Candidate Night focuses on budget

The Norwood Chapter of the League of Women Voters (NLWV) convened an eight-person community forum on Monday with all candidates for the Board of Selectmen, the Norwood School Committee and the Finance Commission (FinCom).

The main issue on everyone’s mind appears to be the Town’s budget issues. Norwood currently has a $7 million budget deficit, meaning every year to balance the budget the Town has had to use one-time-use free cash to plug those holes. But that fund has been drying up, and concern is rising on how the Town would have to reduce services to balance its budget or vote for an override to increase the tax levy – https://tinyurl.com/xpymz3rn

The Board of Selectmen discussed the budget, although perhaps interestingly, it was not brought up specifically. Specific instances affecting the budget were heavily discussed, save for the police and fire override.

One issue facing everyone’s budget is that of affordability. In this, the Selectmen candidates discussed the issue over a wide range of topics, mostly centered around housing, inflation and housing development.

One example of this debate was that of the 55 Lenox issue. Basically, the Planning Board went against the recommendations of the Town Planner, Building Inspector and Town Counsel and voted against a five-story, 96-unit building on Lenox Street in the MBTA Communities Act zone. The developer, John Shalbey, the owner of Rojo’s, is now suing the Town (the legal funds of which will not be recouped either way).

All of the candidates expressed satisfaction with this, and each expressed frustration with the MBTA Communities Act, but, each also expressed frustration with the exact problem the MBTA Communities Act was trying to alleviate: high housing costs. Each expressed different strategies to try to help bring housing costs down.

“Our median income is based off of Boston – we really should be based off of Quincy,” said challenger Cheryl Doyle. “There is no way in the world that our community has salaries that high across the board to maintain everything. If you go on Renters.com any day of the week, there are between 250-300 available apartments. The only way we’re ever going to drive the rent down is we need to build a 55-plus community to bring the seniors out of their homes and into that community and have more housing for young people, which will start driving it down. If you look at Avalon, Campenelli or any of these big developers, they have an algorithm that is controlling the rent.”

“I think we’re in a tough spot,” said incumbent Michael Saad. “Back when I started as a remodeler when I was 17, the rents for a one- or two-bedroom were $600. But it’s the way of nature. Inflation is built in. If you look back when you bought your house 30 or 40 years ago, pay $200,000 and now it’s $1 million. That’s the nature of the beast in real estate, it’s not like buying a lolipop. But I think we can be creative, like on Bahama Drive with the co-op there, and as that moves we can build a couple more and get some affordability. We’ve got to do something.”

“Rents are too high,” said challenger David Bliss. “The only thing the Board of Selectmen can really do is look at rent control, but I don’t think there’s an appetite for that. It’s a tough question.”

The Selectmen candidates all agreed that the police and fire departments need increased staffing. Each department is seeking to increase staff, as the loss of Norwood Hospital and population increases have been taking their toll on the departments. According to the Norwood Fire Department (NFD), the group’s number hasn’t seen an increase since the 1970s.

“These apartments coming into Norwood – for even 500 people coming in – you need another fireman and policeman,” incumbent Michael Saad said. “Well we’re at that stage now. The fact is that we need to support our police department and our fire department… Maybe we should put the burden on these developers and ask them for a new fire station or a new ambulance or fire apparatus or police car. There’s nothing wrong with that; we could put it as ‘Donated by Such-and-Such Company,’ but we got to start asking these big companies coming to Norwood for a little help and assistance.”

“Every year when we have the information night for Town Meeting, I ask the question, ‘Do we have enough staffing?’ and it’s always been put to me that we have enough staffing,” Doyle said. “I don’t believe we’ve ever had enough staff and I think a few years back, if we started hiring people then, we would have been able to get the staff up to the numbers we need… I think anything the fire department needs, I think we should back them up.”

“Certainly the staffing with the fire department is the number one priority for me,” said Bliss. “Certainly, they’re understaffed. The calls are skyrocketing. If you look back to 1977, Norwood Fire did over 2,000 runs a year, and today in 2026, there are over 7,600 runs, with the same amount of staff and two ambulances. They need more staffing.”

The FinCom also discussed the police and fire override focusing on this year’s proposed override for just under $1.4 million to increase staff at the Norwood police and fire departments.

Both candidates, Edward Lynch and Kellie Noumi said they believe the departments need those increases, but they both disagreed with the current method of getting those increases. The Town Administration, headed by Mazzucco, is aiming to split the overrides. Basically, instead of rolling this into a future operational override, which officials have been warning about literally for years now, Mazzucco’s approach was to split it so that each override is easier to swallow. He had said during a FinCom meeting previously – https://tinyurl.com/3bef6wk6 – that putting too much into one override may make it fail, and then not only would the departments not have their increases, but they would likely have to make staff reductions, as outlined in a Board of Selectmen meeting last February – https://tinyurl.com/yt34dnax

Noumi said she felt that Norwood voters should have the bigger picture.

“I definitively think we need people; however, what I would say with that is that we’re right now facing a structural deficit that is affecting multiple layers of the Town, and before we go asking for money for one segment, I think we should take a holistic approach and look at what other areas might require funding,” she said. “And then we put together a proposal for the Town with transparency and trade-offs that makes sense to fund all of those different things. The last thing I would want to do is to come in and ask for an override for public safety, which I agree, we need, and then come back and ask again. I would rather do that thoughtfully, and in one turn.”

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Lynch said he felt different funding mechanisms could be found to fill the gaps in the public safety building.

“The override should be a last thought; there are other ways to get money,” he said. “The free cash, we can kick the override down for another year. A lot of things can happen in a year. We can use the free cash, and we don’t have to hire 15 firefighters and five police officers immediately. We can hire a few in June with free cash and find other ways to get more revenue. There are other ways to get revenue in this Town.”

Keeping on the budget, the School Committee members also detailed their priorities for the Norwood Public Schools, and were asked about advocating funding for key programs.

“We have to get ahead of the budget cuts,” said candidate Nicholas Pallang. “We have to understand where we are getting money, and where we think there are potential gaps from where that money is coming from. There are essential programs that we cannot lose access to. There is increasing challenge with our children and learning and the environments they’re in today. There may be hard questions and decisions to be made, but at the end of the day if we are open and honest about where cuts need to take place, while trying to preserve what is essential, is really the most important thing.”

“Budget cuts are always going to be a tough decision and if the projections of the School Committee hold true, then we have some tough choices to make in the next couple of years,” said candidate Mike Sangalang. “I believe that when looking at what to cut, we always have to take a look at data. We have to look at what outcomes are serving our students. Are there programs that may have made sense 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago, that may not make sense anymore? Where are we getting the biggest bang for our buck for essential programs that are student-serving?”

“It’s not always simple math,” said candidate Ben Moser. “We can’t just cut because X number of kids use this and Y number of kids use that service. If Y doesn’t have a comparable or adjacent service they can use, then maybe X is a little more important. Outcomes are important to consider, and it can’t all be made in a vacuum. Everything touches everything else.”

The election is April 6. For a sample ballot, go to https://tinyurl.com/3bef6wk6