Stefanie Neumann To Run For Swampscott Select Board

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott native and biomedical engineer Stefanie Neumann will run for one of the two Select Board seats up for a vote in the annual town election set for April 25.

Neumann told Patch on Tuesday that she returned her nominations on Monday ahead of the Tuesday deadline to be on the ballot.

"I hope to apply my sense of equity and my analytic skills to the issues facing our community in order to find practical, economical and commonsense solutions," she said in an email to Patch.

A first-time candidate for office, she has been a volunteer in Swampscott as a high school English and Spanish tutor, as well as helping the town treasurer's office develop financial software for the department.

She said she is looking to follow her family's history of civic engagement in the town. Her mother, Clarice, helped get the Fish House on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and was active in the METCO program in the 1960s, while her father, Gerhard, helped persuade the town authority not to build high rises after the New Ocean House burned down in 1969.

"I believe in transparency and open communication," Neumann said. "Taxpayers have a right to know how their hard-earned money is being spent, and how to ensure their opinions about those expenditures are being successfully communicated to the powers that be."

Swampscott will have 10 positions up for a townwide vote this spring, including two Select Board positions and two School Committee positions. The town moderator is also up for a vote, along with one spot each on the Board of Assessors, Trustees of the Public Library, Board of Health, Planning Board and Housing Authority.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)