Debate Coverage: Our Town Decides [Part 1 of 2]
2025 Billerica Select Board Debate
It was nice to ignore campaign politics for a while but it’s March.
Campaign signs and daffodils go together in Billerica. Our town elections are in the spring. This year, voting begins on March 31st, and all votes must be collected by 8pm on April 5th. Five candidates are competing for two open seats.
The first debate of 2025 was hosted by Sandra Giroux of Our Town Live. Greg Bendel, a Select Board member from Wilmington, served as moderator of the debate.
Each candidate had 2 minutes to introduce themselves:
Chris Sennott is a 33-year-old small business owner who feels “blessed and privileged”.
Daniel Darris-O’Connor looks young but has been involved for many years, cares a lot, and wants to make a Better Billerica for everyone.
Dan Burns previously served two terms on the “Board of Selectmen” and serves as Captain of the Billerica Minutemen. He struggled to acknowledge the timekeeper.
Darlene Torre discussed the Select Board requirements, emphasizing the importance of having the right temperament to serve our residents. However, she found it challenging to stick to the two-minute time limit. With additional time, she might have clarified how her temperament benefits Billerica.
Jillian Pavidis is another newcomer to Billerica politics. She has deep roots in this community, is passionate, and has 10+ years of leadership experience.
The moderator’s first question was about how they will respond to a constituent in Market Basket complaining about our property taxes, or something to that effect.
Chris Sennott was chosen to go first. He said he doesn’t like taxes and never has, but he “wants to equalize taxes across the board.” No further explanation was given.
Daniel Darris-O’Connor wants to bolster economic development on the commercial side to reduce the burden on residents.
Dan Burns blames COVID for the state of tax revenue in Billerica and likes TIF programs to incentivize businesses to invest in Billerica.
Darlene Torre said there were too many vacant properties, agreed that we needed new businesses, and clumsily brought up the price of eggs.
Jillian Pavidis shared her marketing experience, emphasizing her goal to boost revenue by attracting companies that are currently renting in pricier locations, which would help lessen the tax burden on residents.
Before we continue, I need to offer my perspective and thoughts. Remember this ridiculous fight in 2020?
This decade is not Billerica's first struggle to attract new investment. Quite a while back, the town decided to create an Economic Development Department to provide funding and support data-driven proposals. Bureaucracy churns slowly, so it took time for the department to begin accomplishing its objectives.
In the meantime, the Board's sentiments changed. Legally, they could not reverse decisions made by a previous board. Instead, the majority abused their power and destroyed the department—like Trump is doing to our Federal Government.
Lowell Sun, October 22, 2020
Just one day after the Billerica Board of Selectmen attempted to disband the town’s Economic Development Department, Director Rob Anderson announced his resignation, leaving the office without any remaining employees.
In August, Economic Development Coordinator Katie Mahoney resigned from her position as well, accusing the three selectmen of forcing her out by pushing to eliminate the department. Anderson and Mahoney were the only employees in the office.
“I have felt both personally and professionally threatened by three members of the Board of Selectmen who have differing political opinions than mine,” Mahoney wrote in her resignation letter on Aug. 26. “This left me no choice but to pursue other career options.”
The three members of the Select Board who used their position to destroy the Economic Development Office include Dan Burns. The current economic development problems in Billerica began during the early days of the pandemic, but it had nothing to do with a virus. Dan Burns, Mike Rosa, and John Burrows began dismantling an effective and much-needed department in town. Of course, Dan now shifts blame onto a virus. Also, “TIF Programs” - politicians who use acronyms without explaining them drive me insane - don’t work. Tax Increment Financing (TIF) programs are public financing schemes used by developers to extract wealth from communities by diverting future property tax revenue from “blighted” areas. TIF programs are bad for Billerica, and so is Dan Burns.
On Affordable Housing
Daniel Darris-O’Connor answered with a concern about how close we are to the 40B threshold and wants the town to focus on Veteran and Senior housing. He supports the idea of a starter home district.
Dan Burns topped Daniel’s answer with the virtues of 40Y laws. There was a point about allowing 4 homes per acre, and despite bringing up ADUs, he did not explain what they are or whether he supports them or not. He also complained about how little money from the CPA fund is being used for housing.
Darlene Torre opened with “Affordable housing is not affordable!” She also shared her concerns that the new housing law will impact our infrastructure.
Jillian Pavidis stated that lowering taxes will make homes more affordable and also has concerns about the impact more housing will have on our infrastructure.
Chris Sennott seemed angry about new housing draining the town’s resources. He started talking about busing children and referred to the desegregation program of busing black children from Boston into suburbs to counter decades of white supremacy in public schools. “Getting those lower income families from out of town to come to a better town for a better school… get these people and bring them here. His final thought was proposing the idea of forcing new apartment buildings like the Val to pay for their own sewage usage.
I am interested in learning about this Starter Home District Proposal. I know lots of people who need homes, but why would we limit affordable housing options to a subset of people? The need is vast, and our options are so great that just the idea of such a narrow scope is frustrating to me. I’m not going into 40B and 40Y, ADU, and CPA other than to say… gross! Try to be accessible to the people you are speaking to!
I didn’t hear any practical ideas from this group, but that’s a limitation of political debate. The problem of affordable housing is complex and requires nuance. An impromptu question with a 2-minute time limit during a political campaign doesn’t allow for depth. Seasoned politicians will have expected a question about housing and crafted potential responses. It’s obvious that Chris had never considered the problem and made something up on the spot - at least, I hope.
On Roads and Infastructure
Darlene Torre began with asserting her belief that State projects are a disaster but the DPW does a good job maintaining the 250 miles of roads within Billerica. She strongly feels that every child should be safe walking to school.
Jillian Pavidis agrees that our roads and the safety of those who use them is a priority.
Chris Sennott wants to trim the fat in our budget for roads while increasing the budget with a 10 or 12 year plan.
Daniel Darris-O’Connor wants our town to increase the number of grant applications. He also stated that Billerica has many dangerous intersections that need to be studied by a professional. In his remaining time, he attacked Dan and Darlene for their vote against the Town Center plan in 2023/4 despite the endorsements of the Police and Fire Chiefs.
Dan Burns mentioned that during his time on the Select Board, they had a solid plan in place. He pointed out that over the last decade, 125 miles of roads have been repaved, and those complaining about the roads' condition tend to reside on the other half.
Since Daniel mentioned Dan and Darlene, they both got a minute to defend themselves against his attack. Instead of defending her vote or explaining why pedestrian safety is only important some of the time, she threw our current Town Manager under the bus. She claims that Clancy told her, “we wouldn’t have gotten all that funding,” and made it sound like he was encouraging people not to support the Town Center Project. I hope that’s not true.
The forum took a break and so shall I. The second half of the debate coverage will drop Tuesday evening at 7pm. Find out which candidate made me laugh and who had me groaning in frustration.
Join the conversation. What did you notice?