NORTHAMPTON — Issues of elections, technology, and what exactly the job entails were all featured in a debate between the two candidates for city clerk on Wednesday.
Pamela Powers, the interim city clerk, was appointed to the position by the City Council earlier this year to replace Wendy Mazza, who retired early after 45 years in office. Powers previously served as clerk of the City Council.
Her opponent, Robert Driscoll, is a middle school history teacher in Holyoke and lifelong Northampton resident. He has served as an elections officer in Precinct 2A. Both of his parents worked for the city.
Neither Powers nor Driscoll took any shots at one another during the debate at JFK Middle School. Instead, they focused on answering the questions put to them, as well as making their cases for the job.
Driscoll noted that he’d been endorsed by Mazza and the two previous city clerks, and his desire to make a career change to become a public servant.
“It would be an opportunity to serve the city I’m proud to call home,” he said.
Powers, meanwhile, noted her Master of Business Administration and six years of municipal government experience. She also emphasized the technological complexity of the city clerk’s job, noting the numerous computer programs the office uses.
“I’m an experienced leader,” she said.
Many of the questions centered around voting. Both candidates expressed a desire to get more people registered to vote, including those in minority communities.
“That’s an important role of the clerk to try to reach out to people,” said Powers, noting that she would like to get in touch with outside groups. “Education is the key.”
“Everyone should be registered to vote,” said Driscoll. “I think we need to do more outreach.”
He floated putting announcements in the newspaper, on Facebook and holding events in the schools to get people registered. On the issue of making more records available electronically, Driscoll said that he didn’t want birth, marriage and death records placed online, although he did support putting business licenses online.
Powers, meanwhile, noted how Worcester handles online documents as a model. She said that city puts documents into an online file cabinet that makes them immediately accessible to the public. Both candidates also said that their personal views would not influence the performance of their duties as city clerk.