Raynham Candidates Night 2026

(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

Three percent turnout. That’s the number that should stop every Raynham voter in their tracks. We open Candidates Night 2026 with a clear message: if you care about schools, taxes, town services, or the character of Raynham, the easiest way to lose your voice is to skip the annual town election.

We start with uncontested races that still carry big responsibilities. You’ll hear what’s changing in Park and Recreation as demand grows for childcare, sports, and community programming, plus what’s on the wish list next like pickleball courts and expanded options for residents. On the Sewer Commission side, the conversation gets into enterprise budgeting, stabilization planning, and the looming cost tied to Taunton’s wastewater treatment plant and the municipal reimbursement Raynham may owe.

Then we move into the contested races: the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee and the select board. We talk governance versus day-to-day operations, what “best interest of the students” looks like during a budget crisis, and why Chapter 70 funding, Proposition 2 1/2 limits, and shrinking electives keep colliding. The select board candidates debate smart growth, commercial tax base strategy, the public safety building, grant funding, Route 138 headaches, and how to coordinate departments so projects don’t stall.

If this forum helps you think differently about local politics, share it with a neighbor, subscribe for more Raynham coverage, and leave a review. What’s the one issue that will decide your vote on April 25?

Transcript

Welcome And Forum Rules

Unopposed Candidates Introductions

SPEAKER_08 0:34

Good evening. Good evening, and welcome to our annual Rainham Candidates Night for 2026 here in the Donald McKinnon Municipal Meeting Room at Veterans Memorial Town Hall in Rainham. This forum is open to the public. It is also being broadcast live on the Rainham Channel, on Comcast Channel 98, and Verizon Channel 34. It is also being recorded by Raycam for replay on the Rainham Channel. As mentioned, this is open to the public, and we would just ask our audience to please refrain from any applause until the end of each forum. Our forum this evening is in three parts. I am Pat Riley, your moderator for this evening, and I want to thank Raycam for sponsoring this forum through the Rainham Channel. All of the candidates who will appear on the ballot at our annual town election on Saturday, April 25th. Those in contested and uncontested races have been invited to participate. So we thank those who are here for that. For the first portion of this forum, we have invited those who are running unopposed to join us for a little less formal conversation. Those who are participating include Riley Menconey, candidate for re-election to the Park and Recreation Commission, and Joseph Betancourt, candidate for re-election to the Sewer Commission. Jeff Kelleher, candidate for cemetery commission, is going to try to stop by as well. He is on duty this evening. So we thank you very much for uh joining us, and we'll start with you. Um, Riley, if you just introduce yourself a little bit to those that may not know you, a little background information and why you are running for re-election.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

So my name is Riley Manconey. I am 25 years old. Um I am a recent graduate of Bridgewater State University. Um I have received my bachelor's degree in communications. Um I had lived in Radium all my life. I attended Rainium Public Schools and then for high school I uh went to Bristol Plymouth. And I am running uh for re-election because I want to make a difference in the community. Um obviously I've been on the term been on the commission for three years, and during my free years I felt like I um I enjoyed that community service aspect and meeting fellow, many fellow constituents, um, whether it was sports or um, you know, what's the word I want to use? People that were looking to you apply for field permits. Um we also have summer concerts, so I've you know met a few people um in that area as well.

SPEAKER_08 3:14

Thank you, Riley. Mr. Betancourt, you have been involved for quite a few years in Rainham, and I'm sure most people do know you, but if you want to give us a little background information.

Sewer Finances And Taunton Bill

SPEAKER_03 3:27

My name's Joe Bettencourt, and I'm old. I've been around a while. I'm running for re-election on the sewer commission because we we've been working on a project of the stability and financial um soundness of the sewer department, and uh we still have a ways to go, and because we couldn't get it all completed, um I decided that I would run again. I've been on the commission for 12 years. In the past eight years, we've been going through a structural change. Um we have um, those of you who can remember 12 years ago, excuse me, they were looking for$2.8 million someplace in the uh sewer department's uh financial situation. It was there, but they couldn't seem to find it. Well, we went through the process, we have found it in the past eight years. We have uh reset scheduled, put it in. Uh we re have created a stabilization account, though it wasn't indexed then, and we have uh created a reserve for a bill that we're gonna get from the city of Taunton when they finally get around to doing the calculation. They were under a court order to replace their sewer treatment plant. It uh at its minimum, it's a hundred million dollars they've spent. And the town of Rainham has to reimburse that at the rate of 15.48%, because we have a municipal agreement. They take our sewer, we collect, we deliver to them, and they process. And uh they haven't been able to figure out how much they've spent and how they're going to pay it back, and we have to provide for that. So in the past three years, we've been squirreling money into an account specifically for that, and we've kept our rate relatively stable, and um, it's still work to be done. The two people that were the front people in ri in Taunton have retired. Now we're gonna have to fight the battle with some people that they'll see me for the first time, and I'll see them for the first time, and hopefully be able to come up with it. So I decided to run for re-election to continue on getting the job done. We have good commissioners, good team, and we're replacing our superintendent come the 26th of June. He has opt for retirement, and we've had uh, I believe, some 13 or 14 applications that closed last Friday and were just starting the process of uh calling through to see the top group that you could we could interview.

Parks And Rec Growth Plans

SPEAKER_08 7:13

Very good, thank you, Mr. Betancourt. Going uh back to you, um Riley, uh why did you first get involved running for Park and Wreck? And why Park and Rec?

SPEAKER_04 7:25

So I had been involved in other um committees slash commissions. I originally started as a board registrar and I had done that for a few years, and then I um applied for an opening on the conservation commission, and I had been on the conservation commission for four years. And you know, I heard from the Great Fruit of Grapevine that there was an open seat coming up for the Parks and Recreation Commission. So I said, why not vote for it? I want to get more involved in the Creative Great Opportunity. And in those three years I've learned a lot, and like I said, I had a lot of great people, and I'm looking forward to continuing to uh you know expand on more things.

SPEAKER_08 7:59

The Park and Recreation Um Commission oversees what happens in the department. You have a great department head with staff.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

We do, we have excellent staff, and uh Tim Tim McRae, our director, is phenomenal. Um, you know, we even have a great group of kids that you know oversee the daycare too.

SPEAKER_08 8:17

Excellent. What do you see as the the ch the challenges over the next three years?

SPEAKER_04 8:22

So the challenges is is the space we have, and thankfully we've actually expanded um our daycare center so we have 18 more spots available, but um just with the town growing, more people want to have their kids in our programs, which is great. But you know, we have certain restrictions we have to follow by the state with how many um kids we can have per space and stuff.

SPEAKER_08 8:44

And per staff and so forth. Exactly. That program has grown, and I think um you had to get approval to increase it as well. State approval. Yes. Yes. So it's a lot involved.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

It's a lot involved, um, but you know, thankfully we we're we're making progress of it, and it's um a great program, and you know, I think the town's very fortunate that we have that uh to provide for our children.

SPEAKER_08 9:08

Thank you, Riley. Joe, you've been involved in many roles prior to um SOAR Commissioner. Um I think initially was it Rainham School Committee many years ago before we actually even regionalized as a full regionalized district?

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Well, I did serve on the school committee for 11 years prior to regionalization.

SPEAKER_08 9:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

But I had um in the very late 60s, early 70s, um Dr. La Liberty asked me, and he had another group of about four or five other people, to do a building, school building needs study. And that study was done, and nothing was done with the results until '95, when the town decided they wanted to see what a 10-year program of capital expenditures. And we got back together, we reviewed it, and when they finally decision was to go ahead and it was going to be an elementary school to close the three little schools. But um we couldn't find a place to put the elementary school, and um administration uh said we're gonna go into a junior high complex. So instead of three grades, it was four grades. So let's start at the top and shake everything down, and we ended up building a new middle school, renovating La Liberty, renovating Merrill, closing the three schools, and three or four years after we closed this building, we converted it to uh town hall and cable's down on south, and north is used for storage. And uh along the way, uh I have served on uh the rent control board for the mobile home park. That one uh I was appointed in uh 1992, and they keep giving me the green sheet every year, every other every third year, you know. They don't ask because they just say here. And but I did it because I wanted to help do what I could do uh in the community, and uh it was the same thing as the why I got on the sewer commission. There was uh the sewer department. If you don't understand what they are, that they're enterprise accounts. That's like running a business, you know, like ABC floor covering. We have the same mode of operation as any business. That's why when you see uh at a town warrant, you say yes to it, we have to raise the money via the user rates, and we run it as a business. And my background was running multiple businesses, and um they kind of came asked and asked if I would go. Not that the commissioners were uncapable or anything, but I have kind of a tendency of uh getting an idea and getting it done. So, and uh yeah, a long time, Pat. Long, long, long time.

SPEAKER_08 13:09

Very good. Um, Riley, what do you consider to be the strengths of the our park and recreation department, the department that you oversee?

SPEAKER_04 13:17

Um, I think the strengths, uh, number one is the great staff we have. I think um if we didn't have a strong staff, our programs wouldn't be where they are today. And thankfully, you know, Tim McRae, um our director, he he um is a phenomenal um director. He he truly cares about his employees and um the children and um parents, the children, and all the people that use our programs along with our um office staff and like I mentioned, you know, our daycare staff. Um but the strengths I would say that we have is the programs we have to offer. I mean, we do many different things from daycare to youth sports to our summer concerts. Um so I feel like our department provides a variety of different opportunities that kind of I don't want to say satisfy satisfy everyone's need, but um, you know, there's something for everybody if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_08 14:14

And you oversee Borden Colony, the Borden Colony complex with all of the sports fields and the gazebo park and so forth. Yeah. Because we just got approval for using the gazebo park for our Rainier Memorial Day parade, so everybody has to have that on their calendar um for sure, because uh that'll be on Saturday, uh May 25th. Oh, yeah, I already got May 23rd. And uh we'll be having our annual ceremony there, right in the gazebo park as usual, at the end of the parade. Very good.

unknown 14:46

Mr.

SPEAKER_08 14:46

Betancourt, what about you? What do you think of the strengths of your department?

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Well, the department only works because we have five people who know what they're supposed to do, and they do it very easily and well. Uh we've um there are always problems in any mechanical operation and uh loss of power. Um we have generators on each of our stations, so we don't have to worry to have to call you up and say please do not flush, uh that type of thing. But um they every single person that works for us, the five men out in the field, so to speak, they do exactly the same thing at every place. So if one is in here, someone can do it. And they're agreeable type people, they enjoy each other. So if you've got a good working environment, it's so much easier.

SPEAKER_08 15:57

And a good team spirit of all working together.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Yes, and we've had uh good quality leadership over the years in the superintendents, and of course, this this year we're losing Rob Carey, he's retiring, but um he'd been there and he did everything they're doing, so he knows he's good with the personnel, and uh the personnel respond to each other very nicely.

SPEAKER_08 16:26

Very good. Um, Riley, anything in particular you hope to accomplish over the next three years?

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Um so over the next three years, um, you know, I'd like to explore different um programs to offer to our citizens. Um some things that we're working on that's a progress in progress is we are um converting what two of our tennis courts into one tennis court over into over at Borden College, and we're gonna be having um pickleball court.

SPEAKER_09 16:54

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

So I think that will be very exciting. I know pickleball is uh quite the race.

SPEAKER_08 16:59

It's quite the thing right now.

SPEAKER_04 17:00

So that will be something I definitely um would be looking into, and hopefully someday, not right now exactly, but I would like to get um a turnfield in town. But that's a that's a couple years down the road.

SPEAKER_08 17:15

And there are all kinds of activities that go on at Borden Colony. Oh yeah. You mentioned the um the concerts in the summer, and then there's the uh the horse um group music has shows. Oh yeah, there's a lot of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:28

Um we have a lot of many, like I said, different activities.

SPEAKER_09 17:31

Very good.

SPEAKER_08 17:32

Next three years, what's what do we hope happens at the sewer commission or sewer department?

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Every night at the city of Taunton will say, let's sit down and figure out what we're going to do. Um I don't want to throw rocks at them. I've had to communicate with them and have poor Rob Carey. I said, send them a letter, tell them what we want, and send it certified return receipt required, so they can never say they didn't get the letter. I was still waiting. So my biggest thing is to get the number from the city of Taunton that we have to uh pay towards uh the capitalization of the uh new new treatment plant, and that's going to be, as I said, somewhere north of$15 million worth for us to come up with. And we've provided over the past five or six years a formula to get to it.

unknown 18:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

And you know, if if I had done that, if they had done that, I wouldn't be looking for re-election, to be honest with you. So I don't want to leave a job unfinished.

Why Local Voting Matters

SPEAKER_08 18:58

Well, we're glad to hear that. Riley, why am how important do you think it is for people to get out and vote at this um annual town election that's coming up on Saturday?

SPEAKER_04 19:10

So I think it's very important 25th. I think it's very important to that's something I find a struggle with people my own age. They don't vote, whether it's local, state, or presidential election. Um I think it's very important. I think you need to, as a citizen, you need to, you know, I don't want to say speak your mind, but you know, making a point to do your civic duty, participate, have your voice heard. You know, I see a lot of you know people that don't like the way things are done, but they don't really make the effort to try to change it, and I think that really starts by going out and vote for whoever you think is the best candidate. So I would strongly urge people to vote on um April 25th, regardless who you support. I think it's very important to vote and vote.

unknown 19:50

Right.

SPEAKER_08 19:51

And if anyone is not registered to vote yet, it is not too late. No, it's not. I just checked with the town clerk's office, and next Wednesday, uh April 15th, uh 5 o'clock p.m. here at town hall is the deadline. So people can still register to vote if they're not registered yet. And um, and um um and also they can get absentee ballots if they know they're not going to be available there now. Um absentee ballots are available in the town clerk's office. Yes, and also you can pick up a mail-in ballot if you'd like. And then, of course, on election day, everybody votes at that Rainham Middle School from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. And uh um it is so important, Mr. Betancourt. Why don't more people vote? Have you figured that out yet? In our annual town elections?

SPEAKER_03 20:40

What do we have in the town of Rainham? How many voters? Legal voters?

SPEAKER_08 20:46

About 12,000, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

12,000. How many people came out and voted at the last town election? 400? 3%? 3% of the people had their voice. And of the 3%, one and a half at least, that's 50% of those people, voted for somebody that got elected. So think of that in that way. One and a half percent of the population controls this town because people don't go out and vote. It's a privilege, it's an obligation. If you say you're an American, your privilege is the right to have your voice heard in the ballot, and it's an obligation as a citizen to participate.

SPEAKER_08 21:46

Well said. Anything else you want to say, Riley? To the voters?

SPEAKER_04 21:50

Um I think you know it's very important that you know everybody makes a time to vote. Um and like you mentioned, ab absentee ballots are available. Go early, you know, if we have an obligation day out. I know it's the end of school vacation week. You know, I think it's I would urge everyone to go.

SPEAKER_08 22:08

Yes, if you know you're not gonna be around get an FCD ballot, absolutely. All right, very good. Anything else you want to say to the everybody watching out there, Mr. Bettencourt?

SPEAKER_03 22:19

I'm an old person. I remember what they called the poll tax. When I was a kid, there was a poll tax. You paid a tax if you didn't go and vote. And people were lined up around the street, down the street, until the very end. Everybody voted. You know, 30,000 people of the 40,000 people in the town voted. Now you're lucky to get 4,000 out of them. So it's a different world.

unknown 22:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

We should vote.

SPEAKER_08 22:59

We should definitely vote. And we want to thank you both very much for being with us this evening. As a running uncontested, you don't have to participate, but certainly very happy that you do. Thank you for having us. Excellent. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

I was glad to come to give the town an opportunity to get a general feeling for what the sewer department has done firsthand from the commission, one of the commissioners. Mr. Kelleher, who's on the cemetery, is also on our commission. He could tell the same stories.

SPEAKER_08 23:38

Very good.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 23:40

And we'll excuse you now. And do we have our school committee candidates vote here with us? Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Good luck. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

You too. And Joe, we have that full task, did you vote for Lincoln? No, it was actually Jackson.

School Committee Candidates Introductions

SPEAKER_08 24:06

All right. So we will invite our school committee candidates to come up and join us. And I believe by the luck of the draw, um, Joshua is speaking first. So if you'll take seat number one there, Joshua. And James is number two, so if you'll take the second seat, Mr. DuPont. And we will turn our attention to the two candidates seeking the one open Rainham seat on the Breachwater Rainham Regional School Committee. We'll begin with opening statements and continue with questions before concluding statements. Candidates have been advised to limit their remarks in each instance to two minutes. Mrs. Becky Mallow is our timekeeper this evening. We thank her for that, and she will let us know when our two minutes are up. Um there is no incumbent for this seat. Jessica Davenport chose not to seek re-election. We want to thank Jessica for her dedicated service and wish her the very best in all her future endeavors. So our candidates for school committee, we have Mr. Joshua Henrik and James DuPont. And um, we will begin with opening statements. And then I as I said, by the luck of the draw, Josh is first, Jim is second, and then we'll alternate from that point going forward. So Josh.

SPEAKER_06 25:32

Hi, nice to meet you, everybody. My name is Joshua Henrik. I'm a graduate from Bridgewater State University with a Bachelor of Arts and Political Science. There I served on the Student Government Association as the Senate Speaker for one year and a senator for another year. There I learned important responsibilities such as team coordination and how to appropriately delegate tasks and take care of certain issues when it comes to team management. And for my political science degree, I really wanted to focus on the future of our country and the future generations to come. And currently, education is extremely important to our country. It's extremely important to our local community. So as time goes on, we see how education can change with growing changes in technology such as AI and the general use of computers in classrooms now. So I'm hoping to bring my youth and experience with technologies to innovate the classrooms and innovate the school committee.

SPEAKER_08 26:45

Okay, thank you, Josh. Josh Archua Henrik and now um Mr. James DuPont.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Thank you very much, Pat. Good evening. My name is James DuPont, candidate for the Rainham seat in this year's BR Regional School Committee election on April 25th. I previously served on the BR committee and I'm a proud BR graduate class of 1971. And in 1978, I became the f the first BR graduate to serve on the Bridgewater Rainham Regional School Committee, where I served for 18 years from 1978 to 1996, after which I served as two terms as a town selectman. I'm retired from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue Litigation Bureau where I supervised the group that handled corporate bankruptcies. I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and history from Bridgewater State College and completed a postgraduate program teaching social studies and history at the high school level, part of which I was uh able to teach full-time at a nearby uh city high school and learn firsthand what the challenges were for teachers in the classroom. As part of that program, uh I was able to almost a full school year. Uh if I am elected, I my my ultimate promise to all is to always put the best interest of the students first. Ed Denton, who was the superintendent when I was elected in 1978 in my very first meeting, after about a 45-minute contentious debate, he said, in the best interest of the student, I recommend. And I realize that that it has to be what is said about every decision the school committee and administration makes, and not just some of the students, all of them, collectively and individually. I want to thank everybody for coming in tonight and attending tonight, and I look forward to the debate. Thank you.

Why Run And What Qualifies

SPEAKER_08 28:26

Thank you, Mr. DuPont. And we will um alternate so this same person doesn't have to answer first all the time. So with that um strategy, we go back to you, Jim, for my next question, which is why do you want to be elected to the school committee and why now?

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Well, I decide I have not I served 18 years and I learned a lot about how school committees work, during which time uh proposition two and a half passed, uh education reform passed, and the roles of school of how a school committee functions best as a group and as an advisory group, uh but the full-time professionals in the classroom, the full-time professionals in the administration superintendent. I said I I believe that I would bring to the current school committee, which I think is quite excellent. I think that the the uh three members from Rainham right now, and hopefully myself and the four from Bridgewater, they are very very well qualified and focused on the best interest of the students. I think my experience at working on a school committee is good. But more importantly, I've been out for a number of years, and as such, I've been the both the person on the podium at the town meeting, but also in the audience, and how things look and feel to the average voter who isn't maybe directly involved in the day-to-day activities of the schools as a parent or as a faculty member or know somebody who works there. So I've kind of had both views, and I'd like to contribute that to the team that's currently is on the school committee. That's why I chose to run this year.

SPEAKER_08 29:56

Question two, Josh.

SPEAKER_06 29:58

Well, I'm looking to start a career in politics, and I figured we're better than you know, Rainham where I where I live, and I see a lot of people, you know, um questioning the um, you know, a lot of parents upset with the current school committee and the way things are b uh going on with the uh funding issues, and I feel like with a new perspective and my new voice in politics that I can show some light and help out. Help, you know, help my town, help my local community uh grow and help prosper. Because uh our children are the next generation, they're the people who are going to lead our town in the future. So I hope that with me stepping up as being so young that other gen other kids my age, other people with the younger generation will also step up and maybe be more interested in politics than they are right now. So, you know, and you know, it's a good starting point for me, you know, local. So helping out.

SPEAKER_08 31:06

Thank you, Josh. Next question will go first to uh Joshua Henrik, and it is if we had a job description for the position of school committee member, what do you think it should include, and what specifically in your background or experience do you believe qualifies you for that position?

SPEAKER_06 31:23

Well, I would say it would be making decisions that would best benefit the students of our um of our district and making decisions from interest now and in the future. And from my personal experiences, I point to me being a student. You know, I was only last year did I graduate from Bridgewater State University, four years before that graduated from Bristol Plymouth and from high Bristol Plymouth High School, and I still know and understand what it means to be a student. I still understand the certain struggles that it is to be a student and change in these changing conditions and what it's like to, you know, have to, you know, understand uh sit down and uh try to grasp the changing concepts with COVID and the new technology coming forward. And you know, and there's a lot of a lot of students experience anxiety and and a lot of stress and a lot of pressure in the current um current feel of our education system all across the country. So I want to help them understand that education is important and help them understand that education is their future and that learning should not be a struggle, but it should be an opportunity for your future.

SPEAKER_08 32:49

Okay, thank you, Josh. Same question. Mr. DuPont.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

My experience on the school committee taught me that it it if you had a say a job description, you're the board of directors. You are not the people who run the day-to-day. Uh Ed reform took away most of the sort of direct involvement of school committees in terms of hiring and things. Really, the school committee doesn't make decisions now about curriculum or personnel. It does, however, negotiate the contracts, and it does hold and have have a vote on whether or not the superintendent gets rehired or not. And that is that's got to be a partnership. But you're really not there. You're one person of eight, and you have to earn the respect of the other ones, and you have to learn to to interact with them and work with them. But it's a board of directors position. It's sort of you oversee the whole of it and the outcomes, and if there are issues that come up, you have to rely on the professionalism of your administrators, particularly your superintendent, to come to you with information that will help you make an informed decision. So I would call it a board of directors position, and and a lot of the day-to-day things, the school committees really aren't involved with, and uh they had been in in previous years, many years ago, but reform kind of removed that. So I I I'd say you're part of a team and you contribute what you can and you try to work on the strengths of the other members and with the administration on the day-to-day issues.

District Performance And Key Weaknesses

SPEAKER_08 34:14

Okay, thank you, Mr. DuPont. And you get the next question as well. How would you assess the current school district, administration, teaching staff, school committee?

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Well, I the the administration I would give them uh an A plus. Ryan Powers is a very capable administrator, but uh you you can only do so much with limited resources. Uh over the years, BR has set a standard for its administrators and also for its faculty, that they hired people who had the best interests of the students in the classroom. So, administration I would give them an A plus. I would give us an an A very close to A plus on faculty, because these people come to BR because they want to be at BR. There are plenty of school districts that they could teach at otherwise. And and that someone chooses to apply to BR, the quality of the applicants always told me about what what I needed to know about the the district in terms of faculty. We were getting good quality applicants according to the superintendent, and it was a difficult decision sometimes on deciding whom to hire. So I would say the faculty and administration top top level, but they can't print money, and we're looking at a f fiscal crisis this year. Even that said, I think that Ryan Powers in particular, who's a Rainham person himself who went to the public schools, this is what you get. He he tells you what you can get out of the Rainham public schools that he has ascended ultimately to the top position in the school district that he went to.

SPEAKER_08 35:41

Okay, thank you. Uh Mr. DuPont, same question, Mr. Henrik. How would you assess the current school district, administration, teaching staff?

SPEAKER_06 35:49

I think that they're doing the best job they can with what they have on hand. And you know, there's a big issue with finances in the current school district, but they're they're they're putting things together the best they can, they're working through it the hardest, you know, that they can, and it's just a struggle with finances. If if there wasn't a struggle with finances, then there would be no problem. We wouldn't be having a lot of these discussions with the problems in the school district. But you know, the teaching staff, the administration, everybody is doing the best that they can. They're doing they're working hard and they're trying to solve the issues the best they can. And hopefully after this election, we'll actually have these issues resolved.

SPEAKER_08 36:28

Okay, thank you. And you get the next question, too. What do you see as the district's strengths and shortcomings, if any?

SPEAKER_06 36:37

Well, I think for our strengths, I could say that our determination to keep pushing forward and the fact that we're not giving up on our students and that we want to keep helping them the best we can, and we're just going forward, trying to work with the state, trying to work with local officials, trying to get everything done, trying to push forward past this financial issues that we're having, trying to resolve everything. You know, working hard, determination, I think, is definitely our strengths. And I don't really think that we have any shortcomings. It's I think that the issues that we're having are from the state government, uh, who are, you know, they're they're the ones that are holding us back.

SPEAKER_08 37:21

Okay, thank you. Same question, Mr. DuPont.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Well, I think the strengths of Bridgewater Rain Am are that it is resilient and determined even in the face of adversity. Uh they showed that during COVID. It was unlike anything that any educator had ever had to deal with before, and yet they still managed to deliver quality education, and the administrators were able to make do with what they have. Now they of course would always want more, but the teachers didn't make excuses of saying that they couldn't teach as well as they wanted to because of they had too many in the class. The teachers didn't make excuses. They went in every day and did the very best that they could every day, regardless of that. So I think that's those the strengths and the determination and the professionalism, the dedication of the people in the classroom, the support staff and the administrative people. As far as the weakness goes, I s what I'm hearing and I'm seeing firsthand is that at the high school level, at the secondary level in particular, we are we've l losing more and more electives, which means that the the completeness of the education that a BR grad has and what they show on in a college application or a job application is going down. And that's that's got to be corrected. And I I I think the the other thing that that becomes a weakness that's that's uh troubling to me is what that they're limiting educational opportunities with lack of electives, but they're also limiting participation in in activities by charging fees for pr you know per student in and in varsity sports and other things. When I was on the school committee, they proposed user fees several times, and I was adamantly opposed to them now then as I am now because we thought the extracurricular activities, particularly varsity sports, were part of their education. We don't charge somebody more if you to to go to BR schools if they have four kids instead of three or two, and we don't charge some what do we charge them extra for taking an extra English class? We don't charge by the class. You show up, we give you the best education we can. So when you start limiting educational and extracurricular activities, I think that's a weakness.

Town Relations And Chapter 70 Funding

SPEAKER_08 39:29

Thank you, Mr. DuPont. And you get the next question. Do you believe the working relationship between the school administration and school committee and the towns of Bridgewater and Rainham is currently what it should be, or if not, what do you think it should be?

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Well, I think there's uh I think the working relationship between the BR administration and the two towns is very good. And there are some things that I think could be improved on. Uh recently the uh Bridgewater Finance Committee met with the administration to talk about their capital planning strategies. And and what emerged from that was an understanding on the part of the town of Bridgewater of how Ryan Powers and his administration was going about major capital expenses and planning for the future. And they came away from it with an understanding instead of you've got to do better or you can't. So I thought that that spoke well of both the town of Bridgewater and and the administration. I think one of the things that I am I want to criticize uh the towns for and people in general when it comes to budgets, whenever they look at a budget and you hear budget discussions, it's about where is the money going. And they're looking at, well, why are you spending this much on that or not enough on this? I think they need to look at as much at where the money is going as where it is coming from. And the lack of uh the state funding of man required aid to education under Chapter 70 being the biggest item there. So let if we're going to talk budgets, and this is something that I think the towns need to look at, is where is the money coming to fund BR? And instead of imposing additional taxes on the local property taxpayers, they should be looking to have the state fulfill its commitments under ch under the law and give us what they were entitled to by the formula instead of here's what's left.

SPEAKER_08 41:10

Thank you, Mr. DuPont. Same question, Mr. Henry.

SPEAKER_06 41:13

Well, I think that it work we're we're doing good between the school committee and the local towns, and I think that they're doing the best they can working together. They they need to work together in order to actually form a functional you know organization between all of us. So and I think the the only the big the only issue is proposition two and a half, the towns trying to get their funding that way when they should be going after the state for chapter 70 funding. Uh because proposition two and a half, you know, we shouldn't be raising taxes, more and more taxes, on our our local residents who already pay enough taxes, um or enough, they pay enough property taxes just in general. More and more. This the schools need funding, yes, but chapter 70 is where we should be getting that funding, not our local residents. We should not be penalizing them because the state government is not ponying up the money that they owe us.

SPEAKER_08 42:09

Thank you, Mr. Hendrick. And this is uh follow-up on that a little bit. The school district obviously is grappling with a financial crisis. What do you see as the path forward?

SPEAKER_06 42:20

I think the path forward is going to the state and saying that chapter 70 is not being fully funded, and that the school districts all across the Commonwealth need more money. They need to be putting their full amount of money into Chapter 70, and they need to be distributing it evenly among all the school districts who need it. Because I know that we cannot be the only school district in the whole Commonwealth that needs more Chapter 70 funding, especially with growing student populations. Um, you know, and the lack of teachers in the classrooms, we need more and more funding to pay for more teachers.

SPEAKER_08 42:57

Thank you, Mr. Hendrix. Same question. Mr. DuPont.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Well, I I I think that the whole we we keep talking about getting off the property tax to run local government. I'm still apoplectic at how it is we are funding local government and schools on a tax scheme that goes back to the Middle Ages. Uh the fact of the matter is, is state revenue comes from every city and town and every resident and every one of them. And I think that local aid, number one, should be defined as how much let's take a percentage of what came out of the town. You can call the Department of Revenue tomorrow and ask them how much came out of Rainham in the month of March in sales tax, they'll tell you. So instead of making it on some sort of an arbitrary formula that says you're entitled to this much, why don't we make it how much did you take from us in the first place and stop forcing the cities and the towns to make local property taxpayers pay more money to make up for the shortfall. Before Proposition 2.5, if you got shortchanged by the state, you put another nickel on the tax rate and you went on about your business. After Prop two and a half, If you spent a dollar on transportation and got 75 cents back, you had to cut something even if you s you and you had to ask local taxpayers to make it up. And I think this is a failure of the legislature. They're talking about changing the formula for Chapter 70. I said, what's the difference if the f the formula is if you don't appropriate the money to pay it? So the way I look at it, fund local aid first, chapter 70 first, and then if the state needs more money, let them raise taxes instead of making the selectmen and the school committees do it for them.

Budget Vote And Hard Options

SPEAKER_08 44:31

Thank you, Mr. DuPont. And you get the next question first. Do you support the budget for the next school year as voted at the school committee meeting? Why or why not?

SPEAKER_02 44:41

Well, reluctantly, yes. I say yes reluctantly because I know it was not the budget that Ryan Powers felt that the students deserved. But he was trying to make some concessions to the towns and the limits on what he could reasonably ask for. But he the school committee was given two budgets. I've been to 19 different school committees uh in the last couple of weeks to see what's going on in their budgets, and they most of them are proposing two budgets. One is here's a level funded budget, which does not meet what the students need, and the other is a superintendent's recommendation budget. And neither one of those is probably what those students need and deserve. And let's be clear. Education is a constitutional right of those students and a constitutional obligation of the cities and towns. When you formed a town, you had to have a church, a common, and a school. It is this is not some luxurious thing that you that you dreamed up in the 20th century. So I I I think that I would I I looked at the vote, there was one member who opposed it, and he said specifically this doesn't meet the needs of the students, so he wasn't going to vote for it. And ultimately it will become down to a contest between the towns and what they can afford and what the regional school district has to ask for, which wouldn't be as much if they would just pay us what they owe us in the first place.

SPEAKER_08 46:02

Thank you. Mr. Jupant, same question, Mr. Henry.

SPEAKER_06 46:05

I say no. It's because it's not what other students our students deserve. Um the fund, and I'm not blaming the school committee, I'm not blaming the towns. Um once again, I'm gonna point to the state. It's just the fact that we're not getting enough chapter 70, they're given, you know, the students deserve, not just in our district, across the whole Commonwealth, they deserve every asset that we can give them. They deserve every opportunity that we that every single other generation got before them. The fact that we're taking away electives, that we're taking away more and more opportunities, because you know, when you go to college, if students choose to go to college, colleges look at electives, colleges look at athletics. Taking away these core programs, even though they're electives, taking those opportunities away from students hurt their futures, whether it's academic or practical, going into what is the real world. So taking away any form of funding just because of chapter 70, you know, we should be, once again, going after the state. We shouldn't have approved any form of budget if it did not meet the needs of our students.

SPEAKER_08 47:12

Thank you, Mr. Hendrick. Can you get the next question? It's a little longer, so bear with me. The school committee members stated when they approved their budget for the next fiscal year that they would not settle for anything less as proposed. It would require an 11% increase in Bridgewater's assessment and an 8% increase in Rainham's assessment. Both towns have indicated that they cannot afford that level of increase without either drastic cuts in services and personnel or an increase in tax revenue through an override vote. Obviously, more state aid in the state's final budget and of the possibility of a reduction in the increase in health insurance, as the superintendent has indicated, might be possible, could bring those percentage increases down. But if in the final analysis the staff the town still would need to make those drastic cuts, what do you think the school committee's options are and what would you support?

SPEAKER_06 48:09

Well, I think that everything for the school committee should be for the best interest of the students. And if we need to cut some things that may hurt individuals, but may benefit the anything that benefits the students is I think the best choice. They should always be our number one concern over everyone else. So, you know, I think, you know, and it it's unfortunate that the towns might have to do that, but again, the state needs to the state needs to start, you know, stepping up a little bit more. But I think that the towns, you know, if the towns need to do something, I don't think our I don't think overriding our uh proposition two and a half is the solution to that problem, though. I think that, you know, maybe some cuts here and there for some things, but uh most importantly, trying to get more funding from the state, I think, is our best solution.

SPEAKER_08 49:13

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Same question, Mr. DuPont.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

I just want to start off by saying the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has eight point three billion dollars. That's with the B in the rainy day fund. So anybody at the state in the legislature or in the governor's office who says they can't fully fund Chapter 70 needs to do some explaining to me on why that$8 billion is sitting there. Let me tell you, it's rainy day fund, guess what? Lower the lifeboats and pass out the umbrellas, because that day is here. This is no drill. And I would say here's what here's one that I just thought of recently. I said, how about we do this? How about we find out how much the state shortchangest on Chapter 70, and then to have the town send you two tax bills. One that shows what we are willing to pay for under Proposition 2.5, and the second one that shows how much you have to pay because your state legislators did not fully fund Chapter 70. Very simple. They know how much they owe us. And every year that I was on the school committee, the district treasurer got a letter that said, You're pro-RATAS air. And it was never a hundred percent. And who made up the difference? The people sitting in this in this room right now and the rest of the town. Not because the town spent more, not because the district spent more, but because the legislature said they needed that money more than that. By the way, we've had proposition two and a half since 1981. The legislature has no limit on that.

SPEAKER_08 50:41

Thank you, Mr. DuPont. Uh, that same uh next question I should say, that same to you, Mr. DuPont. If the town of Rainham could provide a larger percentage increase in its assessments than what would be required in order to meet what the town of Bridgewater could provide, would you support the town of Rainham gifting additional funds specifically for Rahnham's K through grade 8 side of the district?

SPEAKER_02 51:08

Well, the the regional formula is based on your percentage of enrollments, so that if you cut the bud the assessment to one town, you have to cut it to both. And as such, you can't have two assessments. And gifting to the regional school district, that may be the only way. Now, the the the the problem that you're then going to have, and a friend of mine said to me, he has friends who live on Pine Street. One side of it is in Bridgewater, one side of it isn't in Rainham. And there's pe those kids play with each other after school every day, but one of them goes to an elementary school in Bridgewater, and one of them goes to an elementary school in Rainham. And that that one on the Rainham side would then get a a different and probably better, arguably, educational experience than their friend across the street. That's not fair, that's not right. That's wrong for those kids. So gifting may solve the problem for one town, but it doesn't solve the problem for the students of the district. And you have to look at all of the students. They don't wear little armbands that say Rainham or Bridgewater. We look we're trying to educate them all as best we can. Gifting is is a is a short-term fix. At the end of the day, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts takes money out of Bridgewater and Rainham, and I'll say it over and over and over.$8.3 billion in the rainy day fund. There is absolutely if we got what we were entitled to under Chapter 70 and Chapter 71, that was on the regional school committee, she knows, Louie was. 71 is the regional school transportation supposed to be 100% reimbursed. But you've got to spend the dollar first. You spend the dollar and they send you 75 cents. That's got to stop.

SPEAKER_08 52:51

Thank you, Mr. DuPont. Same question, Mr. Henrik.

SPEAKER_06 52:54

Well, first I want to say where's that money come from? From a town, and it comes from um property taxes. And I think that the we sh you know the the town already pays and you know, the residents of the towns already pay enough in property taxes, and I don't think that continuing to increase property taxes is um a good problem, a good solution for our town to fix the financial problem of the school committee. Um because what what are people gonna do when they keep raising taxes becomes unaffordable? They're going to leave and find greener pastures where they can actually afford. So I think that chasing away our local residents to try to catch up is not a good solution. I think what we should be doing is, you know, going for chapter 70, trying to get more and more money from the state, trying to get our fair share from the state, not you know, harassing our residents for more and more money and chasing them out of our town.

How Leaders Decide Controversies

SPEAKER_08 53:51

Thank you, Mr. Henry Knick's question. When faced with a controversial decision, how do you make that decision? What role does your own research uh play, your personal convictions or public opinion?

SPEAKER_06 54:05

Well, I want to say that if it is controversial, I'm gonna first look towards the benefit of our students. And if it benefits our students, then I think that it's a you know, controversial or not, I think that's the decision we need to make. If it doesn't benefit our students, then we shouldn't make that decision. We should always think of our students first and foremost, even if it's a controversial decision. You know, our students are the most important thing to our district and the most important thing to our community.

SPEAKER_08 54:36

Thank you, Mr. Hendrix. Same question, Mr. DuPont.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

Well, when someone says something controversial, it's usually because there is somebody who thinks somebody else is getting a benefit they're not entitled to. And uh and it gets down to what is in the best interest of the student, and that may not be popular. It may not be popular with that student's parents, it may not be popular with the taxpayers, it may not be popular with the staff. So when something's controversial, you have to look at what's in the best interest of the students, but you have to figure out a solution that's win-win so that nobody goes away thinking home, thinking that they were shortchanged by the decision. As far as decision-making goes and controversial decisions, one of the things you've got to look at is policy. What's the policy? Policy can be waived based on exigencies and unexpected circumstances, but where there is no policy, that is where the school committee, and I had it happen several times, the superintendent, said we don't have a this is the decision you have to make as a school committee. But when they said, well, what does the professionals, the people who do this full-time? Don McKinnon had a saying, full-time beats part-time every time. The school committee is part-time. Rely on the professional experience and the professionalism of your administrators and full-time staff when you're making a decision controversial or not.

SPEAKER_08 55:53

Thank you. Next question: what factor or factors do you think determines the success of a school district? Per pupil expenditure has often been referenced by the administration and school committee, with Bridgewater Rainham being less than most um school districts in the state. Do you believe that is the primary factor, most the most important factor, or one of a number of factors?

SPEAKER_02 56:17

Well, previously when I was on the school committee, every month we got a guidance report that told us how many students had left Bridgewater Rainham for other educational opportunities. And the most common one was they went to Bristol Plymouth. But any student that went at the end of the year, we also got a report of how many BR graduates were going to four-year colleges, two-year colleges, military full-time employment, and then there was a category that said other. Those were the ones that the district lost. That they basically, when they graduated, said goodbye. They didn't, and what they were going to go do, and George Powers, then the Director of Guidance, he took that very seriously. And the higher that number goes, where you don't know what that student is doing after they leave Bridgewater Rain Am is one of the first things that I always looked at. The higher that got, that was a disconnect between the district and this and and the students. When you went to a college fair at another high school and you saw that they were not getting the same level of interest from elite colleges, not that the other ones that weren't elite w weren't didn't count, but it was a measure. It told you that these people wanted the best because they expected the best. And uh so you you look at a couple of things on terms of how is the district doing, and I would say how many students can you not account for what they're going to do afterwards would be a big one. But how many students left BR willingly for another educational opportunity? George Powers and those people, they took that very seriously and they did it critically. They tried to say, What are we not doing for that student? And and they would try to correct it over the term that was coming up.

SPEAKER_08 58:20

Thank you, Mr. DuPont. Same question, Mr. Hendrick.

SPEAKER_06 58:23

Well, I would say that we should, you know, the measure of success, we should see how how our students are doing in even individually. What what even if one student makes all the difference? So we can I would say that we should look at how well each individual student does and and how well they're succeeding in our in our district and how well they succeed afterwards. Because even if they go to college, college is not for everybody. You know, so some people have a successful career right out, or some people even join the military, the armed forces. So I think that we should see how well each individual student does while they're in our district, while they're being educated, and then seeing how well they do afterwards. And if we see more and more students getting good grades and graduating from our district, and then going off to four-year colleges, going off to the military, going off and succeeding in life, I think that that's success. But seeing students go off and not succeed, and I would say that's a failure. So I think that we should go and see how many students are being successful in life, and then seeing saying that our district is successful.

School Committee Closing Statements

SPEAKER_08 59:32

Thank you. And we are now up to our closing statements, and so you get to go first.

SPEAKER_06 59:38

Well, I want to thank everybody for showing up. Thank everybody for listening. Well, I know I'm young, and I know that this is my this is my first political campaign, so I know I'm not very well known, but I'm hoping that with being a new voice, being new, being a little inexperienced, hoping that I can shed some light on things that people may not see being bringing innovation, change to our classrooms, change to our school committee, change to our town community, and hoping to be a positive voice and a positive influence for the next generation and the current generation of our town. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:20

Hey, thank you, Candidate Joshua Hamrick. Candidate James DuPont.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

Thank you, Pat. Uh I'll just close by saying this year BR is facing an unprecedented existential crisis. That means its very existence and its uh and its future as a as a learning institution at secondary level is it is in jeopardy. With the current Rainham member not seeking re-election, I decided to offer myself as a candidate to the voters. Having previously served, I feel I know firsthand how a good school committee best works and how I, as an individual member, would need to work with the other members, first to earn their respect, and second, how to help the committee move to act in the best interest of the students. Being out of public office for a number of years has enabled me to see how BR and the rest of our local government impacts the daily lives of so many people. And it looks differently when you're sitting in the audience at a town meeting than when you're sitting up on the polling on the platform. Many people like me are not directly involved in the day-to-day activities that take place in m most of our government and our schools, but that doesn't mean we don't have something to contribute as part of a committee. If elected, I promise to always act in the best interest of the students and do all I can to see to it that each one of them, every one of them, individually and collectively, receives the education they need and they deserve.

Select Board Race Setup

Select Board Opening Statements

SPEAKER_08 1:01:40

Wish you both the best of luck. And uh we are going to turn our attention in just a moment or two to our three candidates seeking election to the one open seat on the three member random select board. But first we're going to play a little musical chair. So we'll be back in just a moment or two. If our uh select board candidates can come up and take their seat. And since current selectman Ken Collins is not seeking re-election, we wish to thank him for his service over the past three years and wish him all the best in his future endeavors. Our candidates are Matt Andrade, Linda Brackett, and Lou Pacico. By the luck of the draw, Matt will be the first to speak, and Linda will be second, and Lou will be third for the opening statements, and we will alternate from that point going forward. We have asked our candidates to keep their comments to two minutes each. Mrs. Becky Mellow is our timekeeper over there, and she will let you know with the ring of the bell if you've gone over. And also if you want to respond to something one of your opponents has commented, has said, just please do that in your next opportunity to speak. So with that, we start first with opening statement. Matt Andrade.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:38

Perfect. Thank you. Good evening, Rainham. My name is Matthew Andreard, and I've been a part of Rainham virtually my whole life. I went to school here, built a business here, and right now I'm raising a family here. I have kids in school, kids in the classroom, which means I don't just care about this town from the outside looking in. I have skin in this game. Every decision this select board makes affects my family just as much as it affects yours, and that's why I'm running. When I look at what's ahead, school budgets under pressure, a public safety building and construction, a tax base that needs to grow. I don't see political problems. I see my kids' teachers, my neighbors' safety, and a future the residents of Rainham are counting on. Our schools need investments, not cuts. If elected, I'm gonna work with the select board members to come up with a plan to enhance the budget rather than chop it away year after year because we owe it to our kids to do that. Our new public safety building is being built. It's probably gonna be under construction within a year. And it's time that our police and fire get the resources and the facilities that they need to succeed. And we need smart growth, commercial, industrial development that expands. Our tax base without overwhelming our schools and services, and a fresh set of eyes on yearly receipts. I've spent the last five plus years on the planning board learning how the town works from the inside of town government. I know the process, I know the departments, and I know most importantly how to get things done. I'm asking for your vote on April 25th because I'm not just fighting for Rainham in general, I'm fighting for the families who live here, to raise their kids here, and for every resident that is counting on our local government to not only do what's right, but to do what's best. And that's all I got.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:42

Thank you, candidate. Candidate Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:48

I wasn't born in Rainham. I didn't move to Rainham as a child. I purchased my home in Rainham in 1988. I chose to move to Rainham at that point in time. After my closing on that hot um August morning, my husband and I were on the way to the new house, and on the way we stopped at this little store called the Coletti's Market. It was a sign saying fresh sandwiches. I didn't get in there, but it was lunchtime and I was hungry. I was welcomed by everybody. Everybody was so kind, so nice. I felt at home already. When I um left there within 10 minutes with the two nice sandwiches in my hand, I felt like I already belonged in this town. In the 38 years since I've lived here, the love for the town has only grown. I am running for the open seat on the select board to bring strong, accountable, and passionate leadership to our community. I believe our town is very leaders who listen, communicate openly, and make thoughtful decisions that reflect the needs of the people who live here, not just today, but in the future. I will lead with transparency, fiscal responsibility, and a focus on solutions that strengthen our community while protecting its character. Leadership is about showing up, about listening, and doing the right thing, even when it's not an easy thing to do. I am committed to serving with integrity, advocacy for our residents, and helping build a community where people of all ages can afford to live, grow, and thrive. I would appreciate you vote on the 25th. Thank you. Thank you, candidate Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:30

Next candidate Luca Chico.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:33

Leader Bat. My name is Lupa Chico, and I'm running for selectman. Now there's a sentence I never thought I had on my bingo card. But here I am. I'm running because Rainham's my home. Um not my home for a minute. It's been my home, where I was born, where I was raised, where I worked, where I raised my family, and where I started a business and have a successful business. It's important to me. And I'm going to tell you some of my background of what I've done. And please don't get the uh the idea that I'm saying it for gratification for myself. Everything that I did was in a bureaucracy, and that's why it's important to bring it out in a situation like this. I started in the Marine Corps in uh 1967, four years in the Marine Corps, and then uh two years uh of construction business, uh co-owned, and then 38 years on the police department, and then five years at the district attorney's office, and then a year as the uh chief of staff for the mayor of Fall River, not the one that got arrested, the other one. And every everywhere we went from work there, the work we did was on the backs of the people that I worked with and in a bureaucracy. And we went, I went in the police department from a civilian dispatcher to chief of police over 38 years. It took me a while, but I I got there eventually. But because of the leadership of guys like the guy on the wall up there, Darren McKinnon, Chief King, uh, we took the department from five or six guys in different uniforms that were never trained. We were teaching at the International Association of the Chiefs of Police in San Diego when I left. So I love the vote and see what happens.

Role Of Select Board Member

SPEAKER_08 1:10:38

Thank you, candidate Luca Chico. First question goes first to Linda Brackett. If a job description existed for the position of select board member, what should it include and what specifically in your background or experience makes you qualified for the position?

SPEAKER_07 1:10:54

I think a job description would say that you're going to serve as the chief elected and executive body for the town. You're going to be responsible for setting policies, uh, strategies, and um making serious decisions. Um my background in mortgage finance has led me to a lot of different uh different places. I've helped hundreds and hundreds of families navigate buying a house, keeping a house if there's an issue, figuring out other ways to um work on things financially. Every person I've dealt with is different. Everybody's situation is different. But everything I've learned over the last 30 years doing this has given me the ability to make good, sound, uh, and rational decisions that are uh compassionate and help um everyone that uh uh crosses my path.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:47

Thank you, candidate Linda Brackett. Candidate Lupa Chico, same question.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

It's an interesting question because the as a as a person, a selectman is nothing. Um we're kind of the amoeba of in the political life. But as a board is where the decisions are made. So my my and many of the systems that I've been in, we had to collaborate like that. And on a board, um, I like to think that I listen privately to everybody and to everything, that I deliberate collaboratively with the with the other boards, and that I decide publicly so that the decisions are for the public.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:30

Okay, thank you, Candidate Lupu Chico. Same question, candidate Matt Andrick.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:35

I think the largest um the largest thing is that comes with the job description is that you're gonna have to make hard decisions on a daily basis. It's not gonna be always the decision that you want to work you always want to do. It's gonna be hiring, it's gonna be firing, dealing with tough financial decisions, communicating with people that don't always see eye to eye to you. But you're gonna have to take in every single piece of that entire puzzle, dissect it, and then outwardly look at the town as a whole, those problems as they come in, and then see number one, does it impact the people positively? Is it a change that everyone is prepared for? And is it gonna be something that's fiscally responsible? Um, it's all gonna be important pieces that you have to put together. And if you can come to the conclusion on your own that it's the right decision to make, then I would say you're right in line with the job description. I mean, it it's gonna entail hard line hard line decisions on a daily basis, and you're just gonna have to be ready for it. You're gonna have to manage that business, and it's that's what the town is. It's a small business, and you have to be prepared to run it.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:43

Thank you, candidate Matt Andrade. Next question, you've all made reference to this, but a little bit more information. What would be your particular strength or strengths as a member of the select board, and how would that benefit the town? And we go first to candidate Lou Pacico.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:59

Well, I think first of all, I got a record, so you know pretty much what I'm gonna do and and uh and and how I'm gonna react under different situations. So I think that that's important. The second thing is I I I know this town. I know the roads, I know the neighborhoods, I know the school system. I helped, as you did too, build this building here. Um not the original one.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:27

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:29

So I think that uh the fact that I know that those things already, I have a running start on them, is a help. I think Rainham's in a in a in a difficult situation now. It's in a critical situation now where change is being made to us and it's not being um managed properly. And and if you don't manage change properly, it sh it manages you.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:55

Okay, thank you, candidate Lupa Chico. Same question, candidate Matt Andrade.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:00

Um, some of the strengths would be I've spent the last six years on the planning board here in Renham. I've learned a ton. And in my tenure of being here, I was able to work with uh retired Ed Buckley on Pine Street development. A lot of people, you know, Ed had come to me and he had a serious issue when that project was underway. He had told me, he said, Matt, we need to get more money for the road. And I said, Well, how do you anticipate doing that? So I went back to the planning board and when they came for approvals, I said, at the discretion of the highway department, their ask is$15,000 per new construction lot. Everyone looked at me and said, Well, we don't do that. And I heard that a lot. And just because we say this is how we've always done it, doesn't mean it's the right way to do it. So you have to reinvent that wheel constantly. I got the same response when we did the 3A overlay. I was part of the 3A overlay district. That was myself, Ken Collins, Greg Barnes, Bob Ayafridi. We all sat in on this. The state jams it down our throat and says, pick a section of town where you can do high density. I came up and I said, What's there to say that we can't put it over two Walmarts? Make the barrier to entry nearly impossible. And inevitably, Serpent said we could do that, and the state adopted that. So those are just two small instances that you know are played to my strengths. I don't always take what someone's gonna say as, oh, that's how we've always done it. This is how we do things, because it's not always right, it's not gonna always be to the benefit of the town. You have to think outside the box because if you want to make a change, you're gonna have to get creative.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:46

Thank you, candidate Matt Andre. Same question, candidate Linda Brackett. Could you repeat the question? Sure. What would be your particular strengths as a member of the select board and how would that benefit the town?

SPEAKER_07 1:16:57

I think one of my strengths is I'm a new, fresh face. I've never held political office, I've never run for political office. I think just a new outside, fresh perspective is going to be helpful. My ability to listen and manage uh and multitask, I think, are um are things that would help the town.

Coordination Across Town Departments

SPEAKER_08 1:17:16

Okay, thank you, Linda Brackett. Next question goes first to Matt Andread. What should the relationship be between the select board and the town administrator, between the select board and department heads and other town employees?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:30

Um so it's a great question. I mean um Greg Barnes, you know, town administrator, he's gonna be a critical point inside the process going forward for all types of budgeting. Every single department head, I think prior to this meeting tonight, I think I've met personally with every department head because it's important. The select board needs to weigh in on what every single department needs. You talk to the highway department, you talk to Norm, you talk to the chief of police, you talk to Brian Lasivity, you talk to everyone, and you understand what their needs are, you understand what their wants are. So then that way when we all have our select board meeting, you can all sit here and say, hey, here are some concerns that are circulating within town. We really need to put the time and effort and energy into fixing these. Um the same thing I met with uh Superintendent Ryan Powers. I can relate to the issues that he's having. You know, my kids are in school, they have classrooms that are over 30 kids. It's not enough for you to just stand on the sidelines and just say, hey, this is a problem. Everyone needs to do something. And I think that the more you can hear from outside sources, the better I can do my job, the better you can do your job. That's the only way we're gonna be able to make effective change that's gonna impact the town. Because if we just act on our own accord and just come up with ideas that we think are right, it might not always be right for the police department. It might not always be right for the school committee. So we need to take in everyone's ideas, put them together, formulate a plan, and execute it from there.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:03

Thank you, candidate Matt Andre. Same question, candidate Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:07

I'm sorry, I could you repeat that?

SPEAKER_08 1:19:10

Sure. What should the relationship be between the select board and the town administrator, and between the select board and department heads and other town employees?

SPEAKER_07 1:19:20

I think that there needs to be mutual respect. Um, you need to be able to communicate with each um each uh town department, each board member. Um you need to have a mutually uh respected relationship with the town administrator, and I think you need to have the um mindset that you're going to go in and you're going to work collaboratively and work with everybody on an equal playing field.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:47

Thank you, Linda Brackett. Same question, candidate Lupachico.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:51

Um I think that this is where I may be able to help uh a little bit, because if I wasn't on the ticket, I'd vote for Matt. Um because a lot of what he says is is absolutely true. But the the thing is, I think that some of these things have slipped through the cracks because the coordination amongst all the departments wasn't as good as it could have been. We have top-notch departments, just like Matt said. Um, but some of the things that I've looked at and some of the projects that I've looked at, the steps weren't they weren't coordinated. One of the things that I would recommend to the board if I was so lucky to be elected was that we sit not to talk, not to say anything, at the department head meeting once a month, maybe rotate it around the board, just so that they're involved. The other thing is I have a philosophy or a a habit of of uh production, and that is define the problem, ask the tough questions, find out what's going on. Second, make somebody responsible. Somebody has to be responsible. Third, find out what the obstacles are, list the obstacles. Fourth, take the uh the um steps, make the steps that you have to go over these obstacles. And third, report back to the board or report back to us on a specific time. Too many things we argue about, we talk about, and then nothing gets done. So I would set up a system, or try to set up a system, recommend setting up a system. In this business, you don't say like you do in the police business, and it happens. You recommend it. But I would uh recommend that type. And and my North Star has always been you can't fix everything, but try to leave everything that you deal with a little bit better. Every call, every sh every piece of work that you do, every job that you do. Just to leave it a little bit better. You can't fix everything.

Town Services And Institutional Knowledge

SPEAKER_08 1:21:53

Okay, thank you very much. Our next question goes first to Lou, I believe. We're alternating here. How do you assess Rainham's town government and town services? Would you propose any changes, any improvements?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:09

Well, town the town government and the services are good. I mentioned some of the things that I would do different. Police department, top notch, fire department, top notch. My father said if it comes down to a dollar going to the police department or a dollar going to the fire department, I'd rather pay them. Um because they keep saving my life. So the highway department, as Matt mentioned, is I I've been down there. I worked there. I worked there during the Blizzard of the 78. I worked there in other years. Right now, uh that guy that's running it is Norm, is got that place that you could eat off the floor. The trucks, some of them are older than me, and I'm almost as old as Joe Betancourt. And uh they still look good and they still run good. So that's good. But I think the overall picture, again, is coordination. You know, just because somebody's got a pocket full of money and a lawyer in Boston and 22 LLCs, uh, we we shouldn't roll over and give them what they want. We should work together to make sure that when these projects start and happen, that the character of the town and what we grew up and what we love as the town is still with us. That's all. And do our best. Try to make each one better.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:30

Thank you, candidate Lupa Chico. Same question, candidate Matt and Andre.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:35

I think that with a lot of these departments after meeting with everyone, a lot of them share you know a wide range of all the same issues. Um, you know, across the board, they have hiring issues, they have constant uh employee turnover, they've got people retiring. And unanimously across the board, the amount of people that this town loses to outside sources, to retirement. I mean, Mr. Betancourt mentioned that in his last one. I mean, he named two or three people that had retired. This is institutional knowledge within the town that's gone. Um, you know, for instance, I spoke to Norm and he said, it's it's it's terrible that I have to say, hey, can you run down to King Street and hit that snow pile that's always an issue? These new people who are coming in, they don't have that institutional knowledge. It's important that we maintain a healthy retention within all departments. We don't want to see employee turnover because every employee that turns over it costs us more money. You know, and that means that talking to every single department, creating a cohesive unit, like I said, I go back to a small business. If if we're gonna run this town like a small business, you need to balance the budgets, you need to work with the employees, you need to create, you know, all these types of systems and processes that make sense, that are checks and balances throughout it. If you can run a small business, you can run the town, you can take input and help to you know progress it forward. Every department needs guidance, every department needs to be listened to, and hopefully, you know, it can always be pushed forward in the right direction.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:16

Thank you, candidate Matt Andrey. Same question, um, Linda Brackett, Candidate.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:21

Um I think our police and fire departments are the absolute best. Um I've had the um the really great opportunity to work with both departments for about seven years when there was an animal control officer. They were always right there to help, whether it was you know, chasing a dog or um taking a um uh uh an a possum that had his hunt his head stuck in a grate. We pulled yeah, uh we pulled him out of the grate. Jeff Callahor and I were on our knees with olive oil pulling this thing out. I mean, these guys go above and beyond. It's whatever, you know, whatever anybody in the town needs, they're there. They are absolutely fantastic. They need our support, they need to be able to come to us if they need something. They shouldn't be worried about asking for something. Same thing with the other towns of houses. They need to make them feel wanted and appreciated. And from talking to a lot of people in town, a lot of people don't feel overly appreciated. And I think we really need to make an effort to um to make them feel like their job really means. Because, you know, to me it does.

Growth And Protecting Town Character

SPEAKER_08 1:26:31

Thank you. Okay, um, Lou, did you answer that question yet? All right, so we go to the next question. Next question goes first to Matt Andrade. Matt, what do you think are the best thing? We talked about town government. What do you think are the best things about the town of Rainham itself, the town, and what if anything would you like to change about the town? If anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:54

Um, some of the amazing points about the town is like if you look at this town as a whole and its intersection, we've got 495, we've got 24. We're a major hub within all of you know these main highways cutting through. We have, you know, if you look at us in comparison to Bridgewater, we have a more balanced, you know, tax uh tax income between residential and commercial. So we're we're building on a strong base, and I think that going forward, the progression of Rainham needs to trend more in the commercial, industrial development because the tax rate per thousand is nearly sixteen dollars as opposed to twelve dollars with residential, and that's what's going to drive the new growth in this town. I think that if we can allocate our time and energy and effort into possibly increasing commercial and industrial development, I think it's gonna solve a lot of budgetary problems. And I I've mentioned it at lengths about the budget. We're all working with. The budget that we're stuck with. What we need, what we, you know, the real problem that we have is an income problem. We need to solve the income problem to fix the budget. And we need to try and find new growth. We need to go through all the receipts. We need to try and do something because this town has, you know, an immense future. I've been a part of it 37 years, and I hope to be a part of it for another 37 years. You know, my kids are growing up here. I think that it's an awesome place to grow up. I grew up here, and I think that um, you know, I I couldn't say anything bad about it. I'm still here, I'm still participating in the planning board, and uh I hope that this would be the next best step for me.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:40

Thank you, Matty Andre. Same question, candidate Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:44

I think the best thing about the town is its people. Everywhere you go, everybody is willing to help. You know, you you see wherever. Um, you know, on Facebook somebody says, I need this, somebody will jump right in and and and help them. Um our you know, our departments back to our police and a fire. I mean, they're just absolutely wonderful. Um change. Um I'd like to see uh growth so slow down a little bit so we can keep the um the small town field. Um I'd like to see, and I know it's been talked about in years past, and there's really no way to do it, some type of a community gathering place where everybody can come together and just do whatever. Um the other day I was um I just I walked over in the gazebo, and that was just a really nice place. Just, I don't know, just something where people couldn't just gather. I mean, I know people with um small children are always at the ball field, but not everybody has small children, and they would still like the ability to interact with other people in town. I don't know where we could put it or how we could do it, but I think that's something that should be investigated, you know, in the years to come.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:53

Thank you, candidate Linda Brackett. Same question, candidate Lu Pacico.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:57

I think the best part of this town is the people. The people have always taken care of me. I know that. Um they gave me a job, they gave me a career, uh, they paid for my hospitalization when I was injured on duty. Uh, they even paid for two teeth that got kicked out in on an investigation that I was doing on in New Bedford. Um and that's part of the reason why I'm running for selecting because it's a debt type thing. I I believe I owe back. And um, but I can't complain about the people. It was well run. There was we had some great leaders. Um, as the other two uh candidates have pointed out, come together when things are bad. You've just seen it in the last storm, and I saw it in 78. Um I was uh chief of staff at the uh the city in the uh Fall River during the blizzards in 2015 where they got 88 inches of snow down there. And uh believe me when I tell you, they could not process and help each other the way that the people in Rainham did. So I like the people.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:11

Thank you, candidate Lu Pichico. Next question goes first to candidate Linda Brackett. What do you see as the greatest challenge or challenges facing the town going forward? And do you have any idea or ideas about how to meet that challenge or challenges?

SPEAKER_07 1:31:26

In two minutes? Um the biggest challenge for the town is financial. Um I mean, we've got the major issues with the schools. Um as as listening to the um the um school committee candidate who's talking about Chapter 70 money. It seems like we need to be able to somehow do something with that so we can give these um give the kids uh what they need. I mean they deserve a great education. Uh we need to be able to, you know, I keep I think the citizens here, they need to be able to afford to live here. They need to feel like they're part of the town. Um just the sense of community is just something that we just need to be able to take care of each other, and we need to um we need to be able to let everybody live here and to live and grow and thrive. And it's just there's a lot of issues right now. Um they're not issues that any one person can solve. Um but I think if everybody works collaboratively, we can um improve the quality of life for everybody that um calls our town town home.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:31

Thank you, candidate Linda Brackett. Same question, candidate Lou Pachico.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:37

Well, it's always a budget. Budgets are always a major thing. I I I take a little small exception with what Matthew said about uh the town being a business or run like a business. I run a business, I run a business, I'm a dictator. Well, actually, my wife's the dictator. I'm the one that takes the orders. A town is not the same. A town is not the same. Um government is not the same. Government is for all the people and it has to be useful. Um I would say that the biggest thing I'm worried about, if you if you ask me, at two o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the morning, is that the character of the town is changing. And I think if we lose the character of the town, I think we lose all the things that everybody's talked about here that we've gained so far. So we have to be very careful of that, I think. I don't like to see these developments drop down like an atomic bomb in the middle of a neighborhood, one in North Rainham where the the line goes right through the woman's tree. Half of her roots of her tree are in her property, and half are hanging off of a 12 or 14-foot cliff. I don't like to see that. There's got to be a better way that we can grow. I know we have to grow. I know we have to have progress. Uh, the street where I used to play ball on, I now I can't cross in the morning. I gotta wait for five minutes. So I understand that. I understand that that's gonna happen. But I think the biggest threat we have is that we lose the character of the city and we just become a big apartment boatman.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:22

Thank you, candidate Lu Pichico. Same question, candidate Matt Andre.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:26

So I think um, you know, to lose point, the character of the town. I understand no one wants to see any change. I grew up fishing at Johnson's Pond, but now you can't help but to be fishing at Johnson's Pond and hear a slight hum as you look around and find out that it's a self-driving electric car with a guy half asleep at the wheel. I mean, the change is here, the change is coming, it's happening. I understand we have to be mindful of the character of the town. We need to be responsible with the character of the town. I think that, you know, to your point, going forward, the largest hurdles that we have right now with the families that I speak to of, you know, that are in my shoes is the schools. I have two kids that are in schools, classrooms that are 30 plus kids. They're getting uh teachers dropped. I mean, the last budget last year, I mean, they dropped 50 to 70 teachers. Now they're starting dropping electives. And it's just we owe it to our kids, we owe it to their future. Before, you know, I was in school, we didn't have classrooms like that. I mean, what do we think is gonna happen if we keep this up going forward? Because our kids are gonna need a better education. There's more things out now that, you know, I don't even know. And it's just the budget, I understand, is rising. I understand no one wants to pay more in taxes, no one wants to see an override. I don't want to pay more in taxes, I don't want to see an override. So I think as a town and we need to come together and figure out, okay, we've already said no to the override, we don't want to do any debt exclusion. What is the next best option? The only other option, realistically, that we have before our expenses blast through our revenue. We have every single year insurances go up. Um, every, you know, it all the town costs go up. Every single thing goes up, and we need to put a cap on it and we need to grasp it before it runs out of control. I think that's the largest, you know, issues that we've got.

Budget Reality And Funding Strategies

SPEAKER_08 1:36:37

Thank you, candidate Matt Antillon. Matt Andrew and Drade. Our uh next question goes first to candidate Lou Pacico. Obviously, our town has a finance director and a finance committee, but our member of the select of the select board still needs to be knowledgeable about budgets, how they work, and how to balance them. What is your knowledge about or experience with budgets?

SPEAKER_01 1:37:03

My wife gives me$20 a week. Um I run a few budgets. I had million dollar million dollar budgets at uh at the police department, I stayed within my budget. Um I had$20 or$30 million budget at the DA's office, we stayed within our budget. And the mayor's for the city of Fall River, I I did that entire budget for 2016. Um so I do I'm I'm not a numbers person. I'm not as good as Matthew and some of the people on the uh on the finance committee and something, but I know right now that people talk about the money, but they don't understand how this money is locked up. Um the you know the budget for the town is about$53 million, the budgets for the school is$26 million, which is 50%. Um then you got um six million for the police department, four million for the fire department, four million for employee benefits, uh two million for um um insurances and and uh and situations like that. And um the point is much of that 63 66.3 percent is locked in. You can't change. So you're getting a smaller and smaller piece of the budget, a piece of the pie that you have to deal with. People have to understand that. They they don't understand where what monies are locked up and which monies are discretionary, so to speak. So I would I would make it my my mission, part of my mission, try to make things as a little bit uh a teacher uh in how this money uh comes in, how it goes out. I know earlier tonight they were talking about chapter chapter 90 money, uh chapter 70 money for the for the school department.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:11

So okay, thank you, candidate Lu Pacico. Same question, candidate Matt Andrade.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:17

A lot of those numbers, budgetary numbers that Lou pointed out, all relevant numbers in a small business. I again I go back to myself. I've ran a small business since I was about 18 years old. I run a real estate brokerage now. I deal with clients every single day. They have to purchase the home, they have to budget for that home. They have to understand their income, they have to understand their expenses, and as a business, you have to put together a budget at the beginning of the year. You have to say, this is what we're projecting based on last year's income. We have to understand that our insurance is gonna go up, we have to understand that we have to buy new equipment, we have to understand that every expense to run this is also gonna go up. So we need to take a step back, we need to do a hard line but you know, look at the budget, we need to look as at the economic outlook, you know, as a whole, across the country, locally, and you need to say, is this gonna be the year that we expand? Is this gonna be the year that we tighten up our belts and suck it in and make sure that we pinch every single penny that we got? And we need to take a look at every single line item that's on that budget and say, are we gonna allocate more to highway? Are we gonna allocate more to fire and police? Are we gonna allocate more to the schools? What is in the most need for this town at this moment? And what are the what what is the public crying for? What are they sitting there? What are they, you know, typing about, what are they saying is an overwhelming issue because that inevitably is what's gonna drive this budget. I understand we have a budget committee, I understand that they have numbers that they have to work with that are outside of our control. All we can do as the select board is try and come up with creative ideas, try and come up with creative new ways to drive revenue to the town so that we can create a balanced budget. We can go and spend the money on every single department that needs it rather than go to them every single year and say, hey, guess guess what, guys? We came up short this year, you're gonna have to you know tighten it up.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:20

Thank you, candidate Matt Andre. Same question, candidate Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_07 1:41:25

I think I have to um agree with Lou. It's um I don't think we're gonna run the town as a small business. I think we have to run the town as a town. Um, everybody has a budget, everybody is you know familiar with budgeting on their own. Um in my work, I deal with budgets every day. I sit down with people trying to buy a house. And Matt can tell you how difficult it is in the real estate market for somebody to buy a house. It's it's not easy. And um you know, you sit down and you talk to them about a budget and you talk about what you can afford, what can you say, how can you do that? The other reason the other place I dealt with budget a lot was in my many, many years of importance. Um we had, you know, we had extra workers. We had to budget for here. It was we had to balance it, and it was too. But we have a lot about how to balance the budget and how to prioritize the and um whatever cost your whatever it is beyond the house, if to help the people buy a house, if to anything, but I don't think we can run the town as a small business.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:37

Thank you, candidate, uh Linda Brackett. And our next question goes to um let me start with Matt. With predicted budget shortfalls in our future, declining revenues, including state aid and rising costs, how do you see the town maintaining a balanced budget? And if budget cuts are required on the town level, what are your priorities?

SPEAKER_00 1:43:03

I think that across the board, every if you look at the budget, you know, for example, the most recent budget, the school committee budget that was just voted on on the 25th of March. It was a budget that came up short from what they wanted. This was nowhere near, it was a gr it was a regretful yes amongst six of the seven members. I understand that a lot of these budgets are gonna have shortfalls. I understand that a lot of you know the the revenue is gonna come up short. Um so I think that as a town, we're all gonna have to sit back and we're gonna have to see. I understand that the school budget is the largest line item on the overall budget. It's gonna get the most scrutiny. Everyone's gonna look at it and say, oh my gosh, you know, this budget is out of control. The CLA did a report on the school committee budget and found that there was virtually no egregious overspending outside of the uh the bus contract because there's no other bus contract around that can service a community this large. So I mean, you have to look at the overwhelming picture. We've already done the audit on the school committee at the request of everyone else who thought that it was an egregious spending. So I mean, now it's time that we have to look at every we owe it to the town before we go back and ask for more money for an override or something like that, to look at every single budgetary item, see where we can scale back, see where we can get more money, reach out to um, you know, all these other departments, like Norm is doing uh work with GPI SID, getting grants for different stuff. We need to get creative. We need to try and find state-funded grants. We need to work on Chapter 70 funding for the schools. It's not all about how the taxpayers can up the budget. It's gonna have to come from creative ideas outside of people saying, Well, this is how we've always done it. This is where we've always gotten the money from, because in order to go forward, we're gonna have to get money from elsewhere if we're gonna balance this.

SPEAKER_08 1:45:09

Thank you, candidate Matt Andre. Same question, candidate Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:14

The budget's a very, very difficult thing. It's very emotional for everybody. You want to give every town department, uh every school all the money that they want. But unfortunately, it just doesn't work this way that way. In these tough financial times, we've got to figure out a way for, like Matt said, to find some other under other funding sources. Um, for the schools, I keep going back to. You've got to go back to the state. You've got to get more money from the state for the schools. I think that's where it's gonna help. Like norms, um, the highway superintendent is getting grants. I know uh Greg Bonds is always talking about grants for different things. Um I think we'd have to work with the um finance committee and the finance director and just get creative and um and see what we can do. I mean, until you really get into it and you see exactly what's going on, it's that's pretty, a pretty difficult question to answer.

SPEAKER_08 1:46:06

Thank you, candidate Linda Brackett. Same question, candidate Lou Fachico.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:11

Well, unfortunately, this is the part of the uh candidates night that we all all of us dread is talking about the the budget because this is where you have to really get down and and and you have to talk about the truth. I mean, we're running for selectmen. We don't have any control over chapter 70 money. If we wanted to control over chapter 70 money, we'd be running as reps or senators. We don't have any control over the federal money. If we did, we'd be running for a federal office. We're selectmen and we're working with the money of the people that are sitting right here and are watching on those cameras. So if and the budget is passed by the town meeting, which is our legit which is our legislature, uh, and has been since 1732 or whatever, 31. Um, if they say you got X number of dollars to spend, do the best you can with it, that's what you've got to do. Now, I agree on the grant thing. I got some of the biggest, the biggest grant for law enforcement uh for task forces over the years through the state and the feds and ran them through the whole region. And I agree we can do better on grants. But you know what we have to do is we have to work together. We have to take those smart people at the school that write grants and help the smart people at the at like Norm, who's a very good grant writer, and we got to pool all that stuff together. If everybody works against each other, each piece, then we end up fighting and talking about, well, maybe chapter 70 is gonna get better, or maybe the feds are gonna get better. Matthew talked about the school. What's gonna happen with this six dollar and twenty-five cent a gallon diesel fuel? How much is that gonna bring to bring the thing up? We don't have any control over that. Um, so I that's where the hard questions have to be answered with hard answers.

Route 138 And State Action

SPEAKER_08 1:48:20

Thank you, candidate Lu Pichico. Next question goes first to candidate Linda Brackett. We all agree that Route 138 is a nightmare, but the town has not been able to get the needed support and action by the state. Do you have any ideas how to break through that nightmare to make any progress?

SPEAKER_07 1:48:38

That's a very good question. Um 138 is definitely a problem. Um, I know um from watching select groups meetings and things that um always talking about how the select board has requested from the state what's going on, how are you gonna fix this? Um I think we're gonna get a little more aggressive with them. I mean, what we're doing right now is not working. Um I don't think it's anybody's fault, but I think, I don't know, maybe you just go up, you go up and you camp out on Capitol Hill and you know tell them we need 138 fixed. Um there's gonna be a way, maybe there's a way to um create some type of a committee that can really look at the whole picture, find figure out exactly what the problems are, and figure out a plan of how to go to the state and tell them that they need to fix it.

SPEAKER_08 1:49:31

Thank you, candidate Linda Brackett. Candidate Lupa Chico, same question.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:37

You're gonna have to repeat that one again, too, because I think we once again we're getting into other people's jobs.

SPEAKER_08 1:49:43

Yeah, all we all agree that Route 138 is a nightmare, um, but the town has not been able to get the needed support and action by the state. Do you have any ideas how to break through that nightmare to make any progress?

SPEAKER_01 1:50:01

I've been dealing with the state for a lot of years and um it's a difficult, difficult process. Um the I'll tell you what doesn't do it is when you have the room half full here and nobody voting. Uh the if you want government to be responsive, whether it's state government or local government or county government, you have to vote. If you don't vote, regardless of who you vote for, if you don't vote, the people in government at Beacon Hill don't think you care. And if they don't, if you don't care, then why the hell should they care? So I would have to say that part of that ball uh is in the public's court. I'll do the best I can, I'll make the calls, I'll go up there, like Linda said, and camp out. But uh it's with the people too. The people's voice has to be heard.

SPEAKER_08 1:50:56

I'll meet you. Thank you, candidate Lou Pacico. Same question, candidate Matt Andrakes.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:03

So my time spent on the planning board, we got to learn a lot about 138. Uh, specifically the committee SERPID, if anyone's familiar with it. So I worked on the SERPID committee there specifically on the overlay district that they have been proposing for very, very many years on 138. They were considering trying to do a mixed-use development, you know, mixed-use overlay, we'll call it, all the way up 138 in various spots that would allow for commercial on the first floor and residential on the second floor. This was all in a cohesive nature to try and work alongside with the Route 138, you know, redesign. That involved two sidewalks on either side. That involved the bike path on one side. You know, in recent in and then all of a sudden, the people who are working on the road through Mastot, a construction company, started digging in the road and said, Where did this water pipe come from? They didn't even know the water pipe was there. And then they went to the the North Rainham Water District and said, Well, you know, it's it's not gonna cost four million dollars to fix it, it's gonna cost nine. And we need you to fix it. And it's a finger pointing. And then come to find out the construction company that was working on 138, now all of a sudden they've up and you know, left, and now it's out for bid again. And it's it's a it's never-ending issues. Also, this you know, concrete, you know, concrete design underneath the pavement, which is causing it to crack all the time. It's one of those things where you have to understand the issues. I'd say if you're gonna reach out to anyone, reach out to Serpent, because whoever they're talking to, that's someone that you want to get a hold of. Get their email address. And also, we're reach out to the state reps. These are the people who are there that are, you know, gonna try and fight for our dollars to get 138 under control. I understand. It's it's like driving down a third world country when you go to you know 138, your teeth almost fall out because you hit so many, like you hit so many potholes. It's it's it's unbelievable. They fix it in stages, and the only way to do it is that if everyone comes together and tries to make a difference, it's it's you're you're gonna have to get noisy.

Hiring Leadership And Accountability

SPEAKER_08 1:53:14

Thank you, candidate Matt Andrade. Next question goes first to candidate Lou Pacico. Possibly no role that the select board has is more important than who is hired and fired, if necessary, for many important positions, including town administrator, police chief, bar chief, town council, and many more, as well as appointing individuals to many of the town's committees, like finance committee, conservation committee. What experience have you had, if any, with hiring, and if necessary, firing um individuals? Or and selecting the best person for the job.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:51

Absolutely. I uh I'm I've done a lot of hiring and firing in my day. Um obviously here in the uh in the Rainham Police Department, myself and Chief King picked the entire almost the entire crew of police officers that are there now. And uh my fellow candidates say that they're doing a good job, so I must have done a good job at some point. Um at the DA's office, I was on a three-person panel that that um hired and fired all 200 people. Every single one of them went through. At the City Hall, um I fired and hired probably, I don't know, 100, 125 people. Some of it was covered by unions and stuff like that. So I've had plenty of experience. The thing uh yeah you have to do is you have to really look for somebody that wants a job and that takes pride in the job. And it's difficult to find that when you're just doing um an interview, like we're doing an interview tonight for this. We you have to go back to their record, how did they work before, and so on and so forth. And of course, it's it's complicated even more because you're as a selectman, you're not the owner of the business, you're not the head of that, you have to do it as a as a body with uh two out of the three votes. So it makes it even more complex, but still doable. Um the thing is the work ethic has to start from the top, and when you hire people, they that ethic will work down to the people. If the guy at the top doesn't care, that works down just as uh just as much as if you put a big sign outside and said, forget about it. So I've done a lot of hiring, I've done a lot of less firing, more hiring, and it's difficult, but it's doable, and I think the proof's in the pudding right here in Raining.

SPEAKER_08 1:55:58

Thank you, candidate Lupe Chico. Same question, candidate Matt and trade.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:02

Um even though I'm younger, 37, I've been doing, you know, I've doing been doing small business virtually my whole life. I've hired, I've fired, you know, people that are twice my age. And it it comes with experience. You have to be able to take in the people that are coming in for interviews. You have to not only engage them on their previous work experience work experience, but also on who they are, what type of people are they, you know, where do they come from? Everything. You have to take into more more into account than just what's on paper. And I think that when it comes to the tough decisions of this board, you know, there's always gonna be the position where no one wants to fire anyone, but if something is in the the best interest of this town, you're gonna have to be put in those uncomfortable positions that no one wants to do. No one wants to have to fire someone, no one wants to have to do that. You see firings all over the news, people are being laid off due to every single reason under the sun. And it's gonna, you know, the reality is it's gonna hit our desk if we're sitting here, and the you know, we have to be prepared for that. And there's no, you know, the whoever the board member is, uh, I have no conflict with any of the departments. I will be able to speak on every single item across the board, hiring, firing. It's it's it's not gonna be a position that I'm gonna love to do, but it's gonna be something that I'll have to do.

SPEAKER_08 1:57:32

Thank you, candidate Matt Andre. Same question, candidate Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:38

I think hiring and firing is a is a difficult thing. Um I've never done it um with people that are actually um, it's their livelihood. But I've done a lot of technically hiring and firing in my many years in um in rescue. Um I would hire people um for no pay for um to do whatever job needs to be done. I would fire people uh that weren't doing a good job at whatever job I wanted them to do. Um you have to look at things realistically, you have to look at um all sides of the um of the coin, and you you need to do it in a um a fair and um equitable way. Um over the years. I mean, there's been many, many people that you know you could get to do a job that would do a really good job at it, and other people um weren't, and you just had to step up and do the tough thing. And I mean it's I think it's even harder to fire a volunteer than it is to fire somebody for pay. And if anybody has any experience with animal people, I think most of them were a lot tougher than the employees that we would deal with in town hall.

Override Question And Final Positions

SPEAKER_08 1:58:43

Okay, thank you. Candidate Linda Brackett. Next question, and this is a tough one, I saved it for the end, so and stay with me, it's a little long. As you know, the Bridgewater Rainham Regional School District is grappling with a financial crisis. The budget approved by the school committee for the next fiscal year would require an 11 percent increase in Bridgewater's assessment and an 8 percent increase in Rainham's assessment, which both communities have said they cannot fund without either drastic cuts in service and or uh drastic cuts in personnel, which for Rainham would most probably include police and fire, since they are the two largest budgets after the school budget. Voters said no to an override last year. Would you support going back to the voters a second time with an override question if it comes to that? Candidate Matt Andrade.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:35

Um the school budget, we've spoken about it already at this point at length. Like you said, the 8% in Rainham, I think the on the last uh the last budget, I think, that was prepared for the town. I think it was a five percent increase, and I think Greg managed to squeak out another one percent on the last one, so that was approximately six. Um obviously that was nowhere near where we needed to be.

SPEAKER_08 2:00:02

That was not the budget that was approved by the school committee.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:04

No, that the previous it wasn't the the previous one.

SPEAKER_08 2:00:09

No, the the budget approved is 11% for Bridgewater.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:14

No, what was granted for the previous?

SPEAKER_08 2:00:17

The previous year?

SPEAKER_00 2:00:18

Yeah, 26.

SPEAKER_08 2:00:19

Yeah. Um you're talking about this budget that they're they voted on.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:25

Okay. So this one, the for the 8%, I think that it's gonna be a hardline stance. I don't believe that going back to the public right now is gonna be the right move for an override. I think we owe it to the taxpayers to look deeper into every single other department to see what other underlying issues are. I mean, the school has already done their full audit. They had the CLA go out, they paid almost$70,000 for this audit to be done just for them to come up and say, health insurance has increased and the bus prices have increased. I mean, it was it was a tough thing to swallow. And I think that you're gonna have to do more within the local government to look at the overall budget, every single department that is there, before you can go back and say, hey, I know we just talked about an override. I we'd like to try it again because it's gonna be an overwhelming no. We're gonna set ourselves up for another no, and we're just gonna get burnt out with overrides. So I I don't think at this point it's the right move.

SPEAKER_08 2:01:30

Okay, thank you. Candidate Matt Andrew, candidate Linda Brackett. Could you repeat that? I I got a little bit lost. Okay, as you know, the Bridgewater-Rayham Regional School District is grappling with a financial crisis. The budget approved by the school committee for the next fiscal year would require an 11% increase in Bridgewater's assessment and an 8% increase in Rainham's assessment, which both communities have said they cannot fund without either drastic cuts in services or personnel, which for Rainham would most probably include police and fire, since they are the two largest budgets after the school budgets. Now, as Matt referenced, that could change, but that's the way it stands at this point. Last year, voters said no to an override. If that budget, as it's proposed, is voted at this point stands. Would you support going back to the voters a second time with an override question as a last resort?

SPEAKER_07 2:02:25

I think I'd have to do a lot of research. I'd have to go out there and talk to the people, see what the will of the people really is. Um I personally don't think it's um it would pass. Um I think it'd be setting everybody up for for failure. Um I would really hate to see any town um services cut. I mean, losing a police officer or a firefighter would, you know, be catastrophic in case of an emergency. Um we can't cut the people that are ploughing our roads or um, you know, any of those things. I don't know what the answer to that is. I think there's a lot more research that I would have to do. I haven't seen um seen the everybody, you know, each town's budget, uh each item line item for uh each department. Um I there's not an easy answer to that question. I I just I mean I'm sympathetic to all sides. I'm sympathetic to the schools, I'm sympathetic to police and fire, to highway, to everybody, but I I don't know what the answer is. And radio's not the only town that has its problem. I mean, it's almost every, I think almost every town in the state does. So I I I don't know what the answer is. Um maybe our uh state-elected officials need to step up and help out the towns more. More money that we send to the state should be coming back to the town, and I think we need to somehow figure out how to get some of that back.

SPEAKER_08 2:03:55

Okay, I think a candidate Lynn DeBrackett's same question, candidate Lou Pichico.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:59

No, I wouldn't go for an override yet. Um the report that Matt talked about, the CLA, um, pointed out a few different things in there that's very concerning, and I'm not running for the school board. I already served on that board. Um, but I would definitely want to go deeper into that CLA report of whatever they got out of their$70,000. One is their accounting methods aren't up to what they should be for the amount of money that they're dealing with. Uh I think the second biggest thing that they pointed out was that, and I could be wrong in this, I think it was 28% of the of the eighth graders didn't want to go to 28%. So, you know, you're talking about business. If you got a business where your clients, your customers, a quarter of them leaving, I think you better change the business model. Um so I wouldn't go for an override yet. Again, give me the money I work, I I got for a budget, that's what I'm gonna work with. I'll work with the school committee. I love the uh the the teachers and uh administrators there. When I was there, they did a great job, and they really do have the kids at heart. But times are changing, things are changing, something's wrong. Something's something has to uh be looked at.

Select Board Closing Statements

SPEAKER_08 2:05:25

Thank you, candidate Lu Pichico, and I think it's time for us to move to our closing statements. And we start uh first with Linda Brackett.

SPEAKER_07 2:05:34

Um I want to thank everybody for being here tonight and for listening to all of us. I think we all have great ideas. Um I think we all come from a different place. Um to um be elected to the Board of Selectment because I really want to help to move our town forward. I think my experience in finance and um dealing with the town control and seeing exactly what's out there and the needs. You saw I saw the needs of the town, I saw the needs of the citizens. I just think there's a I offer um some great qualities and I am compassionate and I would really appreciate you vote on April 25th. Thank you, Pinji and Jacques, candidate Nika Chica.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:18

Well, I would like to thank everybody, I'd like to thank the other candidates for not throwing things at me or saying bad things about me. Yeah. Yeah. Um I'd like to thank all the people in the audience and my family to uh that uh helped the every step of the way and uh and thank the people that that I've been going door to door to for giving me their advice and their complaints and so on and so forth. Um it it really has been fun so far. Probably won't be fun if I lose, but it's been fun so far. And and uh I just want to say that I'd like to bring the same work ethic. If you hire me, I'll make you one promise. You'll never hire anybody else that'll work harder. Um I'll make that promise, and I'll make the promise that everything I do, I'll try to leave this position or leave this town a little bit better than what I found it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 2:07:14

Thank you, candidate Lupe Chico, candidate Matty Andre.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:18

Um before I leave you tonight, I I figured I'd leave you guys with something simple. Everything we've talked about tonight, from the schools to the public safety building, smart growth, different ideas, none of this happens without someone sitting in this seat who actually cares. And I'm that person. I'm not running because I need a title. I'm running because I'm what I've watched this town long enough to know what we're capable of, and I think that we can do better. Better for our kids, better for our families, better for the residents and the people who work hard every day to make this town government work harder. I've been on a planning board member for the past five years. I've sat in meetings, people never see. Um I've pushed for development fees to protect taxpayers on uh new development. I've worked with state agencies on zoning solutions that preserve what makes Rainham special. I know this isn't glamorous work, but it's important work, and I've never stopped showing up for it. My kids are gonna grow up in this town. That's not gonna change whether I win or lose. But if I win, I promise you this I'll fight for your kids the way I fight for mine. I will make decisions based on what's right for Rainham, not what's easy. And I will never forget that the people sitting in these seats work for you and not the other way around. Rainham has given my family everything. This is my chance to give something new back. I'm asking for your vote on April 25th at Rainham Middle School, and let's build something worth leaving behind for our kids.

Registration Deadlines And How To Vote

SPEAKER_08 2:08:57

Thank you, candidate Matt Andra. We want to thank all of our candidates for attending this evening, to our timekeeper, Becky Mello, Rainham Channel Director Michael Halen, and tonight's producer, Sammy Sturdeevent, and to all of you for joining us. If you are not yet a registered voter in the town of Rainham, you still have time to register. The deadline to register to vote is next Wednesday, April 15th at 5 o'clock p.m. in the town clerk's office or online. Absentee ballots and mail-in ballots are available in the town clerk's office. The deadline for requesting them by mail is April 17th. The deadline for in-person voting by absentee ballot is the day before the election, Friday, April 24th at 12 noon again in the town clerk's office. And of course, voting on election day takes place at the Rainham Middle School between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. We will be back here election night with all the results for you with our Saturday night live election results in Rainham. Thank you and good night.