Above: Candidates for Town government are already starting to seek voters’ signatures. And there’s still plenty of time to pull your own papers. (image of logo from the old Town website)
As I posted earlier this month, the window is open to pull papers to run for office through the Town’s annual election. Papers must be filed a month from today. I promised to keep readers apprised of potential races, and one is already brewing.
Three people have pulled papers for the two Select Board seats. Those are incumbents Kathy Cook and Sam Stivers, plus resident Tim Fling. (Stivers has already filed his paperwork — though candidates have until April 10th to withdraw their names.)
If you’d like to throw your hat in the ring for that office, or any of the other seats on the ballot, the deadline to pull papers is Monday, March 24th. The deadline to file papers with enough signatures1 is Tuesday, March 25th.
It’s worth pointing out that the election is likely to have a much bigger turnout than usual this year due to a question that will be on the ballot.
The May 13th ballot will ask voters to support the borrowing and proposition 2½ override to allow the Neary School Building project.2 Even if voters at the Special Town Meeting on May 10th reject the Article, a majority approval on the May 13th ballot would keep the project alive.
Cook, the current Select Board Chair and member of the Neary Building Committee has publicly stated that if the the Town doesn’t get the 2/3 approval needed at the meeting, they might pursue approval through a second Special Town Meeting in the fall. (And NBC Chair Jason Malinowski has said the Town can also pursue a second ballot question if that fails.)
As for the candidates on the ballot. . .
Other incumbents who have also pulled papers so far are:
- Board of Trustees Southborough Library – vote for two – Marguerite Landry & Janet Maney
- Moderator – Paul Cimino
- Southborough School Committee – vote for two – Roger Challen
No other new candidates have pulled papers as of yesterday evening. It’s worth highlighting again that the member currently serving in the second School Committee seat (Kamali O’Meally) previously stated publicly that she didn’t plan to run in the election.
This year, the additional seats will also be up for grabs in the May 13th election are:
- Board of Assessors – 3 year term
- Board of Commissioners of Trust Funds – 3 year term
- Board of Health – 3 year term
- Housing Authority – 3 year term
- Northborough-Southborough Regional School Committee – Southborough candidate – 3 year term3
- Planning Board – 5 year term
(If you want a reminder of who is currently serving in those seats, click here.)
As always, I’ll continue updating readers if races heat up or if it appears we’re in danger of ending up with a vacancy on the ballot.
In the meantime, if you want to keep tabs on who has pulled or filed papers you can look to see if there is an update on the Town Clerk’s election page here.
For readers just interested in voting, make sure you’re registered by May 5th. (Though, if you want to vote in Annual and/or Special Town Meetings this spring, do it sooner.)
And save the date to vote on May 13th between 6:30 am – 8:00 pm at Trottier Middle School. (Or apply far enough in advance to vote by mail.)
If you have questions about the responsibilities for each board, you can find information here. For many of the boards/committees, you can also view/stream their recent meetings. (For details on viewing options, see my notes at the bottom of my regular Week in Government posts.)
- Based on the formula, until the next Gubernatorial election, the minimum number of registered Southborough voters’ signatures is technically 48. But the Town Clerk’s office always advises to get at least 60, in case there is an issue with any names/addresses not matching the registration list.
- Under state law, towns have a cap of 2½% on the year over year tax levy increases. But some expenses are (or can be) excluded from the calculation. The ballot question would ask voters to approve a debt exclusion for the project’s financing.
- There are also Northborough seats available on the Regional School Committee, but obviously Southborough residents can’t run for that.
