Winthrop’s newest member of the Town Council, Marty Finn, is a lifetime resident who decided to get cautiously involved in politics at the urging of friends after feeling growing concern largely about the state of the town’s schools.

Mr Finn was chosen by the Town Council at its March 10 meeting, becoming the third employee of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to currently serve on the nine-member Town Council. He fills the remaining half of the four-year term of the council’s Precinct 6 seat, held John DaRos, who resigned after encountering growing professional responsibilities and toughening circumstances on council.

The MWRA maintenance and operations specialist was among four residents who formally offered to fill the DaRos vacancy, and one of two – along with Michael Gillespie, a local realtor and property manager – who appeared at the March 10 meeting and was then invited there to explain their candidacies.

Mr Finn won the seat in a 5-3 vote among current council members after explaining himself as heavily motivated to enter politics by thinking of his 11-year-old son, a fifth-grader in Winthrop, and what he sees as problems at the town schools including large class sizes.

Brief consideration

“When I look at the decisions this council makes, I don’t just see policies – I see the future of my town, and the future that my son and his peers will inherit,” Mr Finn told the council.

Mr Gillespie, a recent resident of Winthrop after living in Boston and Quincy, spoke of representing younger residents, countering anger he sees on social media, and winning state grants and support, especially those affecting beach maintenance.

Their competition was marked by friendliness, with Mr Finn and Mr Gillespie openly encouraging and speaking positively of each other. Yet both offered some regret over their limited evaluation by the Town Council – the governing body did not announce or pursue a specific plan for replacing Mr DaRos or for reviewing the candidates, and it announced during three council meetings over two months that four people had applied for the seat without describing them beyond their names.

Then, at their fourth such council meeting, on March 10, the body spent fewer than 20 minutes of their two-and-a-half-hour session to hear speeches from the two candidates and ask them questions.

The vote also marked another moment for defining alliances on the council after the body’s president, Jim Letterie, led a sweep of victories in the November election by all five candidates standing in opposition to Winthrop complying with the state’s 3A law. The 3A measure requires expanded multifamily zoning for housing and has been especially problematic in Winthrop.

Appointment delay

Mr Finn worked on behalf of Mr Letterie’s campaign, and yet Mr Letterie was one of the three votes for Mr Gillespie, along with those of two of the first-time winners in November – Mr Finn’s MWRA co-worker, Kim Dimes, and town-wide council member Kurt Millar. The council’s other MWRA employee, Patrick Costigan, and its only declared supporter of town compliance with 3A, Max Tassinari, were among the five votes for Mr Finn.

Mr Letterie also sought to postpone the vote, despite listing the council vacancy for action on the session’s agenda. He explained that he hoped, some four months after Mr DaRos resigned, to allow more time for the consideration of candidates. But a newly elected council member, Joseph Romano, objected, saying that Winthrop’s Precinct 6 residents deserved prompter representation. All members but Mr Letterie agreed with Mr Romano, overriding Mr Letterie’s objection and thereby forcing the vote between Mr Finn and Mr Gillespie.

In the question session, Mr Letterie asked Mr Gillespie if he expected his inexperience with Winthrop would pose a challenge, and asked Mr Finn if he anticipated any problem with the council having three MWRA employees. Both said they did not.

No council member publicly asked the candidates about the 3A law, which was the top issue in the November election. Speaking afterward, Mr Finn said he was generally opposed to the 3A law, Mr Gillespie said he was undecided, and both acknowledged uncertainties about what it actually requires and how the town should handle it.

Residency factor

Mr DaRos was a founder of the town’s Citizens Advisory Commission on Climate, which worked to convince the Town Council of the need to improve climate-related protections, with state cooperation. The commission suspended its operations in December after its members acknowledged they were not succeeding. The November election had left Mr DaRos among only two council members who argued the town should comply with the 3A law rather than face the resulting grant losses.

Speaking after his election to replace Mr DaRos, Mr Finn said he was encouraged by friends to enter the race. He said he was motivated by the idea of taking a hard look at the condition of Winthrop schools – the largest item in the town’s budget. Without outlining specific details, he said he would investigate how to make the system more affordable and effective.

Both men acknowledged in their comments after the council vote that Mr Finn’s extensive family longevity in Winthrop may have offered him an edge over Mr Gillespie. “It did seem like the decision was already made” before the council gathered for the meeting, Mr Gillespie said.

Mr Finn, meanwhile, conceded the size of the time commitment he will now face serving on the council and answering constituent questions and requests for service. It’s part of the reason that an initial promise of just two years – the remainder of the four-year term won by Mr DaRos – looked attractive, said Mr Finn, a local youth soccer and baseball coach.