SWAMPSCOTT — The annual town election will be held Tuesday and features four contested races.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the cafeteria of Swampscott High School, 200 Essex St.
The contested races are for Select Board, with Mary Webster challenging current Chair Peter Spellios; School Committee, with former member Glenn Paster running against newcomer and Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Colin Codner; Board of Health, where Planning Board member George Potts faces incumbent Marianne Hartmann; and the position of moderator, for which local developer Charlie Patsios seeks to unseat current moderator Michael McClung.
Voters will also select Town Meeting members for each precinct, and the respective candidates for library trustee, Planning Board and Board of Assessors are running unopposed.
In a candidate forum hosted over Zoom by the Swampscott Antiracism Caucus on Sunday, candidates in contested races discussed what they were doing to combat racism in the community.
“It has been a remarkable year,” Spellios said. “The (Select) Board has embraced the conversation … and welcomed it. We have decided not to put our heads in the sand.”
He added that he, along with the town, has a way to go on the journey to overcome racism, acknowledging that many members of the community have biases that they may or may not be aware of.
Spellios and Hartmann both noted a recent Facebook post by a resident claiming that Swampscott was not racist, and saying that people who wanted a more diverse community could move elsewhere.
“We had no indication that that was a completely racist statement to make,” Hartmann said. “It’s those things that people need to see within themselves.”
Multiple candidates also said that, while they welcome input from community members on how to do better when dealing with race-related topics and policies, they recognized that it was not the responsibility of Black residents to guide them along the way.
“It’s way too easy to say, ‘I’m just kind of busy, we’ll deal with that later,’” Codner said. “It’s very easy to just not ask that question, and that’s where the passive racism comes into play.”
“We need to work together to be able to take the necessary steps to ensure that everyone in this town feels like they have an opportunity to be a part of this community, and, if they are living here, to have the same opportunities of growth that we all do,” Webster said.
Most candidates agreed that one important way to achieve that goal is to educate the community further about racism and the way that it impacts society.
“Those conversations like we’re having tonight are uncomfortable,” Paster said. “The schools have this very unique opportunity at this time to educate everyone in the community, not just the students and the administrators.”
