Last Minute Challenger Makes It A Race For Belmont Select Board Seat

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Photo: The Belmont Town Clerk has released the draft ballot for the 2022 town election

A Belmont Center restaurant owner got his nomination papers into the Town Clerk’s Office just under the wire and will make it a race for the Select Board seat at the annual town election in April. Papers were due at the close of business on Tuesday, Feb. 15.

Jeffrey Lasseler, proprietor of Jamaica Jeffs on Leonard Street, is challenging incumbent Roy Epstein for the three year position. In the only other race with an incumbent, Julie Lemay will take on new comer Marina Atlas for a three year post on the Board of Health.

The only other competitive race will be for the pair of two-year seats on the newly-created Municipal Light Board where three residents are in the running: Jeffrey Geibel, Michael Macrea and current Municipal Light Advisory Board member Stephen Klionsky.

The town election will take place on Tuesday, April 5.

A list of town-wide offices for election are:

Due to reprecincting, It will be a literal free-for-all in the election of the newly-constituted Town Meeting. In four precincts, the entire 36-member slate will be on the ballot with the 12 members with the largest vote tally appointed to a three-year seat with the next 12 to two years and those coming in 25-36 taking a one-year term. For voters in precinct 8, voters will have 46 candidates to choose from to fill those 36 seats. The three other precincts whose lines were changed – 1 (42), 2 (40) and 6 (42) – will have 40-plus candidates while Precinct 7 will see its legislative representatives completely change as 20 residents will be running against only 4 incumbents for those 12 seats.

You can see who the candidates for Town Meeting on the Town Clerk’s page here.

Nomination Papers For Town-Wide Posts, Town Meeting Members Now Available For Pick Up

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Photo: Example of a past years’ sample nomination paper

Nomination papers for town offices are now available for those who are interested in running for elected office in Belmont.

Candidates should stop by the Town Clerk’s office at Town Hall to pick up nomination papers; have your neighbors and friends, who are registered voters of Belmont, sign your nomination papers and submit the signed forms back by the deadline of Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022 at 5 p.m.

Office hours of Town Hall for pick up and drop off or questions, no appointment is necessary:

  • Monday: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Friday: 8 a.m. to noon.

Here’s the list of offices that will be filled by the April 5, 2022 Annual Town Election as of December 16, 2021. To find out more about the responsibilities of these offices, please check out their individual web pages on the Town website  https://www.belmont-ma.gov/home/pages/boards-commissions  or watch any public meetings on Zoom or www.belmontmedia.org  

Town-wide Offices        Number of Seats Term of Office 
ModeratorVote for One1 year 
Select BoardVote for One3 years 
Board of AssessorsVote for One3 years 
Board of Cemetery CommissionersVote for One3 years 
Board of HealthVote for One3 years 
Trustees of the Public LibraryVote for Two3 years 
Members of the School CommitteeVote for Two3 years 
Municipal Light BoardVote for Five3 years, 2 years, 1 year 
 Town Meeting Members for
Precincts 1, 2, 6 and 8:		Vote for Thirty-six3 years, 2 years, 1 year 
Precincts 3, 4, 5 and 7Vote for Twelve3 years 

What’s Different About 2022? 

  • Town-wide Offices:  In addition to the customary Town-wide offices, (see below for specifics), per the May 3, 2021 vote of the annual Town Meeting, a new elected five-member Municipal Light Board has been created. The full five-member board will be elected in 2022; the two candidates who receive the most votes will win three-year terms, the next two will win two-year terms and the last one will win the one-year term.
  • Representative Town Meeting: The population data from the 2020 Federal Census required Belmont to change some of our voting precinct boundaries to more evenly distribute the residents and the Town Meeting Members who represent them. Per Belmont’s Representative Town Meeting Act, changes of precinct boundaries requires that all 36 seats for Town Meeting in a re-constituted precinct be considered open and must be filled by election.

A. The boundaries of Belmont Precincts 1, 2, 6 and 8 have been changed and therefore 36 seats are open and must be filled by election. The 12 candidates who receive the most votes will win three-year terms, the next 12 will win two-year terms and the last 12 will be one-year terms. The six current Town Meeting Members whose precincts will change have already been notified separately.

B. The boundaries of Belmont Precincts 3, 4, 5 and 7, are unchanged by the re-precincting efforts described above,  and will therefore elect the customary 12 Town Meeting Members, each for a  three-year term.  

Running for Re-election to Town Meeting: Precinct 2, 4, 5 and 7 current Town Meeting Members whose term of office expires in 2022 as well as all of the Town Meeting Members current serving in Precincts 1, 2, 6 and 8 have already been mailed a letter asking if the person will seek re-election. Deadline for return of the signed response letter to the Town Clerk is absolute: Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 5 p.m.  To confirm whether your current term expires in 2022, please check the Town Clerk’s “Town Meeting Members” web page: https://www.belmont-ma.gov/town-clerk/pages/town-meeting-members

The Town Clerk’s web pages contain quite a bit of information to help make a decision to seek office and running for election at www.belmont-ma.gov  select Town Clerk, then select Running for Elected Office and Campaigning or feel free to call us at 617-993-2603, or email at townclerk@belmont-ma.gov 

Town Election ’18: Ballot Set For Town Meeting; A Race For School Committee

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Photo: Pam Eagar readies to run for Town Meeting.

Pam Eagar has spent 40 years in Belmont, raising seven children (all attending the Belmont schools) and taking care of her mother in her home on Claflin Street near Belmont Center. 

Now, with the kids away and with time on her hands, Eagar wants to make a difference in the governing of Belmont with an eye on Town Meeting.

“I’m interested in [town government] but I had always been really busy for a lot of years with kids and grandchildren. But now seems a good time to get involved,” she said Eagar who came to the Town Clerk’s office Tuesday, Feb. 13 to make sure her nomination papers to run for one of the 12 available seats in Precinct 8 had been certified. 

She took her time debating whether to run down to the deadline on Tuesday. 

“I didn’t decide until the other day that I thought, ‘Oh if I want to do this I have to do this right away!”

When the clock struck 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 13, the ballot was set for Belmont’s 2018 Town Election to take place on Tuesday, April 3. See the candidates for town-wide office and all Town Meeting races in Belmont’s eight precincts here.

There is one townwide race as three candidates have been certified for the two, three-year seats on the Belmont School Committee as incumbent Susan Burgess-Cox will face off against a pair of newcomers; Winchester teacher Tara Donner and Jill Souza Norton, the director of Education Policy at Abt Associates. 

Over on the Town Meeting side, it’s a bit of a topsy-turvy year as precincts that have been historically light on candidates have filled the ballot with the 12 seats available while others will have open seats.

The big surprise is the typically underrepresented Precinct 7, the Harvard Lawn neighborhood along Belmont Street to the Cambridge line, which has filled the ballot with 12 candidates. And over at the usually politically active precincts 3 and 4, could only muster 10 candidates each for the dozen three-year slots. 

And one of the 13 seek a seat in Precinct 8 is Eagar who said she sees “a lot of growth in the town and I think we need to be really careful how things are regulated. Financially the town needs a lot of good planning in place because money doesn’t go on forever.” 

A Race for Belmont Selectman as Nomination Period Closed Tuesday

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There will be a single competitive race for a town-wide office when Belmont voters go to the ballot at Town Election, April 7, after Town Clerk Ellen Cushman officially closed the nomination process at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17.

Incumbent Andy Rojas and James Williams, a Town Meeting member from Precinct 8, will square off for the open seat on the Board of Selectmen while the other races will have either candidate seeking re-election or newcomers running unopposed.

Rojas will defend the seat he won three years ago by the narrowest of margins against Williams, a Glenn Road resident who came to live in Belmont in 2011.

If nothing drastically changes in the next seven weeks, the Belmont School Committee will welcome Susan Burgess-Cox to the group as she is the only resident to seek one of the two three-year terms up for grabs. The other candidate for a full-term is incumbent Lisa Fiore.

Current School Committee member Thomas Caputo is running unopposed to fill the remaining two years of the seat he was appointed to in November.

Tara Donner pulled nomination papers to run for a School Committee seat but did not return them to Cushman by Tuesday’s deadline.

Also running unopposed are:

  • Mike Widmer, Town Moderator
  • Martin B. Millane, Jr. (incumbent), Board of Assessors
  • Dr. David Alper (incumbent), Board of Health
  • Donna Brescia (incumbent), Belmont Housing Authority
  • Ellen Cushman (incumbent), Cemetery Commission

The race for the two seats on Board of Library Trustees saw Chair Matthew Lowrie did not seek re-election. In his place, Mary Alice Wistman, a past president of the Friends of the Belmont Public Library, will run to fill that seat.

 

 

Less Than a Week to Turn In Town Meeting, Town Wide Nomination Papers

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The good news, said Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, is the number of residents who took out nomination papers will result in competitive races in nearly all of Belmont’s eight precincts.

The bad news, see added, is that many potential candidates have yet to turn in those papers with the signature of 25 Belmontians to her.

“They’ve taken them out, and now I’m waiting for them to bring them back,” said Cushman today, Feb. 11.

And the deadline for the papers to be in and certified by Cushman is looming quite large.

“They only have six day, until Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. And when the bell rings, they’ll lose their chance,” said Cushman, pointing to a call bell next to the old-style time stamp machine on the Office’s front desk.

Belmont’s eight precincts will be electing 12 Town Meeting Members in addition to any partial-term seats. Cushman opened a folder for one of the precincts and showed the sign-out sheet with several names of residents who took out papers. Only one had  been turned in.

People should not wait until the last minute to return nomination papers for either Town Meeting or for those with intentions of running for town-wide office, said Cushman, reminding residents her and all town offices will be closed for the President’s Day Holiday on Monday, Feb. 16.

Thinking of Running for Elected Office? Now’s the Time to Act

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Have you ever considered running for elected office for Belmont? How about being a Town Meeting member?

If you have, the Belmont Town Clerk’s Office advises that time is running short on this opportunity to represent the town or your precinct as the due date to submit nomination papers is fast approaching – Tuesday, Feb. 17 – to see your name on the April 7 Town Election ballot.

Town-wide Offices

There are many Town-wide elected offices that will appear on the Annual Town Election ballot. If you’re interested or want to share your skills in this way, now is the time to step forward. Here is the list of town-wide offices up for nomination, in the order they will appear on the ballot.

  • Moderator elect one person for one year
  • Board of Selectmen elect one member for three years
  • Board of Assessors elect one member for three years
  • Board of Cemetery Commissioners  elect one member for three years
  • Board of Health elect one member for three years
  • Members of the Housing Authority  elect one member for five years
  • Trustees of the Public Library elect two members for three years
  • Members of the School Committee  elect two members for three years AND one member for two years

Representative Town Meeting – Representatives from Each of the Eight Voting Precincts

In addition to the Town-wide offices, 12 representative Town Meeting members are elected for three-year terms from each of our eight voting precincts. This year, there are also some partial term openings for Town Meeting, vacancies created by members moving or resigning:

  • Precinct 1 : elect 12 members for three years
  • Precinct 2 : elect 12 members for three years
  • Precinct 3 : elect 12 members for three years
  • Precinct 4 : elect 12 members for three years
  • Precinct 5 : elect 12 members for three years AND 1 member for one year
  • Precinct 6 : elect 12 members for three years AND 1 member of one year AND 1 member for two years
  • Precinct 7 : elect 12 members for three years AND 4 members for two years
  • Precinct 8 : elect 12 members for three years AND 1 member for one year

Incumbent Town Meeting members who want to run for re-election in 2015 must notify the Town Clerk by 5 p.m., Jan. 27, by submitting the Intention Letter that was mailed in December to those Members whose term expires in 2015.  Missing that deadline means having to collect signatures on nomination papers.

Annual Town Meeting takes place in the spring, and typically lasts for six evenings, (customarily Monday and Wednesday) starting May 4 then reconvening on June 1. Town Meeting makes all of the decisions about the Town’s budgets and local Bylaws. Belmont’s government is a Representative Town Meeting, which means that only Town Meeting members can vote at Town Meeting, unlike the Open Town Meeting form of government.  That’s why it’s very important that all the Town Meeting seats are filled to have full representation of each Belmont neighborhood.

Getting Your Name on the Ballot

Running for election is simple. Stop by the Town Clerk’s office to pick up nomination papers; have your neighbors and friends who are registered voters sign your papers and submit the signed forms to the Town Clerk by the deadline, Feb. 17, at 5 p.m. 

To be nominated for Town-wide office, you must have signatures of at least 50 registered voters of the Town on the nomination papers. The Town Clerk must certify these signatures so we always suggest obtaining about 20 percent more just to be safe.

To be nominated for Town Meeting, the signatures of at least 25 registered voters of your precinct are required on the nomination papers. The Town Clerk must certify these signatures so we always suggest obtaining about 20 percent more just to be safe.  Some current Town Meeting Members will be seeking re-election but all 12 seats are available in each precinct.

Find Out More

The Town Clerk’s web pages contain quite a bit of information to help make a decision to seek office by selecting “Town Clerk,” then select “Campaigning: Running for Elected Office in Belmont or Town Meeting Member Information” or by calling 617-993-2600.

Feel Like Running? Nomination Papers Available Now for Town Office, Town Meeting

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Want a say in how Belmont is run? Here’s your chance: Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman has announced that nomination papers for Town Meeting and Town-wide office are available to be picked up at the Clerk’s office on the first floor of Town Hall starting today, Friday, Dec. 5.

The deadlines to return nomination papers to the Town Clerk’s office is 5 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, said Cushman. 

The Town Election will take place on Tuesday, April 7. 

If you’re thinking of running for elected office in Belmont, Cushman is advising potential “runners” to take a look at the guide for Belmont’s elected government and how to run for elected office in the “Town of Homes.”

Candidates for town–wide office (such as selectman, school committee and several boards)

To be considered a candidate for town-wide office, you must be at least 18 years old and a registered voter in Belmont.

All candidates for town-wide office must secure the signatures of at least 50 registered Belmont voters and return the signed nomination papers by Feb. 17 at 5 pm. Cushman recommends that more signatures are collected and submitted in the event that some signatures are invalid.

Nomination papers are available for pick-up at the Town Clerk’s office. Before collecting signatures, the candidate must sign the nomination papers and fill in the office for which he/she will be a candidate.

Terms for Town Meeting Member

The elected term for Town Meeting Member is three years, though should a resignation occur, there may be openings for one or two year periods.

Candidate for re-election as Town Meeting Member

If you are an incumbent Town Meeting Member, in late December/early January of the year your term is due to expire, you will receive from the Town Clerk’s office a letter asking if you would like to be considered a candidate for re-election to Town Meeting for your precinct.

The candidate must sign and return the affirmation form to the Town Clerk’s office by Feb. 17 to be considered a candidate for re-election. If the date passes without return of the form, the candidate would be considered a new candidate for Town Meeting and would be required to secure the 25 signatures on the nomination paper and the words  “candidate for re-election” will not appear next to the name on the ballot.

New candidates for Town Meeting Member

To be considered a new candidate for Town Meeting Member, you must be at least 18 years old and a registered voter in Belmont in the precinct you wish to represent. If you are currently serving as a Town Meeting Member who was elected at caucus, not by town ballot, you will need to submit nomination papers as a new candidate.

Candidates for Town Meeting must secure the signatures of at least 25 registered voters from the precinct and return the signed nomination papers. Once again, Cushman recommends that more signatures are collected and submitted in the event that some signatures are invalid.

“We encourage all candidates for all elected offices, for both town-wide and for Town Meeting, to investigate the responsibilities of the post by reading the Town General Bylaws and Belmont Town Meeting Acts of 1926, and reading the minutes of the elected board,” said Cushman.