. Town Treasurer — speaking during public comment — formally opposed a proposed cut to her office from five to four employees, warning that a single day's delay on the town's roughly $950,000 payroll could expose Mansfield to $1.9 million in triple damages under the Massachusetts Wage Act, and that no comparable community operates with fewer than five treasurer-collector staff. Scott Dupont, president of the Mansfield Educators Association, announced a tentative contract agreement and declared the union "ready to help champion the structural override this town needs next year," before leaving without taking questions. The board also appointed Jacqueline Curtis and Steve Schoonveld to the Nonprofit Gift Fund Committee and voted unanimously to fly the Pride and Juneteenth flags in June.