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Greetings, Easthampton Residents

Welcome to my website,

www.CathyW4Easthampton.com

where I hope you'll find abundant and useful information.

Why do I want to be a City Councilor?

Advocacy at its heart is knowing what is "right" and finding the way to get there. The role of a City Councilor in large part is to serve as an advocate, for my constituents in the precinct, for the larger community, for the environment and for the future of this semi-rural city we call home.
In the last few years as I have observed at city meetings, reviewed budgets, read hundreds of documents and advocated as a private citizen, I have watched the concerns of this community be disregarded. The city councilors, the mayor, her staff and even some city employees have ignored a large majority of their constituents.
Citizen efforts are trampled by a cumbersome website, a lack of true responsiveness to records requests and disdain for any person with an opposing point of view.
Many of the city councilors, who do not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, often appear to be sleeping or rolling their eyes during public speak, have engaged in selfish grandstanding and often ignored the basic needs of the community.

I want to be a City Councilor for the same reason I have served as an Advocate for people with disabilities and seniors for over 30 years, to be a voice for those that have not been heard.
When we started Easthampton Active Citizens the goals had been to support residents to be more engaged by providing information, to encourage people to work together on issues they had common ground on and to step away from our differences to have a dialogue. I hope to continue that work as a City Councilor for precinct 5.
The residents deserve accountability and transparency.
  • Why are the roads in our precinct ignored while we spend 4.5 million on one road, Cherry Street?
  • Why does a records request cost $54,000 to process? A City Councilor should advocate for fiscal responsibility/affordability.
  • Why are raises given to department heads and a secretary (new salary $92,000) while other staff lose hours and seniors in precinct 5 need to work for the city at $15 an hour to get a credit on their property taxes?

    I want to be a City Councilor for precinct five to have a voice in preserving our Aquifer, to preserve our agriculture and protect our small semi-rural city from urbanization.