Braintree Town Council Sworn In, First Woman President Named

BRAINTREE, MA — Mayor Charles Kokoros became the second person to ever hold the position Thursday, but he wasn't the only new official to take the helm that night. Braintree swore-in a new Town Council with five of its nine members taking office for the first time. The council also elected its first woman president in At-large Councilor Shannon Hume and voted David Ringius in as vice president.

Hume became the first woman to ever serve on the council when she was elected in 2013. This year saw more wins for women with Julia Flaherty, Meredith Boerick and Donna Connors getting elected. Other new town councilors included Lawrence Mackin Jr. and Steven Sciascia.

"It was an honor to work with all the former councilors," Hume said. "I'm so exicted to be working with Mayor Kokoros."

Flaherty, in an interview after the November election, told Patch the election of women was a positive step forward for the town, as now four of the towns 10 leaders, are women.

"I think it's good for all our daughters and sons to see women running for office and in leadership positions," Flaherty said.

Sciascia when asked about more women being represented said it was about the best candidates getting the job, one of which he said was Connors, who he got to know well during the campaign.

"She's really intelligent and really motivated and competent and, we just need more people like that who are really good people, who aren't politicians but just good smart people," Sciascia said in a post election interview.

As for the issues, new councilors told Patch development and making sure schools get the funding they need are top priorities. Boericke told Patch there's a lot of concern for making sure the high school has the funding it needs. She also said any new development needs to be done in a way that's "responsible, sustainable and fair."

Mackin also made development a priority. Throughout the campaign and like Kokoros, advocated for a master plan to be done before any sort of re-zoning takes place. A re-zoning proposal hundreds of residents feared would lead to overcrowded development was withdrawn last month, and Kokoros in his inaugural address promised to fund a new master plan in his first 100 days in office. Mackin said any new development needs to put the priorities of residents before anything else.

"There’s a lot of money to be made here in Braintree," Mackin told Patch. "The ones that are going to profit off it don’t live in Braintree. We need a councilor that will serve the residents not the developers."

The Town Council will get its first chance to start addressing these issues at its first meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall.