To the editor:
Peter Spellios is the ideal select-person for these times. For more than 40 years as a town meeting member and as a past chairman of the Finance Committee, I have watched the requirements of service on the Select Board become far more complex.
These complexities come from all directions: legal, environmental, budgetary, personnel management, and most lately the COVID crisis. Peter has shown that he can thoroughly understand both the issues and their legal/technical requirements, and support novel solutions.
Over the past five years, Peter has been a strong and articulate advocate for strategies that proved to slow the ongoing increases in Swampscott’s real estate taxes. Most notably has been the adoption of “zero base budgeting,” which Peter strongly advocated.
This requires the town to evaluate every dollar of expenses in building each annual budget. The old way was to assume the prior year’s budget was pretty good, and to build up or down on it line by line.
While Peter has been on the board, Swampscott’s median single family tax bill increased by only 0.53 percent per year — about one half percent! In the five years prior to Peter’s election, the median single family tax bill increased by almost 3 percent per year — an astounding difference.
In the last five years, Swampscott’s tax performance has been better than any other Essex County community. Peter’s ability to participate in a focused, goal-driven environment at Town Hall has been a critical component of this success.
Peter has stated — and I strongly agree — that this fiscal success has created an environment that makes residents comfortable with supporting “community building” initiatives, like a rail trail, historic lights on Humphrey Street, beach entrances, dog parks, etc.
Additionally, it has put Swampscott in the best place to be able to afford a new elementary school — a huge investment that we absolutely need in order to move forward with for the best interest of our town.
He is a tireless worker, as well as an articulate spokesperson for the board, who avoids personal attack and unstructured commentary. We are very fortunate that he has volunteered to continue in this unpaid role at a very critical time. We should not lose the value of his experience now.
Both my wife, Edye Baker, and I are supporting Peter Spellios’ re-election without reservation.
Robert and Edythe Baker
75 Stanley Road
Swampscott
