Billerica Select Board votes to remove chair Rosa, install Pavidis

BILLERICA -- May 29, 2025, Billerica Select Board voted 3-2 to remove Chair Michael Rosa and install Jillian Pavidis, acting over Rosa's refusal to call the meeting to order. Town Counsel Paul Durens had advised the day before in a written email that the special reorganization meeting "does not comply with the open meeting law, nor the town's charter, nor the 14th Amendment," and gave a one-word answer, "No", when Selectman John Burrows asked whether a mid-term reorganization was within the board's purview. Rosa read the opinion aloud and declared he would not preside; the three-member majority voted 3-0, with two members not voting, to overrule him, then proceeded to elect Pavidis as chair, Burrows as vice chair, and Daniel Darris-O'Connor as secretary, each with three votes in favor. Burrows disputed Counsel's claim that no precedent existed, citing mid-term reorganizations of the town's Warren Action Committee and 250th Committee, and told Rosa directly: "You gained that position through deceit."

Correction (Nov. 2, 2026): An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Jillian Pavidis, said she had been vice chair before the vote (she was secretary), and reported the votes as 3-2. The recording shows three votes in favor, with two members not voting. It also named speakers the recording does not identify.