To the editor:
Joe Connell is a highly educated and accomplished individual both professionally and personally. He served our country with great honor and distinction and continues to give back through his volunteer work in the Lynnfield community.
Instead of another letter laying out Joe’s many accomplishments and qualifications, I wanted to use this opportunity to point out some important differences between him and his opponent, Ms. Leahy. Joe and the current Select Board have done a tremendous job navigating the financial interests of the town and have maintained a AA+ rating, which ensures we get preferred interest rates when taking on projects such as the current Public Safety Building. In a recent letter to the paper, Ms. Leahy expressed her desire to move away from the current on-call Fire Department system we have to a full-time department. It should be noted that the town has already approved an increase to the number of full-time firefighters and also that the vast majority of calls are medical-related. The only way to move to a full time department would be through a significant increase in taxes.
Also of great importance is that Joe is against an operational override to the school budget. Ms. Leahy’s base of supporters are in favor of an override to the school budget and again, this would significantly increase taxes. Once you get into an operational override you essentially get caught chasing that money every year and continue to have to do overrides, and it turns into a debt spiral funded by more taxes. Instead of taxes going up the typical 2.5% per year, they would potentially go up 6-7% per year.
In a recent letter of support for Ms. Leahy, it was stated that after this school year, none of the current Select Board members would have “skin in the game” because they wouldn’t have any children in the school system. Mr. Connell’s youngest child is graduating this year, he’s had a child in the system the entire time he’s been on the Select Board and his children have been in the school system longer than Ms. Leahy has lived in town. Mr. Crawford and Mr. Dalton have multiple grandchildren in the school system. It’s also worth saying that depicting a group of residents who have given a tremendous amount of their time, energy, and efforts to the community throughout their decades in town as not having “skin in the game” is way out of touch.
In Joe’s time on the Select Board, he has attended 100% of the Select Board meetings and has only missed one meeting for the various committees/sub-committees he’s on. In a recent Finance Committee meeting that Ms. Leahy joined remotely, it was on their agenda to vote whether or not to bring the new library building back to the town for a Special Town Meeting vote. Ms. Leahy left the meeting five minutes before that vote took place and did not submit a vote. Following that, both town newspapers contacted her to ask whether she would’ve voted yes or no, and she would not give a straight-forward yes or no answer.
More than 60% of the town’s annual budget is directly related to the schools. It is the job of the School Committee and superintendent to manage that money properly. Throwing more money at a problem that is a result of poor management is not the answer.
I respectfully ask that you join me on April 9 and vote to reelect Joe Connell.
Thank you,
Jimmy Crawford
Editor’s Note: The Weekly News attempted to contact Alexis Leahy for comment on the library vote, but was not able to get in touch with her.
