Billerica Select Board votes 3-2 to remove chair Rosa, install Pavides

BILLERICA — May 29, 2025 — Billerica Select Board voted 3-2 to remove Chair Michael Rosa and install Jillian Pavides, 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 Burroughs 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 3-2 to overrule him, then proceeded to elect Pavides as chair, Burroughs as vice chair, and Daniel Darius O'Connor as secretary, each 3-2. Burroughs 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."