A divided Board of Aldermen voted against the Election Commission’s recommendation to delay the special Ward 1 At-Large Aldermen election to November. The vote on Tuesday was 12 to 10 with one abstention (Scott Lennon).
If I understand it correctly, the date for the election will be set at the next board meeting although the consensus is that it would be held in June on the same day as the U.S. Senate special election.
Newton’s League of Women Voters also weighed in on the matter, distributing a letter to the board against the delay.
Can you tell us who voted for and who voted against this?
Yes: Albright, Baker, Blazar, Ciccone, Danberg, Fischman, Gentile, Harney, Lappin, Linsky
No: Crossley, Fuller, Hess-Mahan, Johnson, Kalis, Laredo, Rice, Salvucci, Sangiolo, Schwarz, Swiston, Yates
Abstain: Lennon
Good for them.
“Excused” not “Abstain”
So just for clarification was a Yes vote to delay this until November which is what the Election commission recommended and a NO vote is to put this on the June Ballot.
A “yes” vote was to seek special legislation to delay the election to fill the Ward 1 AAL vacancy until election day in November.
A “no” vote was against the delay.
A separate item will be taken up in committee this week on scheduling the special election to fill the Ward 1 AAL vacancy for June to coincide with the special election to fill the US Senate seat.
For those aldermen who voted yes in favor of skipping the special election because they believe that said election will just result in another vacancy, here’s a suggestion:
Allan Ciccone, Sr. could run for alderman at-large in June, and Alderman Lennon could wait until November to run for the seat. Of course, that opens up the risk that someone could run against him. And,we certainly wouldn’t want that happening, would we? What if two people run against him and there has to be a preliminary? Voters will storm City Hall in protest.
To be clear, I’m being sarcastic. Scott should run whenever he wants to run. But if Ciccone Sr. wants to be an alderman, why doesn’t he run now?
Gail-this is clearly an issue that was very important to you, but it’s not too much to ask that you respect the people for whom it was not that big a deal. To imply that people who weren’t concerned about filling this vacancy for the next 9 months are people who don’t care about democracy or the charter was over the top.
And to Greg: what you did to Peter Kartoujian in the last few weeks was unconscionable. He is a good man, knowledgeable in his field, and you made him out to be something he most definitely is not.
@Ted
Please clarify… whomever is elected to this seat in July will be running again in November in order to retain this position, correct?
@janet: my name isn’t Ted but yes you will have run twice.
Here’s the letter from the League of Woman Voters to the aldermen..
Ald. Scott F. Lennon
President, Board of Aldermen
1000 Commonwealth Avenue
Newton Centre, MA 02459
Dear Ald. Lennon and Members of the Board of Aldermen:
The League of Women Voters wishes to express its concern over the proposal to forgo an interim election to fill the late Carlton Merrill’s Board of Aldermen seat. In addition to this being contrary to the City Charter, the treatment of an election as too expensive and too inconvenient is not compatible with representational government.
With five elections already scheduled for this year, we certainly concur that adding a sixth seems less than ideal, and admit that it would require significant effort and expense. However, no one ever said that democracy would be easy and cheap. As a city, are we really prepared to say that it’s acceptable for residents in Ward 1 to have less representation over the next 6 months than other residents around the city? LWVN wonders if the open seat were for a ward alderman, requiring a less expensive election, would the Election Commission change their recommendation? Should this decision really be based on convenience and cost?
The city charter is clear on this issue, something that is highlighted by the fact that the city would have to seek permission from the state to forgo this election. Our charter requires a special election if a seat becomes vacant up to 15 months into an
alderman’s term. This requirement, in fact, was a major improvement
recommended by the 1971 charter commission and approved by the electorate. While this change was driven by a desire to prevent the then-common practice of Aldermen leaving office mid-term and choosing their own successors, nevertheless, the charter does not give the Board of Aldermen a choice of whether to hold an election or leave the seat open.
The League believes that, despite the inconvenience and expense, fully representing the electorate is an important feature of our government. We do believe that in the course of a review of the city charter, our community should discuss whether the 15-month requirement is the appropriate amount of time, and whether other courses of action should be made available if a seat becomes empty mid-term. But, until a charter discussion is approved by the voters, we should not cherry-pick which of our own rules we want to follow.
Sincerely,
Anne Borg and Sue Flicop
Co-Presidents, League of Women Voters of Newton
Taking a look at who voted how, this appears to be one of the most “independent” votes in recent memory. It does not follow the usual patterns of predictability of sides or typical alliances… at all.
Can’t we just piggyback this on top of the June Senate election as Alderman Yates and others suggested?? Wouldn’t that essentially limit the cost to whatever it would take to print a small municipal ballot? I cringe to think that there is some inflexible new rule or regulation out there that would create a timing conflict between the special US Senate and Ward 1 elections. I seem to recall that Tom Concannon was elected mayor in 1994 on the same first Tuesday November date that federal Congressional elections were taking place, so I don’t suspect there is any conflict involving holding federal and municipal elections or primaries on the same day.
@Greg
League letter absolutely spot on perfect. Thanks for posting.
Hopefully, in June, the eyes of the nation will be on our special senate election and Ward 1. Nonantum and Newton Corner are about to go viral if we can combine the two contests.
As Bob knows (because he was at the meeting), Programs and Services voted to call a special election to fill the vacancy in Ward 1 for June 25 to coincide with the special election to fill the US Senate vacancy. The full board will vote on this on March 4. That is all.