GREENFIELD — Mark Berson, a Greenfield lawyer and a writer of the city’s charter when it changed to a mayor system, is the consensus recommendation to fill a vacant City Council seat.
The choice was made by five councilors, led by At-Large Councilor Ashli Stempel, who were charged with finding a replacement for former Precinct 2 Councilor John Lobik, who stepped aside at the end of the year.
The screening panel Thursday night interviewed five residents seeking the appointment.
City Council President Karen “Rudy” Renaud created the nomination committee to remove some of the politics of choosing someone who might affect the outcome of a vote on a new library – a proposal that has divided the 13-member council.
Berson’s name will now be presented to Renaud, who can bring the recommendation for a majority vote of the full council, which will likely be in February.
The five candidates were interviewed by Brickett Allis, Sheila Gilmour, Doug Mayo, Wanda Pyfrom and Stempel.
Renaud had charged the group with finding a candidate who can jump right into the upcoming budget season, which weighed heavily on the councilors selecting their preferred candidates.
Receiving the most first-choice nods was Rachel Gordon, a recent resident of Greenfield who is the acting co-director of NELCWIT, a domestic abuse prevention agency, and co-founder of Not In Our Town — Greenfield. A trained urban planner, Gordon was seen as the future of Greenfield, especially by Stempel, Gilmour and Mayo.
“My personal politics are progressive unapologetically. I think you all know that,” Gordon said, but, “the role of the councilor is to respond to their constituents.”
“I would hope people, especially those who disagree with me on issues, would be open to having conversations,” she said.
While the group of three could have pushed forward for her to be the recommendation, it might have come on a split vote, and so instead they opted to provide a unanimous recommendation with Berson.
Gordon said she hopes to run for the open council seat in November, which the councilors recommended and encouraged in their discussion afterward. Other candidates also said they were interested in that seat in the long term, while Berson specifically said he wanted to bring his experience for the year, although he didn’t say he won’t run in November.
“I think the politics of a small town has to be incredibly practical,” Berson said. “We cannot do everything we’d like to do, but on the other hand there are certain fundamental things we have to do.”
The other three candidates at the meeting were also very well received by the council.
John Andrews, who is a member of Greenfield’s Planning and Construction Committee, recently retired from the New England Regional Council of Carpenters as a steward and is a leader at Moose Lodge 997 Greenfield. He was well received by Pyfrom and Allis.
The candidate with the most direct experience, Dan Guin, was well received, but underwhelmed Gilmour and Mayo. He served on the council for a dozen years and is a former president of the council. Guin is also the director of WHAI radio in Greenfield.
“We want to be socially conscious and satisfy that, but we also want to be fiscally responsible,” Guin said. “There’s a balance there.”
Matthew Howell, a teacher at Sunderland Elementary School for 20 years, was also well-liked, but lacked the experience of the other candidates, the councilors said. They all agreed that he would be an excellent Greenfield School Committee member, although Stempel advocated that a teacher could be a good addition to the council in the future.
It came down to Gordon and Berson in the end.
Berson, who often spoke over his allotted time while the other candidates stayed fairly stringently within, talked about his ideas and grand visions for Greenfield.
He pitched ideas that are often scoffed at, like an East-West rail line, which only has some very initial steam for Springfield to Boston. He said there needs to be cultural change to stimulate economic growth — “rock-bottom cultural change. Lots of shake up. Lots of discomfort.”
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264