SWAMPSCOTT — The Daily Item will be hosting a Select Board election forum through Zoom Tuesday evening for the three candidates running on April 25.
During the forum, which will run from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., candidates David Grishman, Stefanie Neumann, and Doug Thompson will be asked 20 questions regarding issues that affect Swampscott voters. There will be two open Select Board seats in April’s election.
David Grishman is currently serving as vice chair of the Select Board. He began his first term in 2020.
“Starting in the height of the pandemic and finishing with the most significant open space acquisitions for Swampscott in the past 50 years, serving on the Swampscott Select Board has been an incredible experience,” Grishman said. “But there is so much more for us to do and I believe my experience makes me the right choice to ensure continued momentum for Swampscott.”
According to a press release from his campaign, Grishman said the “key drivers” for Swampscott are fiscal discipline and creativity.
“We did not get to financial strength through luck, and financial strength does not mean we can just spend money now,” Grishman said. “It has been a multi-year concerted effort with the Select Board, Finance Committee, and town finance staff taking the lead in ensuring we budgeted only for the most important and most efficient programs.”
The planning, he said, allowed Swampscott to fund the construction of the new elementary school, invest in open space, and increase funding for elder and veteran services.
“Swampscott’s investment in veteran affordable housing is unprecedented and will serve as a model to other communities,” Grishman said.
Neumann is a graduate of Swampscott High School and assisted the town’s treasurer, Jack Paster, in developing financial software in 1984, according to a press release from her campaign.
“I hope to apply my sense of equity and my analytic skills to the issues facing our community in order to find practical, economical, and common sense solutions,” Neumann said.
The press release said that Neumann aspires to improve the town government’s transparency and open communication.
“Taxpayers have a right to know how their hard-earned money is being spent, and how to ensure their opinions about those expenditures are being successfully communicated to the powers that be,” Neumann said.
Her campaign priorities are to learn about local residents’ concerns for the town, according to the press release.
“She is an independent thinker who believes that the Select Board should be where the town’s top policy-making agency discusses agenda items openly and publicly, and makes decisions based on the most practical, cost-effective, and common sense outcomes for the town residents,” the press release said.
Thompson has experience working as a public policy innovator through managing large organizations, his campaign’s press release said. He wants to hear ideas from Swampscott residents as the town “enters an important chapter in its history.”
“I am running for Select Board to help bring people together and to build a common vision and plan for Swampscott,” Thompson said. “We have an exciting opportunity to build on our deep history and recent progress to form a strong community for generations to come. There are many opportunities coming to the Swampscott community over the next few years. We need to prepare for our future through an inclusive, equitable, and fiscally sound planning process.”
Currently, he is the vice chair of the town’s Climate Action Plan Committee.
“We have been meeting with people all over town to get input into how we can increase our coastal resilience and decrease our greenhouse gas emissions to make life here sustainable for many generations to come,” Thompson said. “I look forward to helping lead this effort as a member of the Select Board.”
In 2022, he ran for state representative and visited with many Swampscott residents during the process, according to the press release. He said that it gave him a deep understanding of “the concerns of Swampscott residents.”
Those concerns, the press release said, are affordability; addressing climate change; affordable housing for families, seniors and veterans; high quality education; and economic development with prudent fiscal management.
The forum is open to the public, and the Zoom link will be on Itemlive.com and the town’s website. It will be broadcasted on the town’s Facebook page and recorded, so that those who can not attend live can watch it later.