Mansfield Select Board Defers Flag Policy Vote, Awaits Revised Draft

MANSFIELD — June 17, 2026 — Mansfield Select Board defers flag policy vote and unanimously overhauls inspector pay to recapture roughly $90,000 a year. At the Wednesday, June 17 meeting, Town Counsel Brendan Linhares told the board that its draft flag policy reads as government speech rather than a public forum, but cautioned that consistent application matters as much as written language — adding flags too frequently could effectively convert the town's flagpoles into a public forum regardless of the policy's text. Board member Chris Corcillo moved to amend the draft before voting, directing staff to add the Pride Progress flag and the Juneteenth flag under Section 2C and to designate a specific flagpole at the South Common's 6 Park Row address; the board will vote the revised policy at its next meeting. Former board member Jeff Schoenfeld, participating remotely, urged caution, calling the post-Shurtleff v. Boston legal landscape "still developing" and warning that modeling the policy on Boston or Attleboro "does not provide a legal safe harbor." Town Manager Mallory Aronstein-Reardon separately won unanimous approval to shift local plumbing, mechanical, electrical, and gas inspectors from a 65-percent-of-permit-fee model to a flat $60 per inspection for current inspectors — $10 above the survey median for comparable communities — and $50 per inspection for anyone hired after July 1, 2026, based on FY 2025 data showing the town retained only 35 percent of permit revenue under the old structure.