Cesan hopes to bring new ideas to Selectmen's seat

Date: 5/1/2012

May 2, 2012

By Debbie Gardner

debbieg@thereminder.com

SOUTHWICK — Tracy Cesan decided to run for a seat on the Board of Selectmen because she wants to make a difference in the town she loves.

"I've worked for the town [as a municipal employee] for three years [and] I've gotten to see how [Southwick's] government works. I see the weaknesses. I see the strengths and there's a few things I'd like to do," she told Reminder Publications.

One of the things she hopes to implement, if elected, is to have all Board of Selectman's meetings — not just the Special Town Meetings — broadcast over the local cable access channel 15 "so people can see what's going on [and] to get our citizens more involved in town government."

She'd also like to see more community involvement in town government and would push for changes to the "seats that the selectmen currently dominate" — specifically the roles of Police Commissioner, Fire Commissioner, Sewer Commission, Licensing Commission and Personnel Board.

She said she'd like to "start getting equal representation for our citizens in town" in more of these governmental roles.

Running as an independent — her chosen voting designation for the past 20 years — Cesan said she acknowledges that she has no prior public office experience, as does her opponent, Fred Arnold, who served as a Selectman a decade ago. Arnold, she said, was appointed to his currently expiring one-year term when former Selectman Nicholas Boldyga won a seat in the state's House of Representatives in 2010.

She does, however, bring a wealth of business experience, as well as some representative experience, to her bid for office. A graduate of Western New England University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, Cesan previously worked as a pensions administrator for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, managing the retirement portfolios of large corporations.

She also served two years as an appointee to the school council of Woodland Elementary School, where she served as a parent representative for two years.

Cesan said she feels her varied experiences are an asset to her campaign run.

"I bring finance to it, I bring a college education to it, and I bring municipal experience to it and I think those three things qualify me to run," she said.

Cesan takes issue with one recent move by the Board of Selectmen — their decision to increase property taxes by 6 percent in one year, the same year the town is considering a potential Proposition 2 ½ override to fund much-needed school repairs.

In January, Southwick was the only one of three regional school district towns to reject the school override, jeopardizing a potential $42 million reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority [MSBA] for a proposed $69.1 million project including the expansion of Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional High School and much-needed renovations to the town's middle and elementary schools. The town will re-vote on the issue during the May 8 election, which also includes the selectman's seat race.

"If the schools pass, the taxes will go up," Cesan said. "I'm fine with the Proposition 2 ½ [override] because we are getting [the MSBA] reimbursement] in return for it. But my issue is that on top of asking our citizens to absorb that we should not have asked them to absorb a 6 percent tax increase this year that has nothing to do with the schools."

She said above all, she wants the voters of Southwick to know she is in support of the school project.

"I think it's going to benefit our community, businesses and property values, not to mention the benefit for the future of our children," she said.