It appears Greenfield voters may have a lot more to consider on Election Day than just a slate of candidates for office.

Greenfield Town Council Vice President Isaac Mass has suggested that a series of non-binding referendum questions be added to the November ballot, which he believes will provide town leaders some direction on a number of issues currently facing Greenfield.

“All of these are topics are important to the people, and it would be good to have input from the voters,” Mass said.

The deadline for placing such questions on the ballot is mid-September. Mass has suggested six questions, that will be considered at the August Council Chairs meeting.

Question one asks the voters to check off how much they believe the average property tax bill should be increased to construct a new public safety complex and library, listing five potential dollar amounts ranging from $0 up to in excess of $240.

Question two asks if voters believe the police should use body cameras in performance of their duties, while question three asks if the town should levy local option taxes on recreational marijuana sales.

The fourth and fifth questions are related to parking enforcement and school busing policy, while question six asks whether the town should allow sales of tobacco-flavored products to people over the age of 21, that were banned from town when the Board of Health voted to up to tobacco sales age from 18 to 21.

“A lot of these questions are brought up over and over, which is why I have proposed putting them on the ballot,” Mass said. “These are the only ones I am proposing.”

A potential seventh question, put forth by at-large council candidate Andrew Killeen, would ask how voters feel about Greenfield becoming a “safe city,” a designation Mayor Bill Martin plans to put in place via executive order by the end of this week.

At first glance, these questions don’t seem like a bad concept. No public official has the marketed cornered on wisdom when it comes to public policy, and it can be good to get a little electoral feedback every now and again. The skeptic in me, however, thinks there’s much more to it than that.

I think one of the reasons Mass wants to see this happen is because he thinks it will boost voter turnout, which could increase the chances of his slate of candidates beating back what’s expected to be a pretty serious effort by the Greenfield Democratic Town Committee to put the council’s leadership and agenda back in progressive hands.

When you look back at the last few elections, a turnout of 40 percent or higher tends to favor more conservative, pro-growth candidates. That was one of the things that saved Mayor William Martin’s bacon in his last race against Patty Morey Walker. And never has Mass needed a bigger turnout than he does this year.

In fact, this may be the most important election of his political life, because if Isaac’s slate either holds serve or picks up seats on the council, he will most assuredly be elected the next council president, a title he would carry into next year’s mayoral race — where I think many assume he will be a candidate, even though he hasn’t declared as yet.

That field has the potential to be crowded, especially with Martin admitting to me this week that he is leaning “80-20” against seeking another term. His former opponent, Morey Walker, sure looks like she’s running. She recently used the editorial page of this newspaper to take a little swipe at Tim Farrell and myself, which no doubt helped shore up an already solid base of liberal support.

Glad I could be of help, by the way.

There could may be others in the mix, but none would be more high profile than a sitting council president, which only happens if Mass has seven or more council votes under his thumb come January. And if it doesn’t break his way, he’ll wind up being just another lowly brave instead of the chief he is clearly dying to become.

To get his questions on the ballot, Mass has to get them by the council, which may not be easy. I suspect a few of is colleagues may view this as just another political ploy, one that could create the impression that this council is unable to tackle tough issues without first taking the temperature of the voters.

But if Isaac does get his way, these questions have the potential to add a nice bit of texture and dialogue to an off-year election that could wind up being incredibly significant — and one where voters may have a tough time staying away.

Chris Collins is the Franklin
County News Bureau Chief for WHAI, WPVQ and WHMP Radio. He is a former staff reporter for The Recorder.