Stoneham Town Election: April 1, 2025

Sample Ballot: https://www.stoneham-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3242/Sample-Ballot

Here are my overall picks
Override: YES

Select Board:
Heidi Bilbo
Ryan Foreman
Alternate: George Seibold
School Board:
Cory Mashburn
Alternate: William Fogarty
Planning Board:
Brianna Kelly
Alternate: William perry
Housing Authority:
Danielle Connolly
Alternate: Kevin McLaughlin

Reasons and details below.

Override
I’m voting yes for the override.

If the override fails, my son will not be able to take French his last two years of high school, and won’t have an opportunity to take AP French. That’s the smallest of the impacts – but almost all of us have some area where it will hit home, and that’s mine. Stoneham has never passed an override, so where our neighboring communities have some slack or fat to cut, we’re already massively under-resourced. We already have many fewer police officers, fire fighters and DPW workers. If we don’t pass this override, the situation will become worse, and people with options will be less likely to choose to live in Stoneham. This can lead to a spiral as home prices go down, thus tax revenues go down, thus services go down. I want to live in a thriving community – not a broke and breaking community.

I’m noting where candidates have said they will or will not support the override. All incumbents voted yes for it (the first time that’s ever been true in Stoneham!). If a candidate votes no, I would like to hear their plan for how we are a thriving community without that tax resource.

You can find more information on the cuts that will need to be made if the override fails here: https://www.stonehambudgetinformation.com/information-cited
The group working to pass the override is here: https://saveourstoneham.org/

Select Board (pick two)
This was a hard ballot, with more qualified and talented candidates than spots for them.

Heidi Bilbo
https://www.facebook.com/ElectHeidiBilbo/
https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/MYHMRKXBbGFaah07vKkZ_-J4SThODdPq/playlists/7579/media/940693
Override: Yes
Vote: Yes
Heidi has served the town on the selectboard for years, and has been an accessible and communicative participant. She’s always been willing to roll up her sleeves and do the hard work, and show up (which is a bigger deal in town government than you might think). Her work on suicide prevention touches a chord and shows both her compassion and commitment to the people in her community. To take a personal tragedy and turn the energy from that into service requires a big heart. But Heidi doesn’t just have a big heart, she also has significant skills and experience.

George Seibold
https://www.facebook.com/george.seibold.9
No candidate statement
Override: Yes
Vote: Alternate
George is a fixture in Stoneham politics, and seems to personally know everyone in town. He’s skilled at getting things done and smoothing over the kind of interpersonal issues that can gum up the workings of a town. I would be happy to vote for him again – and have recommended doing so in the past. That said, there’s a lot of unhappiness in Stoneham with the status quo, and the board could use a broader base of skills and perspectives. I’ll be happy if George is elected again, but I think that a new candidate might bring some new solutions to town.

Terence Dolan
No public presence, no candidate statement
Override: No
Vote: No
It is difficult to get any information on Terence. He has no website, no public presence, and did not participate in the candidate forum – which is a bad sign for his future willingness to communicate transparently with the whole community. The only information available is the Stoneham Independent candidate profile. He says he spent 2 terms on the planning board, which seems to show up in his complaints about other boards (the zoning board and select board). There seem to be a number of things he’s against, but few solutions offered. For example, he says we need to build a commercial base – a challenge he must be familiar with from his time on the planning board. How does he specifically propose to do that? I’m concerned that in his only public speech as a candidate, Terence is only tearing down the boards he’d need to work with, not offering ideas for solutions.

Ryan Foreman
https://www.facebook.com/SDHusky
https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/MYHMRKXBbGFaah07vKkZ_-J4SThODdPq/playlists/7579/media/940695
Override: Yes
Vote: Yes
Ryan has run an energetic campaign and engaged deeply with the substantive issues our town needs to face. I was particularly impressed with his candidate statement. He does an interesting root cause analysis of some of the division in town, and responds to a gap by doing research and investigation – which as a prosecutor he’s well qualified to do. His careful acknowledgement of the validity of opinion for was refreshing, and is the kind of even-keeled approach that will help our town be one community, instead of a community divided. I think he’s a good pick for the role.

School Board (pick one)
Once again, I have more good candidates than I have votes to give. It’s astonishing anyone is willing to do this job after all the difficulty and tumult of the last few years, with multiple superintendents, new schools being built and a possible first job of figuring out how to serve students with massive budget cuts.

Gerald Calisi
https://www.facebook.com/geraldcalisi
No candidate statement
Override: No
Vote: No
In Gerald’s candidate statements, mostly on Facebook, he makes some confusing and contradictory statements. For example, if the override fails as he recommends – numerous teachers will lose their jobs. But he says “I will never support firing teachers” – somehow not acknowledging that will be the outcome of his stance. His language also seems to imply that coming up with a sustainable plan is something other people will need to do – when in fact it will be one of the key jobs of the school committee regardless of the outcome of the override. It’s difficult to understand his contradictory statements, and disappointing that he seems to only be coming with criticism and not solutions. I’m also not impressed by a campaign that doesn’t include participating in the candidate statements and whose statement in the Independent is short and unsubstantive.

William (JR) Fogarty
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573416698028#
https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/MYHMRKXBbGFaah07vKkZ_-J4SThODdPq/playlists/7579/media/940703
Override: Yes
Vote: Alternate
I had a chance to meet JR (as he’s known) and talk to him about his candidacy. I think he has a good understanding of the role and challenges, and is up for the massive commitment that being a part of the school committee entails. In terms of skills, I would love to have someone with his financial acumen taking a careful look at the books and highlighting opportunities for improvement. It’s a tough call not to endorse him, however I think that more experience in how Stoneham specifically gets things done (or not) can be helpful in this role. This was a very close call for me. I think JR has a lot to offer, and I hope he runs again. Or maybe signs up for the Finance and Advisory board.

Cory Mashburn
https://www.facebook.com/corymashburn4stoneham
https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/MYHMRKXBbGFaah07vKkZ_-J4SThODdPq/playlists/7579/media/940707
Override: Yes
Vote: Yes
Cory has played a number of roles in town, including a thankless 7 year stint in the Finance and Advisory Board (that’s even more work with even less glory). He has a wide set of experience in town working across our civic groups and places like the library. He’s built relationships and done a lot of research on how Stoneham in particular operates. He’s also professionally qualified in interesting ways for the role, with degrees and experience in education. I think that understanding and having thought about the problems you’ll be trying to address is an important qualification.

Planning Board (pick one)
These are the hard ballots – there’s often not much information to go on, but the work is critical.

Brianna Kelly
https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/MYHMRKXBbGFaah07vKkZ_-J4SThODdPq/playlists/7579/media/940708
Override: Yes (Verified on FB)
Vote: Yes
Candidates don’t come more qualified than Brianna. She does this work professionally, and has dedicated her working life to understanding how to do planning well. We’re lucky she’s willing to do it for Stoneham for free.

William Perry
No public site
Vote: Alternate
Override: Yes (personally verified)
It was quite difficult to get much information on his candidacy. He has a profile in the Independent but that’s about it. I think he would probably do well for the job, but there’s not much to go on.

Housing Authority (pick one)

Kevin McLaughlin
No public site
Override: Unknown
Vote: Alternate
There’s almost no information on Kevin, except that he’s done the role before. I looked on Facebook, on the internet, on the candidate forums, and in the Independent and didn’t find anything. I finally tracked down that he’s on the zoning Board of Appeals, which would be a good qualification for the role and indicate quite a bit of service. But I’d like to see more engagement with the community – although maybe the service speaks for itself.

Danielle Connolly
https://www.facebook.com/groups/745216992166677/user/100025490296567/ (pro tip: use your real name when you’re using a Facebook profile to run for office – someone looking at the ballot couldn’t find you)
Override: Unknown
Vote: Yes
I think it’s valuable to have a community served by someone who lives in it. Danielle’s enthusiastic work in the Stoneham Housing Residents Union means that she not only lives the situation and understands the situation, but is willing to do work on behalf of that community. I think her representation on the board would be valuable.

My process
I have been a resident in Stoneham for almost 20 years, and started writing up a blog posting about my ballot because it’s been very difficult as someone “not from around here” to understand candidate qualifications and stances. Stoneham candidates – as you may note from the resources above – don’t always talk to the WHOLE town, but sometimes only to the small crew of highly engaged people. I have met many candidates personally and have relationships with some through my own involvement. Watching someone’s work is a great way of getting to know how they will operate in office. But for many others, I haven’t had a chance to meet them or engage with them. So I look for public materials. The primary resources are:

• Facebook pages
• Candidate web sites (vanishingly rare)
• The Stoneham Independent candidate profiles
• Stoneham TV candidate forums
• Personal recognizance (eg. I’ll email or reach out to candidates, but I often consider lack of public information disqualifying so if there are already good candidates I rarely take this step.

I personally value transparency and accessibility, the understanding that serving in a governmental capacity is very hard work and a willingness to do that work, fact-driven decision making, and ethical behavior, and those are some of the values which underlie my selections. When I think a candidate would do a good job, but they may not be the best of the candidates available, I’ve marked them as “Alternate”

I also want to say: this kind of service is thankless and selfless. Town committee members get paid very little (the select board gets $2000 a year and I’d estimate that to do well the role requires ~20 hours a week – most of the board members do not accept even that small sum). There’s really no glory or appreciation. There’s just showing up every month, reading spreadsheets, making hard decisions, and so much difficult interaction on the range of whining to outright abuse by the public. I’m grateful for every single person who is willing to put in the time, effort, money for campaigning, and good will to serve their community.