Get to Know Who's Running for Medfield Town Offices

Despite running in uncontested races, four candidates for Medfield Town Offices took time Wednesday to introduce themselves to voters and participate in democracy through the town’s League of Women Voters (LWV) event.

Uncontested on Monday’s town ballot are Tom Caragliano, running for Park Commissioner; Thomas Sweeney Jr., running for Board of Assessors; Maryanne Sullivan, running for School Committee and Steven Pelosi, running for Library Trustee.

The candidates each introduced themselves to the public before engaging in a question and answer period at Wednesday’s LWV Candidates’ Evening at Town Hall. Here's a quick profile of each candidate:

Meet the Candidates

• Name: Tom Caragliano
• Running for: Park Commissioner (3-year term)
• In His Own Words: “I’ve been on many committees in this town since the late 60s and I’ve saved the town millions of dollars,” said Caragliano. “Just a little outline on what the Park and Rec tries to do and that is provide you with affordable recreation here in town for all ages. We try to create a pleasant atmosphere such that all participants have a good time and want to come back. That’s what we try to do with the commission. We also have our own landscaping operation and we do 11 sites here in town and oversee that. We unfortunately missed out on that Park and Recreation facility by three votes but we haven’t given up and would still like to come up with something for the town. Also, I’m on the Park and Rec and Conservation Commission Planning Committee and we have to mandate the entire demographics of the town to the state every five years so that any grants we request will come to us because we have initiated that. There’s a survey out and we would like your response for what we can do going forward and what you would like to see us do going forward in the park and recreation area. One of my pet peeves is some of us like to play golf ... there isn’t a place in town we can go and hit some golf balls but yet we have loads of land. That’s the sort of thing we are trying to do. Please feel free to call us, write us, tell us what you would want us to do.”
  
  
• Name: Thomas Sweeney Jr.
• Running for: Board of Assessors (3-year term)
• In His Own Words: “I work on the other side of the cap where we look for the money for the town to spend,” Sweeney said. “The assessors inventory the town, we value the town and then comes the tax rate. The selectmen spend the money that we’ve come up with and you do at Town Meeting. It’s something I don’t look forward to because I don’t want to spend any of your money or my money foolishly. I’m rather conservative when it comes to the Board of Assessors and I think we all are down there, it is a great board. My background: I worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for 23 years in the Department of Local Services. I worked as an appraiser there. ... I was looking the other night at the number of towns I’ve worked in and it’s probably upwards of the hundreds. What we did as assessors is we certified the values in the different communities. We were in evaluation this year here [in Medfield]. That means that we have to re-inventory the town, update the values and go from there. As you know, the real estate business in the last few years has been very difficult. We know it and we can’t do anything about the tax rate. With the tax rate, you can’t spend money. If you don’t spend money your rate won’t go up but your tax bill will go up somehow. ... My involvement in the community: I worked on the hospital preservation committee, historical society and Zoning Enforcing Officer – I always pick these jobs because you get to enforce things – Cemetery Commission, Town Government Study Committee.”
  
  
• Name: Maryanne Sullivan
• Running for: School Committee (3-year term)
• In Her Own Words: “I’m a Medfield resident for almost nine years now. We moved here when my oldest daughter was about nine months old and we have three children in the school system. My daughter always says in my past life I was a lawyer, now I’m a mom. I was a prosecutor in Boston for a while before I had children and I worked for the AG’s office. When we moved to Medfield and I had my first daughter I became a Medfield mom, which has been wonderful. I love the schools, I love Medfield. I have been on multiple boards in Medfield. I served on the Superintendent’s Advisory Council, CSA presidents and boards, some psych councils at the different schools and I love it. I think the job of the school committee is to be an advocate for the schools, the curriculum – making sure that we are keeping up with standards so that our schools stay strong and I attend to do that.”
• Why She’s Running: “I’m a big supporter of the school system,” Sullivan said. “I have three children – third grade, first grade and kindergarten – in the school systems. It’s why we moved here. What I hope to bring as an asset to the committee would be the fact that I do have younger children and a different perspective coming in other than middle school and high school.”
  
  
  
• Name: Steven Pelosi
• Running for: Library Trustee (3-year term)
• In His Own Words: “I am running for reelection for the position of Library Trustee. Trustees are six elected individuals in the town of Medfield that oversee all aspects of the . We work closely with the library director and her staff to provide guidance on things such as the annual budget, policies, procedures, the physical plan, library programming and such. Our role is to act on behalf of all of the residents and library patrons to help ensure the library reaches its potential by providing benefit to everyone. In terms of my qualifications, my background is in education and my employment is in corporate finance. A few years ago, I was on the Warrant Committee and I had the opportunity to serve as the liaison to the library. At that time that was really my first exposure to the back operations of the library, what goes on beyond the front desk. It was quite a good learning experience for me. I was then able to take that experience when a position opened up on the Library Trustee Board to use that experience to gain more knowledge at that trustee position. In terms of my role on the committee, all of the trustees provide an active role. Providing guidance to help the library in its operations. Currently, I serve on a library subcommittee overseeing the library’s trust fund – the income from which the library uses to support the collection. Personal goal of mine is to  see the library, which is a beautiful building in the center of town, is maintained.”

Medfield's Town Election will be held Monday, March 26 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Center at Medfield on Ice House Road. To read more on the race for selectman between Osler "Pete" Peterson and Nikolaos "Nick" Athanasiadis,