GREENFIELD — The race to become the third-ever mayor can officially begin today now that interested candidates can take out papers from City Hall.
Three candidates for the successor to William Martin have already announced their respective bids for the city’s chief executive position: Roxann Wedegartner, the former Planning Board chairwoman; longtime Precinct 3 City Councilor Brickett Allis; and Sheila Gilmour, the first-term Precinct 6 councilor and a union steward.
Now the three prospective candidates can take out official city paperwork to formally declare their candidacy. Other hopefuls for the position can do the same.
A primary is set for September and the general election will be in November.
It is likely the November ballot will also have a question about whether residents want the previously approved $19.5 new public library.
Next month, the City Council will take up a citizen’s referendum petition that protests the council’s March vote to approve financing for the library. The council will have the ability to either decide it doesn’t want a new library after all or to send it to the ballot box in November. However, the council does not have the ability to simply reaffirm it wants a new library without putting it to the voters.
The start of the local election season also sets the stage for prospective candidates to take out paperwork for the six City Council seats that will be open.
The council seats that are up for grabs are: Precinct 1, held by Verne Sund; Precinct 2, held by appointee Mark Berson; Precinct 3, held by mayoral candidate Allis; Precinct 4, held by Wanda Pyfrom; and two at-large seats, held by council president Karen “Rudy” Renaud and Isaac Mass.
A majority of the seats up for grabs are held by councilors who typically vote more conservatively on fiscal issues.
Sund has waffled on whether he will run for re-election. He has been the focus of constant public criticism for his language choices on multiple occasions.
Earlier this year a group of citizens attempted a petition to have him removed from office on the grounds of what they saw as hateful speech by an elected official aimed at people of color and people with disabilities. Sund has said multiple times he has never intended to hurt any group of people but sometimes says things in a manner that isn’t deemed politically correct in today’s world; he has often voted in line with what he says.
Berson hasn’t said whether he plans to run for his Precinct 2 seat. He was nominated by the council after a competitive interview round for the vacated seat. John Lobik resigned with one year left in his term because of family health.
Berson was viewed as the compromise pick by the sub-group of the council, led by At-Large Councilor Ashli Stempel. While he wasn’t anyone’s top pick, he was in the top-three for all five members of the group. Three of the councilors, including Stempel, listed Rachel Gordon as their top pick for the seat and while she wasn’t selected, Gordon was encouraged to run for the seat in November’s election.
Since Allis has said he plans to run for mayor after serving 18 years as an elected official, there will likely be a new Precinct 3 city councilor.
Pyfrom has said publicly she does not plan on running for re-election for her Precinct 4 seat.
Renaud has not said definitively whether she will run for re-election, but she has challenged others to run for her seat.
Mass is in a similar boat to Renaud, often hinting that he won’t run for re-election after being a fixture on the council for years.
For mayor, after 10 years serving Greenfield as the city’s top leader, Martin has decided this will be the end of the line. He followed Mayor Christine Forgey, who was the first mayor of Greenfield.
This opens the door for at least three candidates who have announced to date — Wedegartner, Allis and Gilmour.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264