Shrewsbury 2022 Candidate Profile: John Samia, Board Of Selectmen

SHREWSBURY, MA — In 2022, there are two Board of Selectmen seats up for election, and three candidates are running.

Board of Selectmen Chair John Samia is back in 2022 for a second term, but Vice Chair John Lebeaux is not running again. Town Meeting member Michelle Conlin and Rajesh Uppalapati are running to at least pick up Lebeaux's seat.

We asked each of the three candidates to answer a series of questions about why they're running to help voters get to know them better. Here's what Samia had to say:

Name: John R. Samia
Age: 51
Occupation: Vice president and general counsel, American Superconductor Corp.
Experience as an elected official: Shrewsbury Board of Selectmen 2019 to present, current Chair. Three-term Shrewsbury School Committee member. Town Meeting member, 12 years.

Why are you running for Board of Selectmen in 2022?

I am running to ensure that Shrewsbury is a great place for all residents to live, work and raise a family.

Since being elected to the Board of Selectmen in May 2019, I have worked with other town officials to advance important initiatives and to get things done despite facing unprecedented challenges.

We have adopted strategic goals for the town, made substantial progress in improving water
quality and made significant investments in public safety. We developed a long-term financial model that helped the town navigate through the economic perils of the pandemic and recently commenced our community-focused Shrewsbury 2030 Strategic Plan.

While progress has been made, our town faces several challenges including meeting the needs of a growing and diverse community, traffic safety and flow, and meeting the mental health and well-being needs of town residents. I have the proven leadership skills and experience to help solve these challenges.

For more information about my campaign, goals and me, please visit samiaforselectman.com.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing Shrewsbury and what would you do about it?

The most important issue facing Shrewsbury is being able to meet the needs of a growing and diverse community.

Over the last ten years:

• Our population has increased by 7.6%,
• We are more diverse than in the past
• Population for persons over 65 has increased 24%.

The changing nature of our town requires us to recognize the needs of our diverse citizenry.

We need to support the needs of our seniors and address mental health issues and traffic issues. We are seeing a growing demand for open space, walkability and potentially, a multigenerational center.

Meanwhile, we also need to educate our children, keep our residents safe and provide daily life amenities.

A vital component of our long-term strategic planning initiative, the Shrewsbury 2030 Strategic Plan, is to actively engage with as many residents as possible to ensure that we align town government and limited financial resources with the priorities of our residents.

I believe that implementing the Shrewsbury 2030 Strategic Plan is vital to the long-term success of our community and will foster a community in which all residents can thrive. I believe that my continued service on the Board will help make this important strategic undertaking a reality.

The Shrewsbury Board of Selectmen recently approved a plan to develop the former Beal school. What's your opinion of the project?

I believe that the Beal Commons project will make a significant, positive impact to the Town and
voted to approve this project.

The project is the result of a multi-year public-engaged visioning and planning process. Starting with the Town’s 2016 Master Plan, residents identified the need to “strengthen the Town Center” and “support the Town Center as a destination.” Since that time, the Town engaged with the public through multiple, well-attended public forums, surveys and hearings. Through community input arose a vision for a vibrant, walkable Town Center with a balance of retail, residential, and green spaces, like the Beal Commons project.

The expected benefits of this project are significant, including turning public non-taxable land into private taxable land and being a catalyst for future economic development in town center. The project provides a built-in customer base for local businesses, additional affordable housing units, and additional publicly available parking spaces.

Do you think we're past the point of needing to take major precautions against coronavirus like mask mandates or vaccine passports? Why or why not?

With decreasing coronavirus infection rates and severe outcomes, increasing vaccination rates (including 78.9% in the Commonwealth), home tests and antiviral treatments, we appear to be past the need for mask mandates or instituting other major precautions, other than for those in certain high-risk settings, including at health care and long-term care facilities.

This conclusion is supported by the fact that no states currently have a general requirement that its citizens wear masks in public places. Furthermore, in February, the CDC revised its masking guidance and now recommends indoor masking for all only in certain specified communities deemed to be at high risk for the coronavirus.

However, while the health indicators are all trending in the right direction, the coronavirus has shown that it is anything but predictable. We need to remain vigilant and should the positive trends change significantly for the worse, look to advice of those knowledgeable in infectious diseases and public health including our local Board of Health, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the CDC regarding appropriate mitigation steps in light of the situation.

If you could snap your fingers and make it happen, what's one thing you would change or fix in Shrewsbury?

One thing that I would change is the amount of State funding received by the Town, particularly as it relates to providing adequate funding to cover the financial effects that enacted State laws have on the Town.

In fiscal year 2008, the Town received a combined $3.1 million of non-school aid from the State. In fiscal year 2023, the Town is projected to receive $3.14 million in Unrestricted General Government Aid, which finally gets us back to fiscal year 2008 funding levels. Yet, the State has passed many laws during this period, including important recent legislation around early voting and the Student Opportunity Act.

Under State law, the Division of Local Mandates is required to examine laws “which have a significant financial impact upon cities or towns” every five years. DLM reviewed over 1,600 bills passed into law from 2016 through 2020 and determined that 29 bills, including early voting and the Student Opportunity Act, had such an impact.

Inadequate State funding necessitates the Town to expend its local tax revenues to comply with such enacted laws, and by getting adequate State funding, the Town can use its local tax revenues for other important Town initiatives.