Amity Board of Selectmen

The Amity Board of Selectmen is the elected governing body of the resort town of Amity, Long Island, a five-member board that holds the power to shape the community's response to crisis. In the summer of the shark attacks, the board becomes the central arena where the conflict between public safety and economic survival plays out, revealing the fragility of small-town governance when confronted with a threat that pits human life against the town's financial lifeline.

Composition and Powers

The Board of Selectmen consists of five elected officials who, together with the mayor, manage the town's affairs. Its members during the crisis include Tony Catsoulis, a builder; Ned Thatcher, the frail old owner of the Abelard Arms Inn; Paul Conover, owner of Amity Liquors; and Rare Lopez, a dark-skinned Portuguese man elected by and vocal defender of the town's black community. The board holds a critical power over the police chief: according to the corporate charter of the town of Amity, the selectmen have the authority to remove the chief of police for "good and sufficient cause," a power that Mayor Larry Vaughan wields as a threat against Chief Martin Brody when Brody insists on closing the beaches after the first shark attack. Vaughan reveals this provision to Brody, showing him the relevant paragraph in the charter and stating that he has the board behind him, with a majority ready to replace Brody if he does not comply.

Role in the Beach Closure Conflict

The board's primary function during the shark crisis is to serve as a pressure mechanism for economic interests. Vaughan, who is both mayor and the senior partner of Vaughan & Penrose Real Estate, convenes a noon meeting of the selectmen on the Thursday before the Fourth of July weekend, summoning Brody to argue for reopening the beaches. The meeting is stacked: only Vaughan's longtime friends and allies are present—Catsoulis, Thatcher, Conover, and Lopez—while two selectmen who might oppose Vaughan, Albert Morris and Fred Potter, are absent, with Vaughan claiming they are ill. Brody realizes he will be fighting alone. Vaughan presents the case for opening the beaches as a matter of economic survival, stating that the town is dying, people are out of work, stores are not opening, and every day the beaches stay closed drives another nail into the town's coffin. He argues that keeping the beaches closed is an official declaration that the town is unsafe, and people are listening. The selectmen voice their support: Catsoulis declares "Fuckin' A" and offers to provide the rail to run Brody out of town himself, while Lopez warns that his people have no work and that if Brody does not let them work, he will not work either.

Vulnerability to Manipulation

The board's decision-making is revealed to be deeply compromised by Vaughan's personal financial entanglements. Harry Meadows, the editor of the Amity Leader, discovers that Vaughan is heavily in debt to Tino Russo, a known associate of one of the five Mafia families in New York, through a holding company called Caskata Estates. Vaughan is listed as president of Caskata, with Russo as executive vice-president. The company has been buying up properties at low prices during the shark crisis, with Vaughan signing short-term promissory notes. Meadows concludes that Vaughan is overextended by nearly a million dollars and that the only way he can avoid ruin is if the market turns around—which requires the beaches to be reopened. The selectmen themselves, however, are not in on the deal: Meadows tells Brody that Catsoulis and Conover are just old buddies who owe Vaughan favors, Thatcher is too old and scared to speak against Vaughan, and Lopez is genuinely concerned about jobs for his people. The board's unity is thus a product of Vaughan's personal influence rather than a conspiracy, but it is no less effective in forcing Brody to capitulate.

Aftermath and Significance

The board's decision to force the beaches open for the Fourth of July weekend leads directly to the near-death of a teenage swimmer, Jim Prescott, when the shark reappears. Brody is forced to close the beaches again immediately. The board's actions, driven by Vaughan's desperation, ultimately fail to save the town's economy and instead deepen the crisis. The selectmen's willingness to override the police chief's professional judgment for short-term economic gain illustrates the novel's critique of small-town politics, where elected officials can be swayed by private interests and personal debts, and where the machinery of local government can be used to suppress warnings and endanger lives. The board's power to remove the chief, a provision that Vaughan wields as a threat, becomes a symbol of how institutional authority can be co-opted to serve the few at the expense of the many.