EASTHAMPTON — The city will have a new mayor for the first time in eight years, and voters are one day away from deciding who that person will be.
While the three-way race for mayor is nearing the finish line, Tuesday’s municipal election has always been destined to usher in changes in city leadership. That’s because former Mayor Nicole LaChapelle decided when she took office after winning the 2017 election that she would only serve for eight years, if given the chance by voters. She backed that up in 2023 by announcing she would not seek reelection this fall.
“This idea that you’re going to stay in office for 20 years, I don’t see it really benefiting small cities like Easthampton, and I think fresh ideas are important, city priorities change, and I think there should be fresh leadership to bring in those new changes,” she told the Gazette at that time.
“Change” has been a buzz word for many Easthampton residents leading up to this election, which has more candidates vying for multiple positions than any other in the city’s recent past. The mayor’s seat is no exception, with three longtime residents campaigning for months in hopes of winning the keys to the city’s corner office.
Lindsi Sekula, 41, was the first to step to the starting line, announcing her candidacy in March. Sekula was hired as the mayoral executive assistant when LaChapelle first took office in 2018. At that time, she moved to Easthampton from Northampton, and has proudly served the Easthampton community from the mayor’s office since.
“Since I’ve been the longest standing candidate, I’ve been holding listening sessions, I’ve been doing the coffee hours, I’ve had the events, I’ve done the forums …,” Sekula said on Thursday morning. “I just want to make it very clear that I am doing this because I’m committed to Easthampton, I’m invested in Easthampton.”
“I’ve spent much of my life where I lived in housing with my kids as a single mom and I never once saw a local elected official, never,” Sekula said. “Making sure that we have a mayor that’s listening to everyone regardless of their socioeconomic status and making sure that we’re showing up for every single person.”
Jason “JT” Tirrell, 53, made it a two-horse race, announcing his candidacy in May. Tirrell has served as an at-large member of the City Council for nearly two years. He works as the Williston Northampton School’s Athletic Equipment Manager, where he graduated from, and has taken pride in being the only candidate born and raised in Easthampton.
“It’s Easthampton. It’s the only place I’ve ever known,” Tirrell said on Wednesday. “I was born and raised there and I feel as though I can do more for the city from the mayor’s position than from the City Council. I just want to do what I can for the city I grew up in.”
“If they (the voters) want change. They’ll vote for JT,” Tirrell said.
He was followed by Robert “Bob” Laferriere, who did not make it on the ballot after a complication, failing to submit the correct number of signatures.
A pivotal shift occurred on July 9, when LaChapelle announced she would step down before the end of her term, after Gov. Maura Healey appointed her commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
Salem Derby, 51, accepted the role as interim mayor. Derby has spent three months in the mayor’s office, though he has been in Easthampton’s government for much longer. He was elected to the City Council in 2004, serving as council president since the beginning of the year and prior to that, he served as vice president.
According to the city charter, if a vacancy in the office of mayor occurs in the last nine months of a term, the president of the City Council shall become the mayor, giving Derby the interim opportunity. Since Derby began his interim term, he and Sekula have worked alongside each other in the mayor’s office.
While Derby said he had no intentions of becoming mayor, a little more than a month into his interim role, he announced his candidacy.
“I’m running for mayor because I love Easthampton. I’m running for mayor because my whole life has prepared me really perfectly for this role,” Derby said on Thursday. “And a lot of people are saying well why didn’t you declare sooner, why didn’t you run sooner and at the end of the day, running for mayor wasn’t a career climbing thing for me.”
“Right now, I am the longest-serving city councilor … I think it’s really important to acknowledge the fact that if I lose this election, we’re going to lose a significant amount of institutional knowledge. Not only that, but know-how and ability …,” Derby said. “I haven’t said that because I don’t want it to be a main focus but I do think it’s important (for voters) to weigh.”
The city’s ranked-choice voting system will ask voters to rank the candidates first, second and third on Nov. 4, but they do not have to include each candidate.
All three candidates are registered Democrats and have been involved in Easthampton’s government. The most recent filings from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign show the amounts each candidate has spent on their campaigns — Tirrell has spent approximately $18,800, Sekula at $4,400 and Derby at $3,000.
The draw of politics
Derby’s start to politics was sparked more than two decades ago. Derby has been vocal about his job as a public school teacher at Northampton High School, he has been balancing with duties as mayor.
“It was 2003, the war in Iraq had just started with WMDs and I was frustrated,” Derby said, explaining why he got involved in politics. “I had a young baby and I wanted to make a difference in the world. I knew that the way to do that was to stop complaining and to get involved at the local level.”
Sekula said she never intended to climb the political ladder. She previously worked as an early childhood educator and more recently in healthcare at Baystate Health, serving as both a practice associate and insurance specialist.
“I had no intention of ever climbing the political ladder if that’s what people call it …,” Sekula said. “Once I got involved in serving the community and being a part of it and feeling that connection, it’s so energizing and it made me interested in deepening my level of involvement and commitment.”
Tirrell said his start in politics has been a bit of a snowball effect, beginning with Easthampton Little League serving as the president for past eight years, then serving time on the Parks & Recreation Commission. He is currently finishing his first term on the City Council, that has led him to desire a more impactful role in the government.
“I’m excited about the future, I can’t wait. I just want Tuesday to get here and I want to start the next chapter and I want to do everything I can for the city,” he said.
Discussing priorities
Similar to what he said at one of the mayoral forums earlier this month, there are three words that Tirrell said when asked about priorities: “Transparency, accountability and accessibility.”
“I think transparency has been lacking a lot and I want to restore that. Accessibility, I want to make town hall accessible five days a week. I’ve spoken to a lot of constituents who don’t like the fact that city hall is open only four days a week, so I’d like to approach that problem and I think it could be done without effecting the budget … Accountability, I want people to know what’s going to happen before it happens,” he said.
Sekula said she has three main priorities. The first is creating a master plan to “strategically guide our growth in Easthampton,” centering on topics like infrastructure, public education and housing. The second priority is doing a deep dive on all policies, some of which she has not seen change since previous mayors.
The third is transparency and accessibility, but she said that looks different for her than what her opponents have been saying. “Transparency and accessibility to me means making sure Easthampton is accessible communitywide, it’s not just about the mayor’s office having an open door,” she said. “It’s about the projects I’ve been working on like wayfinding inside of city hall, making sure our website is ADA compliant, making sure our infrastructure is up to date. That’s accessibility in government and transparency from the mayor’s office in a way we haven’t seen.”
Derby said a priority is looking at the, “Budget, making sure that as we look at the next budget round — not knowing what is going to happen with so much uncertainty at the federal level — really making sure that we have a well-rounded budget that is not just well-thought out, but really strategically planned to bring Easthampton into the future without having to make significant cuts, without having to do layoffs.”
He said balancing the budget is about efficiency. Since becoming interim mayor, Derby said he’s tried to focus on ways the city has not been efficient.
Tirrell pinned the budget as a priority, saying it cannot be looked at soon enough. “I think that’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “I think that’s one of the top things on my priority list, I want to jump right into that. I want to get together with all the different department heads and really wrap our heads around the process earlier rather than later because it’s going to be a daunting process.”
For Sekula, she feels she has already been doing the work supporting the budgeting process in the mayor’s office.
“I recently hired our city treasurer and we have a very strong auditor. We have a good finance team right now and we have people that have been working in municipal government and know the budget process,” she said. “Together, we can all make a plan for how to keep our reserves healthy, how to start capital planning and making sure that we aren’t overspending for our needs.”
Sekula has previously talked about utilizing the city’s AA+ bond rating. She said her approach to budgeting aligns with her vision for overall economic growth and her desire for a master plan. “I believe truly that a city that isn’t growing or changing and becomes stagnant dies. I think we’ve seen that in other municipalities in Massachusetts and in our nation.”
A pillar of Tirrell’s campaign has been being a mayor for everyone.
“I’m going to be able to have a conversation. I’m going to be in the office, I’m going to be out in the community, I’m going to be available five days a week at city hall …” he said. “That’s one of the pillars of my platform is having a conversation whether I agree or disagree with somebody, a lot can be born out of a conversation and perspectives can be changed even though minds are not.”
Throughout his campaign Derby has discussed the work he has done as interim mayor. When asked how he will be an accessible mayor, he said he has already been doing it. “My doors are open.”
“Ask anybody that’s emailed me while I’ve been interim mayor, I get back to them as soon as possible,” he said. “I really pride myself as interim mayor, as a mayor that’s out there, that is connecting with people and that cares what people have to say.”
Similarly, Sekula feels during her time in city hall, she has been doing the work to be open to everybody. As mayor, she would host open town hall meetings for residents to have discussions with her.
“I’ve taken the good, the bad, the ugly inside the mayor’s office and I’ve deepened relationships through that because I feel like I’m someone who listens …” she said. “Hold me accountable because my job is not to be an authoritarian or make the decisions for our community. It’s for the community to guide our growth together.”
Polls will be open for Easthampton voters at Easthampton High School, 70 Williston Ave., from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Once polls close, votes will be tabulated by the City Clerk’s office and unofficial results are planned to be announced later that night. Results will be unofficial, according to state law, requiring time for the six-day period for recounts to be filed and depending on if there are any absentee ballots.