It’s Time To Vote, Belmont! Here Are My Picks.

Well, spring has arrived. The buds are popping on the trees and the green shoots are peeking out from your flower beds. That must mean its time for Belmont’s annual town election. And this year, we have competitive races up and down the ballot.

If this is news to you, I’ll remind you that our local election is next Tuesday, April 1st. If you want to look at the ballot for your district or figure out where to cast your ballot, check out our Town Clerk’s website where they have all the information you need.

With that in mind, here are my picks for the competitive races in next Tuesday’s election, starting at the top of the ballot. (Note: I’m going to refrain from endorsing candidates in non-competitive races.)

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Town Moderator

There are two candidates for the position of Moderator – just the second competitive race for this powerful position in more than two decades. They are:

• Michael F. Crowley ✓

• Mark A. Paolillo

My pick for this critical role is Michael Crowley. Those of you who follow me online won’t be surprised by this. I’ve been a vocal advocate for Mike’s candidacy for Moderator, as I was last year when he ran against longtime incumbent Mike Widmer.

As I see it: we need change in Belmont’s Town government, not the same rotating cast of characters tilting at the same problems with the same results (or lack thereof). Voting for Mike Crowley is the way to get the change we need. Mike has deep experience in Belmont Town Government, having served on School Committee, Warrant Committee and Town Meeting. And he has an inspiring vision for modernizing the Moderator position: promoting transparency around Moderator appointments, working to promote involvement by a wider swath of Belmont and urging Town Meeting to embrace its role as Belmont’s legislature and cease being a rubber stamp for the Town Administrator and Select Board. These were ideas Mike promoted last year, and has broadened and refined in his latest campaign. Under his leadership, Belmont Town Meeting will reflect the diversity of people, ideas and perspectives that make our town so exceptional.

As for Mr. Paolillo? Like Mike, Mark has a long tenure in Belmont politics and has held numerous positions, including multiple stints on the Town’s Select Board. There’s no questioning Mark’s devotion to Belmont and willingness to donate his time and energy to our Town. My concern is – again – the need for Belmont to embrace change and improve how town government operates. Mark has never shown much enthusiasm for challenging the status quo in Belmont. Just the opposite: a clear through line of his time on Select Board was a willingness to defer to Belmont power brokers, even when it meant backing bad ideas, like the ill-conceived plan that resulted in Belmont forfeiting millions of dollars in state aid granted to us to build a new Town Library back in 2013. That decision ultimately cost Belmont taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in added costs when we finally committed to build our new library -without any state aid on the table. That is a bitter and costly lesson that voters should not forget.

We can do better, Belmont. Join me in voting for Mike Crowley to be your next Moderator.

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Select Board

There are two candidates for a single, open position on Belmont’s Select Board. They are:

• Paul Joy
• Taylor Yates ✓

My choice for our next Select Board member is Taylor Yates.

My reasoning is simple: Belmont is entering an period of change and uncertainty – for better and worse. Taylor is the Select Board candidate who is best suited to help us navigate that in the smartest way possible.

We’ve already seen this play out. New laws like the MBTA Communities Act and the Affordable Homes Act were passed down by the state legislature to help solve our state’s crippling housing shortage. Those laws mandated long overdue changes in our NIMBYesque local zoning. They required Belmont’s leadership to rise to the occasion: embracing the changes mandated by state lawmakers and building consensus in the Town to enact changes to our local zoning bylaws in compliance with the state laws. As Chair of the Planning Board, Taylor did an amazing job with that: soliciting input from both experts and residents and, ultimately, winning strong Town Meeting support for changes that brought Belmont into compliance with both laws – with among the highest levels of support in the entire state.

Going forward, that kind of stewardship will serve us well on the Select Board, with the need for revamped commercial tax base as homeowners grow desperate for alternatives to residential property tax hikes as our “go to” for addressing our structural budget shortfalls. And then there’s the chaos sweeping the federal government and sudden, unexpected changes in federal funding that our town and others have long relied on. Now is the time for smart, responsible and consistent leadership, and that’s Taylor Yates.

Mr. Joy has been a strong advocate for some issues that I support, including the Community Path. And I like that he’s unafraid to be contrarian and take on big issues (such as our crimped, balky three person Select Board) that other Town officials are all too willing to ignore. But Paul’s track record in pursuing and achieving the changes he seeks – say by building consensus on the issues and ideas he supports- is less consistent. That makes me wonder how his time on Select Board would actually play out.

Join me in voting for Taylor Yates to be your new Select Board member.

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School Committee

There are three candidates for two, open positions on Belmont’s School Committee. They are:

• Zehra Abid-Wood ✓
• Brian L. Palmer ✓
• Michael Todd Thompson

My choices for our School Committee are: Zehra Abid-Wood and Brian Palmer.

First, there’s Ms. Abid-Wood, who I had the chance to meet and speak with. She’s a longtime Belmont resident and mother of two boys at Chenery Upper Elementary School. In her professional life, Zehra has a long track record stretching across high tech, higher education and non-profits. She currently manages the senior living community on the campus of Lasell University. Zehra struck me as a smart and thoughtful member of the BPS community who has experienced first hand some of the challenges wrought by our resource constrained district. Having her management skills and perspective as an active BPS parent on the School Committee will be vital as it works to help our public schools navigate the stormy fiscal waters ahead and achieve their strategic goals and vision for BPS. 

I have not had the chance to meet with Mr. Palmer, but I have read his campaign web page (the only candidate page among the three, from what I can tell)* and read his profile in the Belmont Voice. He’s a 25 year town resident who saw five children through the public schools and now has grandchildren in the district. Brian’s volunteer work in town, including on Warrant Committee, and his training as an economist will be welcome additions to the School Committee. Finally, my inquiries with other, progressive friends in Town have revealed Brian and Zehra to be the consensus candidates.

Mr. Todd Thompson’s profile in the Voice includes some ideas I agree with, like having School Committee do a better job notifying the community of the time and place of SC meetings. His background in the sciences and medicine and focus on mental health issues are also of interest and could be valuable for School Committee.

However, one of his recommendations is closer cooperation between the Board of Health and School Committee – an idea reinforced by Mr. Todd Thompson’s decision to throw his hat in the ring for both, open positions on this year’s ballot. That confused me. While there is likely opportunity for more engagement between School Committee and the Board of Health, I’m not sure a fusion of those two bodies is needed or advisable, nor is it practical given the time demands of both positions.

Join me in voting for Zehra Abid-Wood and Brian Palmer to be your next School Committee members.

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Library Board of Trustees

There are three candidates for two, open positions on Belmont’s Trustees of the Public Library. They are:

• Mark Carthy
• Edward P. Barker, Jr.
• Tara Donner

Alas, as the Library Board’s appointee to the IT Advisory Committee, I don’t think its appropriate for me to weigh in on this race. So I’m going to pass on endorsements for the Library Board of Trustees race. Sorry.

There is a profile in the Belmont Voice that provides a good overview of the three candidates. I’d recommend giving it a read before you vote, and checking out the Candidates profile videos at Belmont Media Center.

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Board of Health

There are two candidates for a single, open position on Belmont’s Board of Health. They are:

• Julie C. LeMay ✓
• Michael Todd Thompson

This is just the latest competitive race for Board of Health. Ms. LeMay faced a challenger back in 2022, as well. I think the attention to Board of Health positions reflects the growing public interest in public health initiatives -an interest that the COVID pandemic turbo charged.

My vote will be for the incumbent, Julie C. LeMay. Julie has done an impressive job in her role on the Board of Health for the past 9 years – leveraging her background in environmental health to help guide our Health Department as it addresses a wide range of threats, while helping the Department work on a thread bare budget, and amid growing physical and mental health challenges in our schools and town.

Among other things, Julie and her colleagues on the three person Board of Health have looked for ways to enable the Health Department, including by combining the resources of Belmont and its neighbors to address shared community health challenges. This movement to a more collective and regionalized approach to critical town services is going to be critical going forward, and not just in the context of public health.

Todd has an interesting take: he believes the Board of Health and Belmont’s public schools should be “intimately linked” to address the myriad health concerns of students, including mental health. That’s why he’s also running for a seat on the School Committee. Its an interesting idea, but I’m not sure if having one person hold positions on both the Board of Health and School Committee is practical or desirable. Among other things, I worry that if Todd wins both seats he will face challenges in meeting the demands of both roles simultaneously.

In any case, Belmont Media Center has an interesting and valuable debate between the two candidates moderated by Anne Marie Mahoney. Check it out.

With this race, I urge you to join me in voting to re-elect Julie LeMay to the Board of Health.

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Town Meeting

Here’s the deal: Belmont has a large town meeting, with 294 members elected from eight districts in Town (each electing 36 representatives – or 12 per year, serving 3 year terms), in addition to ex-officio members and the Town Moderator. We’ve struggled in recent years to attract enough candidates to fill all those spots. (Which is why Moderator candidate Mike Crowley is making it a priority to spread the word and get more Belmont residents to step forward and run for Town Meeting.)

This election cycle, though, there are only three districts with competitive races:

• Precinct 2
• Precinct 5
• Precinct 6

As with other non-competitive races, I’m not going to bother to endorse candidates in non-competitive Town Meeting precincts. My focus, instead, is on the three competitive races for TM, as well as write-in candidates (whose names will not appear on the ballot) where appropriate.

A tip (and explanation for our endorsements below): TM spots go to the candidates with the highest total vote counts, which means you should concentrate your votes on the candidates you want to win, but not feel like you’ve got to cast 12 votes in every precinct. In fact, doing so could harm candidates you want to win and help candidates you feel “meh!” about.

In my endorsements, I’m using that as a guiding principle and simply listing the names of progressive TM candidates I want to see come out on top next Tuesday. By concentrating votes on these candidates, we improve their chance of making the cut. Names not listed below shouldn’t be considered candidates to avoid, so much as candidates who fell shy of the “must (re) elect” bar.

(*) Correction: in an earlier version of this I incorrectly stated that Mr. Palmer was the only School Committee candidate with a candidate web page. I overlooked Zehra Abid-Wood’s candidate page. I’ve included a link to that above.