Every two years the entire Town Council is up for re-election in Watertown. This year, the race for Town Councilor At-Large features six candidates running for four spots on the board.
Watertown News reached out to the candidates to find out more about each one and what their position are on some issues facing the town, including development, the increased cost of living in town and what they think the next big issue will be in Watertown.
To find out about each Councilor At-Large candidate, click on the person’s name below:
The candidates also appeared in a Candidate forum in October. Read about it here, and find out how to watch it on the Watertown Cable website here. Watertown Cable also interviewed the candidates view the Councilor At-Large Candidate interviews here: http://wcatv.org/election-2017/council-at-large/
The other members of the Council – the four district councilors and Town Council President – are running unopposed this year.
The election is Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017 and polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Registered Watertown voters can vote for four of the six candidates. Find out where you vote by going to the Secretary of State website (click here).
You can also watch the Candidate Interviews that are on also Watertown Cable Access. Here is the link to all six Council At-Large Candidate Interviews: http://wcatv.org/election-2017/council-at-large/
Thanks, I will add that to the story.
One of the issues that the candidates discussed was the consideration of possible changes to the Home Rule Charter. In my opinion, there ought to be consideration given to expanding the size of the Town Council. There was a drastic reduction in participation when the representative town meeting was replaced with the council. We don’t need necessarily to restore the town meeting, but we ought to consider doubling or tripling the size of the council, given that there has been an influx of new people in the town. Also, consideration ought to be given to ranked choice voting for public offices in the town. The current system of plurality voting does not necessarily result in the election of the broadest range of viewpoints.