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Town Election pits incumbents against newcomers June 9

Date: 5/21/2015

LONGMEADOW – The ballot for the June 9 Town Election features races for two seats on both the Select Board and the School Committee and will pit incumbents against newcomer candidates.

Jeffrey Klotz and Thomas Lachiusa will challenge incumbents Richard Foster and Paul Santaniello for two three-year seats on the Select Board.

Foster has served on the board for one term and was previously a member of the Capital Planning Committee.

One issue Foster thinks will affect the town in the next five to seven years is the tax rate.

“Our tax base right now is about $21.90, so we’re looking at different growth scenarios that could ward off the eventual hitting of this tax limit,” he said. “If we hit it, and there are a lot of variables, then we would be in a position where we would have to start altering services to reduce the amount of money that we spend.”

Foster said the community “is aging out” and there’s more awareness in the town for future planning for projects such as a new Department of Public Works (DPW) facility, Adult Center, or middle school project.

The town should also be looking at its parcels of land for potential development as well as infrastructure that needs to be replaced due to age, he noted.     

“We have some problems on the horizon that we have to start planning for now,” Foster said.

He added that if reelected he wishes to work the various members of the Select Board to support the community and without “personal agendas” being supported.

Santaniello, who has served on the Select Board for three terms and was previously on the School Committee for one year as well as the Finance Committee for two years, said he believes he brings “fiscal leadership” to the board.

“I believe that there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of financial forecasting for the town,” he added. “There was a forum to talk about the impending [tax rate] crisis [on May 5] and every few years or so we start to talk about the Chicken Little mentality where the sky is going to fall.”

At the Select Board meeting prior to the forum, the board voted 3 to 2 in order to use $144,000 funds for sidewalk repairs, he noted.

“With a five-minute discussion, the board, with a majority vote, spent $144,000 while they’re still talking about an impending doom to the town and I think some people don’t understand that every action causes a reaction in terms of spending.”

Santaniello said about a year ago, he and Foster created and presented a plan called “Vision,” which “laid out a lot of capital projects” along with in the town such as a proposed new DPW facility and Adult Center along with potential revenue streams.

However, the board “didn’t embrace” Vision and there has been no follow up on Vision since, he added.

Klotz said he and his family have lived in town for three years and prior to moving to Longmeadow he was the director of finance for Baltimore, MD, homeless services, where he provided “oversight for the administration of $65 million in grants” for housing.

While serving on the town’s Audit Committee, he noticed that some of the town’s departments do not adhere to their respective budgets, Klotz explained.

This was one factor that led him on the path to run for Select Board.

Another was the current board’s “unhealthy and borderline unprofessional” behavior, he noted.

“We have a town manager who’s been here less than three years who actively is seeking employment elsewhere … and I believe that the composition of the Select Board has a lot to do with [Town Manager Stephen] Crane’s decision to try to find employment elsewhere,” Klotz added.

Lachiusa said several people encouraged him to run for Select Board due to the conflict between Crane and the board.

“I really feel strongly that we need to follow the town charter,” he explained. “A lot of folks in town have worked hard to develop this town of government where we have a strong town manager and five Select Board members and I believe there are people who are undermining that system and it’s really to the detriment of the community.”

“My goal, if I were elected to the board, is to improve the relationships with the town manager,” he continued.

Lachiusa said his background as a social worker would be beneficial to the board in regards to this issue.

“I also think that if we elect the same people to the board, we’re going to get the same results and when I talk to people in town, their not happy with the way the board is operating,” he added.

The list of candidates running for two three-year terms on the School Committee includes incumbents Kathryn Girard and Michelle Grodsky and challenger Russell Dupere.  

Girard said she currently teaches middle school English and library to K-5 students as well as enrichment to K-8 students at Heritage Academy in Longmeadow.

She is the only member on the board who currently teaches.

“I think that brings a very important perspective,” she added. “We’ve had a lot of new initiatives over the past several years, so to really be up-to-date with what’s going on in the classroom and to understand the demands, not just on the teachers, but on the students, I think is really valuable.”

Girard said she believes the committee should continue to push for free full-day kindergarten and a “paramount” issue for her is special education.

One of the hardest issues for her was the recent decision by the School Committee to redistrict approximately 70 students from Blueberry Hill Elementary School to Center Elementary School.

“There was no easy answer, there was no good answer even,” she explained. “I think that we took the route that allowed us to really meet the needs of all of our students.”

Grodsky, a former teacher with three children in the school district, said she thinks the School Committee should focus on long-term planning such as the improvement of the middle schools.

“I think the key to everything is to have open and transparent conversations to engage the community and to create a long term plan for everything,” she added.

In regards to the middle schools, Grodsky said the committee should work with the Select Board and other officials in the town.

“Get everybody to the table and figure out how we’re going to make things work,” she added. “The same thing with free full day kindergarten. That’s a very large investment for our school systems and it’s important to us to make a stand for it. We need to start early.”

Dupere, a school law attorney who has two daughters at Blueberry Hill School, said he could provide a “different perspective” for the committee.

He added that he was “surprised” by the way the redistricting process unfolded, noting that because the school department’s fiscal year 2016 (FY16) budget planned for redistricting, the issue was effectively “locked-in” for approval.
“In looking at the numbers we should have done this a while ago,” he noted.

Despite agreeing with the application of redistricting, he disagreed to the process leading to the decision, which he said had a lack of transparency because Superintendent of Schools Marie Doyle approved to move the process along before the School Committee had the opportunity to bring up the topic.

However, Dupere said no individual school committee member or person is to blame for this issue or any others. His wish is that the School Committee would “do things better and in a more transparent way.”

He added that he thinks highly of his opponents, noting that he used to live down the road from Grodsky and considers her a “very good person.”

There are also two uncontested races on the ballot – Rebecca Townsend is running for a three-year term as moderator and incumbent Planning Board member Kenneth Taylor is running for a five-year term.

Town Clerk Katherine Ingram said she anticipates 15 to 20 percent of registered voters to turn out to the polls.