MAYORAL RACE IS HEATING UP
Polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday
LEOMINSTER » The municipal election on Tuesday is right around the corner and key spots on the ballot will determine who will be mayor and lead City Council and the School Committee for the next two years.
The race between incumbent Mayor Dean Mazzarella and candidate Andrea Freeman is heated, with both parties slinging shots at the other during the debate earlier this month.
Freeman accused Mazzarella of not giving the public schools funding they need and dropping the ball when it comes to other fiscal issues including pension liabilities, and Mazzarella claimed most of Freeman’s campaign donations have come from out of state, a statement that has since been proven false through state campaign finance records with 15% of donations coming from out of state.
Freeman announced in December she would be running for mayor. She has lived in the city for 18 years and has volunteered with the Twin Cities Rail Trail Committee for more than 15 years.
“Having been here for so long and having the same mayor for all that time and then some, I kept thinking there would be more steps taken to plan for the city’s future and potential,” Freeman said of what inspired her to run. “I felt like nothing was changing and the more I worked with other communities in the area and involving more people in the decision-making processes, I became increasingly concerned. I am committed to having more people engaged in the decision-making processes in the city.”
She resigned on June 30 from her full-time job with the Massachusetts Public Health Association in Boston to campaign full time, a nine-year stint during which time Freeman said she “gained experience with coalition building,” was a trained
meeting facilitator, and “worked to build consensuses and shared values.”
“I have met people and learned from communities all over the place,” she said.
Freeman said that almost everybody who has donated to her campaign are people she knows — family, friends, former colleagues, “someone I knew before it even occurred to me to run for mayor.”
“They just want to support me, and it is really humbling,” she said. “It is really disappointing my opponent twisted that into something nefarious and is fabricating things, I am hoping that does not continue. I am really proud of heading a positive campaign.”
She said she has “spoken to many people along the way” during her campaign.
“Just like them I am ready for a change, and I am eager and ready to bring all my skills and experience and really listen to them and learn from them to move forward,” Freeman said. “We are a
city with great potential, and we all deserve more transparency so we can move forward together.”
She said that when it comes down it, while she hopes that people will vote for her, she urges people to get out and vote period.
“We often get low turnout for municipal elections, which are so important,” Freeman said.
Mazzarella is looking to secure his 15th consecutive term and continue his title as the state’s longest serving mayor, having been in that role for 28 years.
“I think I have been mayor long enough to know that not everyone is going to agree with me on every single decision, but I think people know I will always do my research, listen to all sides, do my homework, and do what’s best for the city,” he said.
When asked about public schools funding and pension liabilities, Mazzarella said Freeman’s accusations are “not true,” and that Leominster spends the same per pupil expenditure as Arlington, Ashburnham, Beverly, Lunenburg, Westford, and other cities and towns that are similar in size.
“Those are all communities that spend what we do,” Mazzarella said. “She wants people to think we are the lowest when we are not. She took one piece of how they calculate funding and used that, and that is not sincere.”
He said that 70% of the city’s budget goes toward education.
“This year alone, because we paid the pension system off, we gave an additional $2.5 million to the schools and then another $1.1 million,” he said. “That is more than anybody around us, rich communities, poor communities, put into their classrooms this year.”
Mazzarella said the job of mayor “has evolved so much, not just here but all over the country” since he was first elected in 1993.
“As much as people call it mayor, it is really manager,” he said. “The position of mayor is completely different than when I first ran for office. There are so many more compliance issues, oversight, credit rating agencies that are very strict. The next mayor, whether it is me or five years from now, they better have experience. There are many examples of people who got votes that do not have the experience. It is a different job now, there are many more moving parts and if you are not up on the moving parts and the pieces, you could get the city into a lot of trouble."
Mazzarella said the city is in a “stable financial position” and has “strong, conservative fiscal management.”
“The city is in great shape,” he said. “We have a police station to build and construction and infrastructure projects to do, and the people of Leominster better have someone who knows what they are doing. I am honest with the public, and that is part of what I have done for 28 years.” There is only one contested race for City Council on next week’s ballot, between current Ward 1 School Committee member Michael Stassen and William Brady, owner and chef of Brady’s restaurant in downtown Leominster. The seat has been vacant since Gail Feckley, who also served as vice chair, died in May.
Running unopposed for
City Council seats are Ward 2 incumbent Pauline Cormier, Ward 3 incumbent David Cormier, Ward 4 incumbent Mark Bodanza, Ward 5 incumbent Peter Angelini, and at-large incumbents Thomas F. Ardinger, Susan Chalifoux Zephir, Claire Freda and Todd Deacon, husband of Leominster Public Schools Superintendent Paula Deacon. Todd Deacon would replace John Dombrowski, who is not seeking re-election.
The seats up for grabs on the School Committee are being vied for by parents of students who have been vocal about disagreeing with how the current committee members handled the pandemic when it came to education, in particular beginning the 2020-21 school year with a remote-only learning plan instead of a hybrid plan that would have included in-person learning as well. The candidates supporting that policy are Ward 1 candidate Gregory Renchkovsky, Ward 3 contender Greg Thomas, Josh Bowdridge running for Ward 4, and At-large candidate Salvatore Perla Jr.
On the ballot for the
school board are Renchkovsky and Natalie Yeager Stassen, Michael Stassen’s wife, for Ward 1; Ward 2 incumbent Ronald Houle; Thomas and Raymond German for Ward 3; Bowdridge is running unopposed for Ward 4; and incumbent Eileen Griffin for Ward 5. At-large candidates are Perla and incumbents Melissa Bible, Brandon Robbins and Suzanne Koehler for three available seats.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at different locations around the city:
Ward 1: Sky View Middle School, 500 Kennedy Way (all precincts)
Ward 2: Frances Drake Elementary School, 95 Viscoloid Ave. (all precincts)
Ward 3: Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall, 456 Litchfield St. (all precincts)
Ward 4: Leominster Senior Center, 5 Pond St. (Precinct A) and Leominster Veterans’ Memorial Center, 100 West St. (Precincts B and C)
Ward 5: Leominster City Hall auditorium, 25 West St. (Precincts A and B) and First Baptist Church of Leominster, 23 West St. (Precinct C)