Selectmen candidates get into the weeds

Norwood Community Media hosted a candidates forum with Norwood Republican Town Committee Chair Kevin Broderick on Tuesday in a live broadcast.

Broderick, also a Town Meeting member, went through numerous topics with the candidates in just over an hour, but the session could be summed up into two broad topics: finance and housing.

All candidates said the Town needs to rein in spending.

The biggest financial impact the Town is looking at now is the Public Safety Override, topping out at about $1.3 million for additional police and fire personnel – https://gvimes.link/pdfdoverride

All candidates said during the forum that the Town needs the override but stipulated that, at least for right now, an operational override to balance the budget is not doable.

“I definitely wouldn’t support two of them,” said challenger Cheryl Doyle. “I think it’s too much for the Town to take on. If we’re going to do an override at all, I think we need to look at the fire and the police because we’re becoming more dense. A lot of people just keep moving in, moving in, moving in.”

“I think anybody who lives in this Town knows that Norwood is not immune from (crime),” said incumbent Michael Saad. “We’ve got a lot of crime coming our way, we’ve got the city coming our way, and I want to support our police department and fire department, but we have to do it in a sensible way.”

“This is something that’s essential and needed,” said challenger David Bliss. “Public safety is something that’s important to any community, besides the school system. Public safety is important. If you look back in 1977, Norwood Fire had the same staffing that we have today, with one ambulance, they were doing 2,000 calls a year. Today, same staffing, two ambulances, 7,600 runs, projected to go up to 9,000. The calls are out of control.”

Population was a topic as well, especially around housing developments and the MBTA Communities Act. All candidates said they were opposed to the MBTA Communities Act rezoning from a few years ago, and said they wanted to fight it, and said they would be “willing to accept the consequences of that,” as Broderick said in his question, referring to the loss of state grant funding and possible legal actions from the State Attorney General’s Office.

“I would yeah,” said Doyle. “Because if enough towns stand up to the state, what are they going to do? They’re elected officials, and we can vote them out as easily as they were voted in. That is the power of voting and why people should go to the polls and vote, and not just sit at home and leave it to others to do.”

“I voted against it, I fought with my Board and I said, ‘this is not good for Norwood,’ and we should have fought it tooth and nail and said to (Mass. Gov Maura) Healey, ‘We don’t want it,’” said Saad. “We’re close to 65 percent apartments, and now we’re going to get hit with another 10 or 15 percent, we don’t have any homeowners anymore. We’re going to have all rentals. The (accessory dwelling units) ADUs, everything they throw at us, they give us a grant here or a grant there. We don’t want the grants, keep them. We don’t want your stuff.”

“I think that was ridiculous,” said Bliss. “I don’t think the state or the federal government should come to a town and say, ‘You’ve got to do this, this, this, build this here, build that there, paint that house that color.’ The Town of Norwood knows what it wants. The Town of Norwood should decide what goes where and how to build it.”

There are municipalities in Massachusetts currently fighting the MBTA Communities Act, which was signed into law by former Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, but many have already lost millions in grants – https://gvimes.link/mbtagrants1

In Marblehead, a town of 20,000 and facing a $7.7 million structural deficit, the town recently lost $3 million in grants – https://gvimes.link/marbleheadmbta

In Middletown, a population of 9,779 and a budget of $48 million, the town lost a $2 million grant – https://gvimes.link/middletownmbta

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Milton and eight other municipalities are facing prosecution from the State’s Attorney General as well – https://gvimes.link/agmbta

At last week’s School Committee meeting, Norwood Public Schools Superintendent Timothy Luff pointed out the department – just the schools – helps fund its programming with about $2 million in grants for the Fiscal Year 2027 budget.

On the population note. All candidates said they felt that the Norwood population is growing and that growth, at least for rental housing, is negatively affecting the Town. The Town’s population in 1977 was 30,996 – https://gvimes.link/norwood1977

The current population of Norwood for 2026 is estimated by Massachusetts Demographics to be 32,505, a net increase over 49 years of 1,509 – https://gvimes.link/norwood2026

Contrary to the penny pinching aims of the candidates, they later all said they said they supported reducing taxes on seniors.

“I know currently now we have the senior tax incentive program, and I 100 percent support that, but we should try to find ways to expand that,” said Bliss.