NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Citizens interested in serving on the City Council have until Friday noon to submit a letter of interest. 

 

The council on Tuesday voted to solicit interest in filling the seat left vacant on the nine-person council by the resignation of President Paul Hopkins last week. Hopkins stepped down because he is moving out of the area. 

 

The last two vacancies had been filled by the 10th candidate on the ballot, a move that Councilor Wayne Wilkinson advocated for. 

 

"I'm a firm believer that person that is on City Council should have been voted by the people," he said. "I know in the past that we've asked letters of interest, and that the council then gets together and goes over those letters of interest. The bottom line is, some of those people nobody ever voted for.

 

"I maybe somewhat prejudiced of this voting from the point that I came in No. 10 once, and I was voted back to the council."

 

Wilkinson was voted back on the council in 2017 after coming in 10th by 51 votes in his re-election bid. He filled the seat left vacant by the resignation of Nancy Bullet. He also nominated Councilor Peter Oleskiewicz, another 10th-place candidate, to fill the vacant seat of Robert Moulton Jr. last August. Oleskiewicz said he was willing to go whichever way the council wanted. 

 

In both cases, the election of the 10th place candidate was accompanied by a solicitation of letters of interest that were reviewed by the council before voting. In this case, it wouldn't be the 10th-place finisher but rather the 11th, Bryan Sapienza who placed 17 votes behind Oleskiewicz in the 2019 election. Sapienza has run several times before and has taken out nomination papers for the November election.

 

The process was recommended by Councilor Lisa Blackmer in a communication to the council.

 

"I thought that it was important to get the process going so I put this on the agenda because we had already had Councilor Hopkins resignation before we had to file our council papers," she said. "My suggestion is that we announce today at the meeting, the process that we were going to use."

 

The candidates who submitted letters would be allowed to speak at the next meeting as part of the agenda. Then the council would discuss and vote. 

 

Blackmer had suggested a June 4 as a deadline with a vote at the council's meeting on June 8, or a special meeting on June 1 so the new councilor could vote at the June 8 meeting. 

 

"It's whatever the council's pleasure is," she said. "I just wanted to make sure that we move forward quickly with this because the June meetings and the meeting in July are kind of important."

 

Councilor Keith Bona was concerned that there would not be enough time to get the word out and have interested people get a letter in by Friday. He was, however, for soliciting letters rather than giving the seat by fiat, noting one time a councilor left and the 10th person had been in jail. 

 

If it was closer to the election, would the council fill the seat, he wondered. It didn't when the late Clark Billings resigned two months before the 2009 election. "I think there was one time the council actually considered, would we put someone in place and say who was a former councilor who had no interest in running, and that way it took any politics or advantage out of the election," he said. 

 

The council voted unanimously to request letters of interest to the city clerk's office by noon on Friday, May 28. A special meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1, so the new councilor will be able to participate in the budget process. 

 

In other business: 

 

• Councilor Jason LaForest was sworn in as president, having been vice president. His first meeting was unfortunately troubled with technical issues when video would not work on Zoom. He said he hoped to return in person to council chambers the first meeting in June. Councilors Jessica Sweeney and Benjamin Lamb were not in attendance. 

 

• The council affirmed the hiring of Marcus Lander as assistant city clerk. Wilkinson objected that the council had not even interviewed Lander  and voted against; the charter gives the clerk the authority to hire her assistant with the confirmation of the council. 

 

• Scheduled a joint hearing with the Planning Board on June 14 for a change in the zoning ordinances that would give the board more authority to compel compliance with special permits. 

 

• Approved the appointments of Peter Breen and Michael Goodson to the License Board for terms to expire June 1, 2027; and Kyle Hanlon to the Redevelopment Authority for a term to expire June 1, 2025. 

 

• Passed compensation and classification plans for the Police, Fire and Public Service Departments that include 1.5 percent raises retroactive to July 1, 2020. These are based on negotiated contracts with the public unions. 

 

• Referred an ordinance change allowing at least two non-residents of the city to serve on the Airport Commission to General Government. 

 

• Mayor Thomas Bernard read a proclamation in support of Pride Month, this June.