Copyright berkshireeagle
NORTH ADAMS — In the nine terms that Lisa Blackmer has served on North Adams City Council, women almost took the majority a few times, but never managed to score that fifth seat on the nine-person council. That was until Tuesday. Not only did North Adams reelect its first woman mayor, Jennifer Macksey, to a third term, city residents voted in a majority-women City Council for the first time. "I'm psyched," said Blackmer. "I'm also just sad it took this long." Blackmer and Council Vice President Ashley Shade held onto their seats while three new councilors-elect were added: Marie McCarron, Alexa Macdonald and Lillian Zavatsky. Four other incumbents, Council President Bryan Sapienza, Andrew Fitch, Keith Bona and Peter Breen were reelected. Incumbents Dianna Morrow and Wayne Wilkinson did not run for reelection and incumbent Pete Oleskiewicz was unseated. "I think it happened because we had more women running than we've had in a long time," said Blackmer, who stood across from City Hall on Wednesday with a "thank you" sign to voters. "Women are stepping up and seeing issues that concern them and saying 'Hey, I can contribute.'" With six new candidates — all of them women — and tense national politics, multiple councilors offered thoughts on why the results turned out the way they did. Voter turnout was more than 1,000 higher than in the 2023 municipal election, when 1,907 people, or 20 percent of the electorate, voted. Shade noticed the bigger turnout while standing outside the polls with her campaign sign on Tuesday. "I think the voters came out and spoke that they are looking for change and new ideas while also supporting incumbents who've been around," said Shade, who works in a lab at Berkshire Medical Center. "Between the national environment and the exciting new candidates, it brought people out." Macdonald agreed, citing national policies like funding clawbacks and immigration raids as inspiring new candidates and the election results. "With the presidential election last year, a lot of people are on edge about the world and want to make an impact," said Macdonald, a 22-year-old North Adams native who works as a youth therapeutic mentor at the Brien Center. "We might've had more people run because they want to get involved and have more of a say." Sapienza, however, thought local issues were the primary driver of turnout. "There's only so much we can address at a local level, but if other cities and towns are looking at our ordinances that we create, that is a possibility for change too." Macdonald and other new candidates were pushed by Fitch and others to run. She also felt it was the right time because of a "new progressive energy" on the council that she said emerged within the last few years. "There has been a lot more of a push toward bringing North Adams to a positive light," she said. "A lot of people would say it was in a rut for a while, but I think we are slowly figuring out where we want to go." Sapienza was less concerned with the individual makeup of the group and more about how they will work together, though he did say that he thought the council had become more progressive. "I have no issue with that, it's nice to have a balance," he said. "If we can come to a consensus and make a decision on something, that is all we can hope for." Fitch said he was excited about the new composition of the group because it adds a diversity that "has been missing for so long." "As a former DEI employee, I have learned a lot about the value of diversity and it's proven the more diverse an organization, the stronger it is, the more effective it is and the better conversations it has," Fitch said. In addition to adding more women, Fitch said that Tuesday's results mean that a third of the council are members of the LGBTQ+ community, including himself. "I'm excited to see how we can reap the benefits that this additional diversity provides," he said. The six new candidates hosted many of their campaign events together, sent mailers and spent days knocking on doors speaking with people, which Zavatsky thought voters appreciated. "There was a lot of proactive energy in the room and I think the community sensed that," said Zavatsky, a housing coordinator at the Brien Center. "People appreciate that we were like 'Let's roll up our sleeves and see what we can do.'" Not only that, voters may have liked the diversity of backgrounds the new candidates had and their promise to ask questions about big issues if elected. Blackmer agreed, saying she was excited about having new perspectives on council. "Alexa brings her work with youth, Lillian brings her work with housing, Marie has worked in education forever, and Ashley is really good with parliamentary stuff," said Blackmer, who has a project management background. "Everyone comes with a different perspective. You don't want nine pitchers on a baseball team." "I think people want the council to tackle big issues that are hard to solve," said Zavatsky, who ran largely on a campaign of supporting affordable housing initiatives. "People turn out when they are excited about a candidate or a conversation."
