Richard Foster wants your vote on Tuesday

The following is from Richard Foster, candidate for re-election to the Longmeadow Select Board.

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Shortly you will go to the polls to once again elect those you wish to provide executive leadership for our community. While I realize many of you may not be directly involved with the governance of your community, you do, however, control who is chosen to represent your interest. You deserve people who consistently demonstrate leadership qualities that clearly represent the highest priority needs of our entire community. We need select board members that clearly demonstrate professionalism, not only in representing you, but also in how they deal with other board members and senior managers in our community.

Your select board needs to demonstrate fiscal leadership by looking into the future and applying some common logic towards where we are headed. Longmeadow’s future requires a select board that recognizes the fiscal challenges and supports the expertise and forward thinking displayed by our Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Paul Pasterczyk, Town Manager Stephen Crane, Planning Board Member Walter Gunn, and the Director of the Pioneer Planning Commission Tim Brennan in our recent tax rate forum. All of these professionals realize we need to start working now to alter our future financial picture.

One of your select board members in the May 21-27 Reminder boasted that he “believes he brings fiscal leadership to the board.” This was the same select board member who went on to mock a recent forum on our tax rate as being akin to the “Chicken Little mentality where the sky is going to fall.” These statements are made by a person who has served you for nine years on the Select Board, one year on the School Committee, and two years on the Finance Committee. All these years he participated in increasing your taxes by the full amount allowed by law to our current point where we have the highest tax rate of any community across the Commonwealth, while the infrastructure needs of our community continued to be ignored.

I need your help in supporting a new direction to maintain the quality of life in Longmeadow and ensure its future.

Tom Lachiusa is running for the select board this year and is gaining support across our community as a voice of change. Tom is committed to building a better relationship between the select board and the Town Manager. Tom realizes the importance of this relationship and is committed to letting the Town Manager manage our town as directed by the Charter and to having the Select Board start providing executive leadership through the development of fiscal and operational policies. I support Tom in his bid to become a select board member for Longmeadow.

We need to elect individuals who truly demonstrate the leadership required for our future.

As a community, we can’t afford another three years political pandering; the time for leadership is now.

The choice is yours; status quo or electing a team that will Drive Change in the Right Direction.

Please Vote Foster and Lachiusa this year as your representatives on the Select Board.

Thank you for your vote.

Richard Foster, Chair, Longmeadow Select Board