Herr wins Hopkinton selectman seat
Source :: MetroWest Daily News
Original Publication Date :: May 16, 2011
Wicked LocalHopkinton residents, from left, Planning Board candidate Brian Karp, selectman candidate Brian Herr, School Committee candidate Nancy Burdick chat while campaigning outside Hopkinton Middle School during yesterday’s election.
HOPKINTON — Former board chairman and congressional candidate Brian Herr reclaimed a selectmen seat Monday, easily outpacing competitor Frank D’Urso amid modest turnout in the town’s annual election.
Herr finished with 1,139 votes, more than doubling D’Urso’s 548.
In the contested School Committee race, one dominated by lingering debate over districted elementary schools and problems at Center School, two-term incumbent School Committee member Nancy Burdick gained the most votes at 1,125.
Former Planning Board member Scott Aghababian, a critic of the committee’s previous plans, finished with 1,060 votes, beating out incumbent Richard de Mont, who had 748, for the second seat.
Just under 18 percent of Hopkinton’s 9,837 registered voters turned out.
Elsewhere on the ballot, voters shot down a proposal to change the town clerk from an elected post to an appointed one, 1,042 to 635, despite an earlier Town Meeting vote preliminarily approving the move. Town leaders cited the increasing complexity of the job and a desire for a smooth transition once Town Clerk Ann Click retires, among other reasons, for wanting to have the clerk appointed.
Some voters heading out of the polls had decided giving the town manager appointing power was a reasonable move, but many others questioned why the existing system should change.
Herr agreed to put his name on the ballot at the 11th hour, responding to a request from local Republicans. Party candidate Dick MacDonald pulled out after realizing he might have a financial conflict of interest between his job and town business.
After completing his previous term, Herr left for an unsuccessful congressional run.
In campaigning for selectman, he pointed to the fact that selectmen had not asked to collect the full amount of property taxes under his leadership. But he also acknowledged he would be willing to still seek untapped property taxes from those years and present Proposition 2 1/2 overrides to voters – provided all savings had been realized and the spending need clearly demonstrated.
That contrasted with his competitor’s pledge never to seek overrides and never to tap the uncollected taxes, though voters still overwhelmingly chose Herr over D’Urso, a Democrat who serves on the Conservation Commission and Sustainable Green Committee.
Outside the polls, voters cited either a personal relationship with Herr or his past record.
“Brian Herr did a did a good job in the past and I thought he’d continue doing a good job,” Anne Schneider said.
Asked about his win, Herr cited his track record on property taxes, his previous effort to run local government like a business and his realistic approach to the budget.
“I said at that time, ‘You can’t take a tool out of the toolbox,”‘ he said, referring to his backing of an unsuccessful vote to put an override before voters his first year on the board. “That doesn’t mean I’m a big fan of raising taxes.”
Asked about Tuesday’s board vote for a new chairman, Herr said he has “zero interest” in leading the board and deferred to colleagues.
For School Committee, Aghababian attributed his win to his opposition to an earlier plan to switch to districted elementary schools.
“I thought it was shared by a lot of people in town,” he said of his stance.
The change was tied to a proposal for a new building off Fruit Street to replace Center Elementary School, a project that failed to win approval at least in part because of the districting debate.
“School Committee, that was a hot one,” said Dexter Siglin, who voted for Aghababian. “I’m really not in favor of that.”
But Siglin also named de Mont on his ballot, deciding that de Mont’s candidate statement had shown the most willingness to change course.
