Tom Salemi - photo credit Neal Ernstrom Photography
By Tom Salemi
I’m not a huge fan of apathy. Frankly, I can take it or leave it.
I mean it’s not for me, at least not in the case of local government. I’ve never been apathetic about the goings on at City or Town Hall. I’m not a junkie by any means, but I see a value in understanding the local entity that runs our schools and paves our roads.And I feel it’s important to participate in the elections that decide whose going to run that local entity.
But I’m clearly in a minority opinion.
Roughly 29 percent of the 13,040 registered voters – close to 3,800 – voted in last week’s election. To be fair, no mayoral race topped this year’s ballot so excitement was limited to the Councillor-at-Large race and question about the Charter. But even when one we had a compelling mayoral race in 2009 – when Mayor Donna Holaday topped James Shanley in a spirited campaign – only 37 percent of the voters (close to 5,000) opted to show up.
I’m not here to chastise anyone or plead for greater public interest. The numbers clearly and accurately represent the number of people in the city who care how it’s run. Even that might be stretching it. On Election Day in 2009, I bumped into a friend in the parking lot at Shaw’s. She was on her way to vote and still didn’t know which mayoral candidate she’d support.
But I do want to take a moment to illustrate what apathy means. The leaders of this town have no real mandate from the people in the city.
Mayor Holaday – who had a busy two years overseeing the institution of paid parking, the location of a parking garage and negotiations that the fate of the two dirt parking lots downtown – only drew votes from 21% of the registered voters in town, the same exact percentage she drew in 2009.
Now, the 2,763 people who voted for her in 2011 (she received 2,704 in 2009) accounted for 73% of the 3,800 people who did vote in last week’s election. But four out of five registered voters in Newburyport didn’t vote for our mayor. (I did in this election, by the way, after supporting Shanley in 2009.)
The City Council works with even a thinner mandate. The council, like the mayor, has been busy. The council voted to instituted a local sales tax our meals and approved a plan that let’s dogs run off leash at local parks.
Yet the lead vote getter Councillor-at-Large Barry Connell picked up votes from only 16.4% of ALL registered voters followed by Katy O’Connor Ives (15.9%), Ari Herzog (14.9%), Ed Cameron (13.5%) and newly elected Dick Sullivan (13%.)
Ward councillors are a bit harder to figure out, but together all six Ward Councillors – Allison Heartquist, Gregory Earls, Robert Cronin, Tom Jones, Brian Derrivan and Tom O’Brien received a total of 2,627 votes. So only 20% of ALL voters in town voted for one of them. (All were unopposed.)
So walk into a crowded coffee shop and look around. Of the 10 people standing and sitting there drinking their warm beverage of choice, less than three have voted in this election, roughly two have voted for the mayor, and only one or two voted for a city councillor.
It might be easy to dismiss things like paid parking or leash laws as trivial things that aren’t meaningful enough to command the attention of a busy voter. But how does $5,000 grab you? That’s how much this mayor and council could spend PER VOTER on upcoming and ongoing capital products including the new $32 million waste water treatment plant, a $18.7 million for new well for drinking water and, of course, the city’s portion of the estimated $30 million for the new Bresnahan school. (The total comes to $81 million, but the state should pay half of the school costs.)
Is that worth paying attention?
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Speaking of the schools, elected School Committee members drew roughly the same percentages as At-large City Councillors: Bruce Menin (17.2%), Nick de Kanter (15.3%) and newcomer Audrey McCarthy (13.7%)
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And the Charter that will double the length of term for the next person elected mayor received votes from only 17.4% of all registered voters but 73% of voters who particpated in last week’s election.
The new charter comes into effect in 2013. The person elected mayor in two years will enjoy four uninterrupted years of service before facing the voters again. It will be interesting to see if the longer term and richer salary ($98,000) has the desired effect of drawing more qualified people to run for the office even if Holaday were to run again as I suspect she would.
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On a more personal note, through my blog I’m participating in the Pennies for Poverty 100 can challenge. My plan is to swing through the city on Saturday to pick up donated cans from any generous readers. Please email me at newburyportposter@gmail.com if you’d like to participate or consider contributing to others who are collecting cans.
