Selectmen Candidates Q&A: What Skills Do You Bring To The Table?

(Editor's Note: This is the first in a three-part Q and A with the six candidates running for two seats on the Board of Selectmen.)

Question 1: If the Town Manager is the CEO of the Town, then the Board of Selectmen is the de facto Board of Directors. What skills/knowledge do you have to sit on the board of a $100 million company?

Ken Miano

My drive, intensity and energy, with the ability to infuse that energy into a group in order to motivate and propel it forward would be one of my greatest assets. Being a take charge person and executing against plan, is a strong part of my character. I have always had the ability to bring new ideas to the table and suggest different ways of doing things. My education and background in business as well as my various education in the different trades, allows me to have and to provide a more comprehensive picture to the group when brainstorming for solutions, making decisions and developing ideas to enhance progress throughout the community. The community needs someone at that table who is accessible to them and easily approachable, can get things done and thinks in terms of the big picture and the impact to the whole town while also being cognizant of ripple effect. Holding residential taxes firm, letting debt fall off of our books and preparing for the future, while living within our means are the concerns that I will champion for the Tewksbury community.

Jim Wentworth

Twelve years ago, I started Emerge Leadership Group, a Leadership and Management Development consulting firm. Our main clients are companies with well over $100 million in revenue and I have been afforded the opportunity to consult with, as well as learn from, the executives that are running these organizations. I have experienced, and provided solutions for, the challenges that these organizations face in leading a diverse workforce and client base. Over the course of these 12 years, I have been responsible for marketing, selling, business operations, and budgeting. In order to grow, I needed to plan for upcoming challenges and make sure that Emerge was being innovative in our approach. These are the skills and capabilities that I will bring to the role as a member of the Board of Selectman. I believe that the Board of Selectmen need to plan and communicate the vision and strategy for the future of Tewksbury and then provide the Town Manager and the Department Heads with the appropriate resources and support to accomplish these goals.

Todd Johnson

I have been honored to serve as a selectman for six years and was chairman for four.  I previously served as chair of the Finance Committee and served our community on the board of the Tewksbury Community Pantry.  My job requires me to serve multiple boards of director clients, attend meetings and make policy recommendations.  I also am a gubernatorial appointee to an advisory council overseeing the MA workers' compensation system.  This collective experience and my background as an attorney and legislative aide give me the skills to serve on the key policy setting board in Tewksbury.  The best qualification is first hand experience and I am already there doing the job.

If voters consider history as a guide, they need only look to my performance as a selectman over six years to consider my qualifications.  I am the only candidate with first hand experience balancing budgets.  I was there during the worst economy since the Great Depression.  We are only now beginning to climb out of the difficulties caused by it.  We have much more to do, but the policies (organizational and financial) we established over the last few years have built the foundation on which our future prosperity will rest.  Some of those decisions are difficult.  Others may not be popular. But all of my decisions were well researched and made with the best interests of Tewksbury in mind.  We have much to do and I want to continue working to make Tewksbury all it can be.

Mary Ellen Fernald

The skills/knowledge I have includes the understanding that T ewksbury is not $100 million company.  Companies fail mostly when they fail to understand their identity. Tewksbury is a town with a population over 30,000 citizens. We need to run the town as a town and not as a business. The responsibility of the Town Manager and the Board of Selectmen is to manage and run the town to the benefit of the citizens.

I have sat on the Board of Health and worked to the interest of our citizens of the town. I have lived in this town for  over 40 years and have seen the good times and the bad. I have seen when the town was run effectively and when it has not.

I have worked in private industry, taugh school, as well as the health industry. I have owned my own business  and know how it is to run the business in the city. I currently hold a real estate license and have negotiated fair deals for both sides. I know that in today's economy we need to use all the available resources to maintain the  services to our citizens.

Rick Menard

A Board of Directors is responsible to its share holders for making as big a profit as possible on their investment. This position as a member on the Board of Selectman is far more important than that. Our Board of Selectman is responsible for providing the most vital social needs to its taxpayers for the best possible value. The Board shouldn’t be looking to provide a black column in their ledgers like a CEO would for his investors.  I feel that a diverse board, representing all of its residents, on a Town level is far more important than a bunch of business professionals running a corporation.  The business skill set sits with the Town Manager who is held accountable for his actions and their impact on the community by the Board.  Rest assured, I have no desire to sit on a $100 million dollar board, but I will be sure that this Town gets representation that mirrors it’s population and focuses on its needs both long and short term.

Robert Marcin

Mr. Marcin did not submit an answer to this question.