Then There Was One

Above, Charles Bailey, the only candidate for Town Council that isn't an incumbent.

This year’s biennial town election is shaping up to be one of the sleepiest ever. Take the case of the Town Council. All nine incumbents are running for reelection, in itself not that unusual. But what is unusual is the lack of locals trying to unseat them. A total of three newcomers took out nomination papers but one, KP Sompally, a former member of the Design Review Commission, withdrew earlier and instead took nominations papers to run for the School Committee.  John Zicko and Charles Bailey also took out Town Council nomination papers.

However, Zicko, a frequent commenter on Talk Franklin, later decided to withdraw noting, that he has “a lot going on at work and didn't feel that I could put the time into it that the voters of Franklin deserve.”

That leaves just one challenger for the nine Town Council incumbents, namely Charles Bailey, an educator, coach, and former Franklin firefighter, who “stands for a united and prosperous Franklin.”

But beyond the Town Council the situation is even worse. A few new faces and a few departures on the School Committee means that there are now exactly seven candidates for seven seats in that race, including Sompally. In other words. they will all get elected, period.

“We do not have a sufficient number of candidates for the Board of Health and Planning Board, either,” said Town Clerk, Nancy Danello.

The Planning Board will have a vacancy because the Associate Member (whose seat does not expire until 2025) is currently on the ballot seeking a full member position, therefore leaving the Associate position vacant, she explained. Based on the Charter, Article Three "Elected Town Boards and Officers" Section 3- Vacancies, it will be the Town Council along with Town Administrator Jamie Hellen and the remaining members of the Planning Board who will appoint an associate member after the election. That person will fill the role until the next local election in 2025.

“The Board of Health seat is completely different. Because this seat is currently on the ballot and we do not have a candidate we will hopefully fill this position with a write-in candidate,” said Danello. In fact, she added, it was a write-in candidate in 2019, Jeff Harris, who earned his current seat on the Board.

Still, depending on possible write-in candidates or default appointment processes to fill seats is far from ideal. In other words, local government needs a lot more involved citizens.