Selectman Candidate Profile: Marsie West

Marsie West, 19-year Reading resident, is running for one of the two open seats on the Board of Selectmen. West is currently on the RMLD Board of Commissioners, but has accomplished what she ran for, she said.

West is currently the Assistant Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at John Hancock and formerly worked at BNY Mellon. She has been involved in town government for 10 years. She sat on the Finance Committee for nine years and served as chair for the last two. Over the past year, she has been a member of the RMLD Board of Commissioners. 

She felt strongly about the RMLD Board of Commissioner's decision to , their Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), which is why she opted to run for the board.

RMLD has since sold some RECs and made almost a million dollars that has gone back to the rate payers, she said, and they will continue to sell them.

"I feel like I accomplished what I ran for, if you will,” West said.

She also discovered some other inefficiencies and was able to eliminate some things that were done twice such as having three members of the board review the bills every weekend. Now, the commissioners rotate so only one reviews the bills each weekend.

If West is elected to the Board of Selectmen, she will need to resign from the Board of Commissioners and someone would be appointed to replace her until the next local election.

Similar to when Mary Ellen O'Neill resigned and John Stempeck was appointed to the Board of Commissioners last year. Stempeck will be on the ballot at the upcoming local election, and if elected he will serve two years, the remainder of the term. 

If elected to the Board of Selectmen West believes that she will be an asset to the town during this time of transition with a new town manager. 

"It is an ideal time to double check and make sure that our goals for the town are completely in alignment with the new town manager and the board,” she said.

Change management is a big part of her current job, so she is comfortable in these situations and believes that she can help with the transition process, she told Patch.

She would also like to look at what kind of processes and procedures are currently in place to support resident and business, and see if there is a way to make things easier on both.

Given the challenging financial times with less money coming from the state, she brings her background with the Finance Committee to the table, which could be an asset to the town.

West lives in town with her husband and two sons, who have both gone through the Reading school system. 

This is the second article of a series of candidate profiles. We attempted to contact the third candidate Mark Jackson, but have not received a response from him.