When voters in the Berkshires city of North Adams select their next mayor, they will choose between a two-term incumbent and a newcomer to the city and to politics.
Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the Fabulous 413 she’s worked for North Adams for two decades, including four years in the top job, and knows how to juggle problems.
“I can wake up at 2:00 in the morning and manage a fire scene,” she said. “I can wake up at 3:00 in the morning and manage a water main break when managing a fire scene.”
She said her office has secured $44 million in grant funding for the city’s infrastructure and is starting to build a new multi-million dollar elementary school, which narrowly passed a voters’ referendum.
“It was a fight, but the ultimate decision was made by the taxpayers,” said Macksey. “I only laid the path, made the vision.”
Macksey’s challenger, Scott Berglund, was among those who objected to borrowing money to build the new school.
A former sales executive who has never held public office, Berglund moved from Connecticut to North Adams two years ago. He said that gives him a fresh perspective.
“I see things for what they are. I don't have any dealings or I don't owe any favors to anybody here,” he said. “I'm just really just here, looking at it through the lens of somebody new. What's going on? Things don't seem right. How can we fix them?”
Berglund said he first decided to run for mayor because of a forest management proposal at Notch Reservoir that some worried would introduce toxins to the environment.
Mayor Macksey said she canceled that project in part because of the community’s response.
Berglund also said his past work as a business consultant has given him skills at building rapport with people. He has criticized Macksey for not being more transparent in her governing style.
“What I'm going to do differently as mayor is I'm going to make sure that when people send an email or they have a concern, I might not be able to meet with everybody, but my staff should be getting back to them, and I will be putting stuff in my calendar to follow up on that stuff.”
Macksey said she acknowledges she doesn’t often talk publicly about plans until they are finalized but insisted that’s not a transparency issue. “I try very hard to communicate my plans through city council meetings and the sporadic press releases and talking with the press,” she said. “But that is something, with the new world of technology, that I think all municipalities need to get up to speed on.”
According to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Macksley has raised about almost $16,000 in donations for her current campaign, in addition to another $16,000 that was already in her campaign account. Berglund has raised about $5,200 total.
