Robert M. Correnti

Robert M. Correnti served two terms on Billerica's Select Board from 1999 to 2005 and two more from 2007 to 2013, and was its chairman in 2001 to 2002 and again in 2011 to 2013. Since September 2015 he has been executive director of the Billerica Housing Authority. His first town office was on the Personnel Board, to which he was appointed on May 5, 1980. He was elected to Town Meeting in 1995, chosen by caucus, and became one of its most active members, often the representative who moved to end debate; at the 2020 town meeting he received a plaque for twenty-five years as a Town Meeting representative.

In April 1999 he and Peter M. Coppinger were elected to the board, Correnti with 2,979 votes, defeating the incumbent Brion M. Cangiamila. At the town's 345th anniversary celebration in 2000 he read the names of all the selectmen who had served Billerica since its incorporation in 1655, and the list was given to the public library. He and James F. O'Donnell Jr. declined their salaries as selectmen; Correnti had his transferred to the library and the Council on Aging, and the Commission on Disability thanked him for gifts that bought wheelchairs for town residents and helped pay for a computer at the library. In 2001 he moved, against a proposal to use the money to cut the tax rate, to put $1,112,865 of free cash and lottery surplus into the stabilization fund as a reserve for the water treatment plant and sewer programs, and town meeting adopted his amendment, 87 to 46. That year the board elected him chairman, and he was re-elected in 2002 at the top of the poll with 2,951 votes.

He finished third in the election of 2005 and left the board, but as a Town Meeting member in 2006 he persuaded the meeting, 85 to 54, to refer a proposed water enterprise fund to a study committee, arguing that it could place a financial burden on residents. Returned to the board in 2007 and re-elected in 2010, he brought articles to open the search for a town manager to a wider pool of candidates and to put the old Abbot singing fund, whose history he traced to the 1800s, to use for music programs in the schools. He represented the selectmen on the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments and on the Traffic Management Committee, and in 2013 he reported on the work of the Public Safety Memorial Committee, whose monument was to be dedicated that fall. He chaired the board from 2011 until the election of April 2013, when he finished third and his service on the board ended.

In 2015 he was appointed to the Board of Registrars for a three-year term, but he resigned when he was selected as executive director of the Housing Authority, in accordance with state law. As director he has also sat ex officio on town committees, among them the Strategic Financial Planning Committee, and he has served as a Library Trustee and on the Cable Advisory Committee. He has remained a Town Meeting representative for Precinct 4.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1980, town officers: Personnel Board, Robert M. Correnti, term to June 30, 1982
2. Billerica Town Report 1999, town election April 10, 1999: Selectman, Peter M. Coppinger 3,873, Robert M. Correnti 2,979, Brion M. Cangiamila 1,734
3. Billerica Town Report 2000, town meeting: 345th anniversary, Selectman Correnti reads the names of all selectmen since 1655
4. Billerica Town Report 2001, town meeting Article 43: Selectman Correntis amendment to put $1,112,865 into the Stabilization Fund carried 87 to 46
5. Billerica Town Report 2001, Board of Selectmen report: board reorganized electing Robert M. Correnti, Chairman
6. Billerica Town Report 2006, town meeting: Rep. Correnti moves to refer the Water Enterprise Fund to a committee of seven; carried 85 to 54
7. Billerica Town Report 2009, town meeting: Selectman Correnti explains the article on Town Manager qualifications
8. Billerica Town Report 2009, town meeting: Selectman Correnti gives the history of the Abbot Singing Fund
9. Billerica Town Report 2011, town meeting: Selectman Correnti, one of the towns representatives to NMCOG, reports
10. Billerica Town Report 2012, elected officers: Selectmen, Robert M. Correnti, Chairman, term to April 2013
11. Billerica Town Report 2013, town meeting: Selectman Correnti reports on the Public Safety Memorial Committee
12. Billerica Town Report 2013, town election: Selectman, George Simolaris Jr. 4,649, Michael S. Rosa 4,361, Robert M. Correnti 2,180
13. Billerica Town Report 2015, Board of Registrars report: Correnti appointed, then selected Executive Director of the Housing Authority and resigned
14. Billerica Town Report 2016, town officers: Housing Authority Executive Director, Robert M. Correnti, effective 9/2015