To the editor:
I am writing to express my support to re-elect MaryEllen Fletcher for the Swampscott Select Board. For the past three years, I’ve had the privilege to frequently talk with her about important issues that challenge our community. It’s easy to see how she’s fully engaged, experienced, and well-versed about so many subjects. Over and over again, she remains an essential public voice of sanity in Swampscott. When certain elements scream hair-on-fire alarms in an era of populist mandates from all corners to spend, tax, build, and blame, MaryEllen brings a sense of rational engagement, looking for solutions. Her only agenda is the well-being of Swampscott’s residents.
What I respect most is how MaryEllen puts considerable independent thought into important decisions and their consequences. The details matter to her, and I appreciate her “trust but verify” approach. She challenges the status quo, and she will not be pressured to make short-term decisions at the expense of long-term solutions. I’ve watched many times how she stood up to toxic bullying in her first two years. She sees through the folly of shiny objects like a $30 million library or a roaming town hall on wheels, while really important issues she supports, like fixing our pipes, need to be fully funded.
As Swampscott continues to add hundreds of housing units, we need a strong leader who is concerned about these long-term multi-front pressures. Someone who considers how to balance our requirements for new infrastructure, service demands of an increasing population, traffic, revenue, and expenses. Previous Select Board leadership steered us toward development at any cost, despite the character of our town and the neighborhoods it affects. I don’t think that was right. Under her leadership this past year, people are feeling heard, not talked down to.
MaryEllen is a model of civility and brings clear-headed leadership to this Select Board. She has high expectations of herself and others while raising the bar for fiduciary management, honesty, and accountability. Something that prior leadership failed to do by abdicating power to our prior Town Administrator to run rogue and unaccountably, acting like a mayor instead of his job title.
I have lost count of the reactionaries that seem content to project fear, loathing, and misrepresentation. Meanwhile, MaryEllen brings the right balance of an experienced moderate who listens to her constituents and puts the hard work in behind the scenes.
Swampscott is in better hands because of MaryEllen Fletcher. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Democracy is what we make of it. So, get out and vote for the local government you want. Rational decision making. Fiscal responsibility. Strong ethics. A love for Swampscott. MaryEllen Fletcher.
Wayne Spritz
Swampscott
