Westport Planning Board and former select board member Manuel Soares Jr. has missed nearly three out of every four meetings he was entitled to attend since a long series of incarcerations began last summer and ended with his release from the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in early July. Since then, he has missed all five planning board meetings held in July, August and September.

Soares, 64, was arrested by Dartmouth police more than half a dozen times last year on trespassing and other charges related to a land dispute in Dartmouth. He served several short runs at the Bristol County House of Correction this year and last, most recently after a judge ruled he violated parole after pleading guilty to some trespassing charges in January. During that most recent stretch, he began serving his sentence in Dartmouth before being transferred to Barnstable.

Soares, a former member of the select board whose term ended in April, is less than halfway through his five-year term on the planning board, which ends in 2030. His absences contributed to the cancellation of six meetings this year and last due to a lack of quorum, and continued absences since his release have been noticed.

Planning board chairman James Whitin declined to comment this week and Soares, who owns property on Gifford Road but has reportedly resided in Fall River since July, could not be located for comment. However, planning board member John Bullard said this week that his fellow board member's recent absences aren’t a good look:

“I think it's not good behavior when you make other people work because you decide to not show up at meetings," said Bullard. "It's not good."

The numbers

In all, Soares has missed 13 of the 19 select board meetings held from July 1, 2025 through the end of his term in April, and 17 of the 22 planning board meetings held since last July, most recently last Tuesday, Sept. 8. While he was unavailable to attend a majority of those meetings due to incarcerations, a handful fell on dates when he was not in jail.

The absences played a role in new recall guidelines that apply to elected officials in Westport. Last fall, Westport business owner Keith Dias launched a recall petition to remove him from office and hold a special election to find a successor. But Dias was unable to obtain the required number of signatures needed to force the recall, and dropped the effort.

Following the failure of that recall petition, select board members drafted revised recall requirements which passed at May's Town Meeting. The amended process halves the number of signatures previously needed to prompt a recall and vote, from 200 initial signatures and then 10 percent of the town’s eligible voters, to 100 initial signatures and then 5 percent of the town’s eligible voters.

Select board members also discussed other measures to address situations like that created by Soares' absences, including bylaw changes that would have increased the number of planning board members or added additional alternates, before settling on the town-wide recall mechanism.