The Town of Wellesley depends on the active participation of its citizens in governance of the Town. Wellesley has 11 Boards and Committees on the ballot at the Annual Town election each year in March. The 2018 election will be held on March 6.
We invited the two candidates for the contested Town Clerk race to answer a few questions about their qualifications and their priorities for the Town of Wellesley. Later posts will cover the other two contested races — Natural Resources Commission and School Committee.
Town Clerk candidate — Ronald Alexander
Swellesley: What is your background and what qualifies you for this position?
Ronald Alexander: In addition to many other duties, per Public Records Law the Town Clerk is the head Records Access Officer (RAO) for the Town, meaning that the Town Clerk is responsible for ensuring that requests for public records are fulfilled in a timely and satisfactory manner. The Town Clerk is also the central point of communication and documentation for issues of Open Meeting Law violations. As many probably know by now, I am the Subject Matter Expert in the Town of Wellesley when it comes to Public Records Law and Open Meeting Law. I have successfully appealed dozens of violations of these laws on the part of various committees and boards in the Town. As Town Clerk, I would be in a position to ensure compliance with these laws even more so than I am as a private citizen.
Sw: If elected, what do you hope to accomplish on the Town Clerk position?
RA: I hope to use my position to encourage and foster transparency and accountability on the part of the various bodies, boards, and committees within the Town. As the head Record Keeper of the Town, I will make sure that the Town’s records are open to anyone, following the premise of the Public Records Law that ALL records are public, and that anyone should have access to them. I will see that all records are posted on the Town website so that anyone may access them without going through the public records request rigamarole that I have been put through for years.
Sw: What is your hot-button issue?
RA: Transparency, Transparency, Transparency. There is currently a mindset in the bodies, boards, and committees of the Town that our citizens do not have the right to know what they are doing on their behalf. Requests for information are repeatedly ignored, responded to very late, and responded to incompletely, or at great cost to the requester. This must be fixed, and I will do my utmost to fix it.
MORE:
Ronald Alexander’s website
Town Clerk candidate — KC Kato
Swellesley: What is your background and what qualifies you for this position?
KCK: As a 25-year Wellesley resident, I have been a Town Meeting Member for 12 years, a former School Committee member for six years (two years as Chair), and have served on the boards of the Wellesley Education Foundation (one year as Chair), Wellesley Scholarship Foundation, Wellesley ABC, Schofield PTO (one year as Chair), WMS PTO and Central Council Moderator. I am currently an At-Large member of the Unified Plan Committee. I have worked elections in five precincts. I graduated from Swarthmore College with a BA in Economics and BS in Engineering and a Masters in Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University. My work experience includes many years in the private sector (BCG, Dunkin’ Brands, Philadelphia Electric) and non-profit sector (Boston After School & Beyond) in marketing and communications, strategic planning, project management and operations.
Through my professional work in marketing and communications, strategic planning, project management and operations, and years of volunteer and civic engagement in Wellesley, I have the experience and skills to work effectively and collaboratively with the citizens of the community, Town boards and staff, and local organizations to provide the excellent services they expect.
I also have extensive experience working elections at precincts and the early voting location.
Sw: If elected, what do you hope to accomplish with the Town Clerk position?
KCK: My top priorities are to advance a strong customer service focus, to support new technologies to bring effective communication, expanded community engagement and increased accessibility of services, and to administer fair and efficient elections.
Sw: What is your hot-button issue?
KCK: I am interested in ensuring fair and efficient elections and increasing voter turnout.
In the past year, as required by Massachusetts law, Wellesley has instituted early voting. I support early voting as it is a tremendous benefit to voters and can result in increased voter turnout. It is also operationally challenging and labor intensive. For future elections, I plan to improve customer service by addressing the operational issues and encouraging voter turnout through increased communications, while managing the costs.
Sw: Is there anything else you would like to say that the above questions did not cover?
KCK: The role of the Town Clerk is to support the community. My goal is to actively seek input from the community regarding the services they need and expect, and to work collaboratively with other boards and committees to meet the needs and expectations of the community while being fiscally responsible.
MORE:
KC Kato’s website
