As selectmen wrestle with charging and making appointments to the Economic Development Committee (EDC) and the Municipal Building Committee (MBC), it occurs to us that there may be a better approach.

Similar to the highly effective Energy Advisory Committee appointed a few years ago to advise boards and committees on ways to improve energy efficiency of school and town operations, selectmen are considering appointing a Technology Advisory Committee. Such a group, pulling together Harvard’s abundance of technology gurus, could review existing school and town operations, and could also provide valuable insight to projects such as Ayer Road commercial development and municipal buildings reuse. In the absence of such a group, both projects are likely to look for such expertise as they complete their staffing.

Another core expertise has been identified as a need for both EDC and MBC—commercial real estate development. Obviously key for the Ayer Road project, it will also be needed as MBC considers the possible sale or lease of existing municipal properties. Perhaps, rather than staffing this need by appointments to EDC and MBC, a commercial real estate development advisory group should be considered. Instead of one such expert on each committee, a group of experts could advise both, and in the process, take advantage of greater breadth of experience and knowledge.

This approach would have another benefit. When the town needs to organize around a project, a team can be formed to drive project outcomes, charged to work through existing chartered functions, including finance, capital, public health, planning, and zoning, with assistance from advisory groups like energy, technology, and commercial real estate. There would be no need for power struggles such as the one that occurred at Town Meeting as the Planning Board resisted creation of EDC because it appeared it would take over certain Planning Board responsibilities.

While these appointments and charters are still being debated, we hope the Board of Selectmen will consider this different approach.