WILLIAMSTOWN â Jeff Johnson and Wade Hasty will join the Williamstown Select Board, according to preliminary vote counts, in a town election marked by exceptionally high turnout.
Johnson, a member of the Diversity Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee and a service coordinator supervisor in the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, defeated attorney Anthony Boskovich 1,140 to 641, according to the count Tuesday night, winning a three-year term to the town s highest governing body.
He takes the seat held by Anne OâConnor, who announced that she would not seek reelection.
Hasty, an Army veteran and graduate student at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, defeated Albert Cummings IV, a musician and construction contractor, 989 to 770, in a bid for the last year of Jeffrey Thomas term.
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As Williamstown, Massachusetts voters head to the polls Tuesday, select board candidate Albert Cummings says the town’s character is being maligned in local debate. The election comes amid tense conversations about systemic discrimination following last year’s Black Lives Matter protests and a series of scandals including alleged racist behavior within the Williamstown Police Department. Cummings, a contractor and musician, says he’s a rationally-minded local running to defend Williamstown against what he describes as a destructive debate. Cummings spoke with WAMC in the last part of our four-story series on the select board candidates.
CUMMINGS: I think a few things have happened in town that none of us are happy with, you know. I made a statement early on before, I think when this first started, that I ve never seen it, you know, I ve never seen racism personally. And I, you know, I still- I can say that, in Williamstown, I can say that I have not seen it personally. B
The Select Board last summer created what became the Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee as an advisory panel. Members of that panel this week questioned why the Select Board has not appeared willing to consider the advice the DIRE Committee has provided. I actually don t care how the Select Board feels about the resolutions, Aruna D Souza said. But if they re saying they re recommendations, so [they] don t have to act on them, it seems to me that, procedurally, there should be a point at which they decide, We don t have to act on them, and that should take place at an open meeting.
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Almost a year after a federal lawsuit against the town police department set off a chain of scandals and resignations, Williamstown, Massachusetts municipal elections are coming up Tuesday. WAMC has the third of our select board candidate profiles.
“It feels like they shattered my oath, Hasty told WAMC. I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and I take the First Amendment very seriously – and to know that speaking out against our government would have some sort of backlash. Not only that, but I have my own feelings of being hypervigilant. I served, like I said, for three years in combat, and to come back and see that they could be building intel packets on the citizenry is just… it’s so bizarre and absurd to me and egregiously disgusting, I don’t know how to navigate it.”
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Almost a year after a federal lawsuit against the town police department set off a chain of scandals and resignations, Williamstown, Massachusetts municipal elections are coming up May 11th. WAMC has the second part of our series of candidate profiles.
“I essentially sued cops for a living, said the candidate. And over that period of time, I came to learn policing pretty well, I know good policing when I see it. I know bad policing when I see it. I know good police administration when I see it. And I know bad police administration. So as I lived here, you know, you can t take your eye off the ball when you ve got a three decade career. And so I watched police and police interactions, and I was really impressed with what I saw on the street.”