Stacey Brown has a unique niche on Concord’s city council — she’s neither part of its string of very long-standing members nor one of the nearly half of councilors finishing their first term.
She’s also become known as its most outspoken member, unafraid to pull items from the consent agenda or to press city administration on the details of issues she’s passionate about, from how the city’s golf course is run and charges fees to non-residents, to the rules attached to when and where the city can apply its numerous reserve funds.
Her challenger, Alex Dellas, is a critic of Concord’s council, including on many issues that overlap with Brown’s main areas of focus. But he said he’d bring a more fiscally conservative bent to the Ward 5 chair, all the while building more bridges on the council.
“I would engage residents earlier in the budget process, use cost-benefit analysis, and build consensus to ensure changes are strategic, transparent, and widely supported,” he said in a candidate questionnaire by The Monitor.
Pushing harder than Brown on big ticket items and simultaneously getting a wider swath of support on the council is a tall order. Over the last year, several members of the council have been fractious and causticly critical of one another on the issues Brown is vocal about, including the golf course and the budget.
Brown often finds herself a lone vote on the council, met with dismissiveness by some of her peers. She sees it as a by-product of her thoroughness.
“I believe I spend more time digging into the issues than some of my other colleagues,” She said at a Monitor candidate forum. “I’m representing the people of Ward 5, and I feel that it’s my opportunity, it’s my responsibility, to speak for them… Even if that means that my colleagues don’t agree with me.”
Asked if she’d pursue a different tack in a third term, Brown said she is taking lessons from fellow councilors – namely on outreach – but she stands by her advocacy on issues like the golf course and, outside council chambers, the school district’s middle school.
Dellas works at his family’s small business on North State Street – Boutwell’s Bowling Center – and has said his small business mindset will directly translate to how he navigates the city budget.
“Let’s run Concord like a business,” he said in a recent post on social media. He did not attend the initial Monitor forum due to an illness and did not respond to an invitation to a make-up forum.
In written responses to questionnaires, Dellas underlined affordability as the biggest issue in Concord and pointed to further areas where he’d make funding cuts – including issues Brown has championed. In a survey to the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, Dellas said he doesn’t think the city should financially support the Merrimack River Greenway Trail or Concord Area Transit, the county-run bus network that provides Concord’s only public transportation with no fare.
At the same time, in The Monitor’s questionnaire, he pointed to traffic and transportation as among his priorities, writing that he would “work to strengthen public transportation,” and that the city should spend more on roads.
“My priority is keeping Concord affordable while addressing the issues that matter most: property taxes, homelessness, roads, traffic, and public transportation,” he wrote.
Another cause dividing them is the city’s pay-as-you-throw purple bag system: Dellas sees it as an unfair charge, while Brown sees it as effective at curbing trash production and saving taxpayers money.
Brown fended off a challenge in the council’s tightest race two years ago, where she was pressed on whether her husband’s employment as a police officer meant she couldn’t fully represent residents.
Rising wage costs are among the top drivers of the city’s growing budget, and that includes newly negotiated 5% annual raises for police officers.
Brown said that doesn’t keep her from being an effective steward of taxpayer money, as she focuses on other issues, like capital projects and, especially, the golf course.
“I feel that I am effective in raising awareness about other issues that are affecting people’s pocketbook and their taxes,” she said.
