Candidate Profile: James Mackey For Tewksbury Selectman

TEWKSBURY, MA — Tewksbury will have contested races for both School Committee and Board of Selectmen in the April 10 town election. Tewksbury Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles over the coming weeks.

James F. Mackey III is running for the Board of Selectmen. There are four people running for two available seats. Mackey faces Todd Johnson, George Ferdinand and incumbent Mark Kratman.

Mackey is a cybersecurity engineer and a U.S. Army veteran.

Are you running for office in Tewksbury? Contact Christopher Huffaker at chris.huffaker@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate profile and submitting campaign announcements to Tewksbury Patch.

Previously on Patch: Tewksbury Candidate Forum Thursday

James F. Mackey III

Age (as of Election Day)

30

Position Sought

Selectman

Family

N/A

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

CISSP

Occupation

Principle Cybersecurity Engineer

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

Campaign website

MackeyForTewksbury.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

After serving our Country and Commonwealth for my entire adult life, I am refocusing my energy to impacting positive change at the local level.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue in town, to myself and all the residents I have spoken with, is the management of town finances. The average single family tax bill in Tewksbury will increase by $200 in 2021. I plan to work with my fellow board members, the finance committee and the town manager to explore options for intelligent reductions in spending, minimizing tax raises and finding new ways to increase our corporate tax base.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

As a fourth generation Tewksbury resident and thirteen year US Army Veteran, with no existing political alliances or commitments, I bring a fresh, unbiased set of eyes to the town and community I am very familiar with.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

In this post COVID world it may be time to start treating town finances, at least in the near term, as if we are in a recession. We know the towns tax revenue will take a hit from reduced restaurant, hotel and sales tax. We need to be mindful of that fact and find a solution that does not include additional tax raises on our citizens, many of whom are also struggling financially.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Affordable Housing: For years Tewksbury has been rapidly growing and adding beautiful new condo developments, yet many times developers choose to pay a fee rather than include affordable units. This has perpetually kept Tewksbury under the 10% affordable housing line, but also puts us in the unique position of having a rather large affordable housing fund. I believe options for those funds need to be explored, so that money can be put to good use with affordable housing projects for our elderly and veterans.

Transparency and ease of access: In short our town website is outdated and overly difficult to navigate. Since this is the primary source of information for many of our citizens, and the mailing of warrants is a thing of the past, we need to ensure information is easily accessible and consumable. People deserve to know what articles are up for a vote, and they deserve to know what a vote for and what a vote against means for each of those articles.

Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity incidents are commonplace in the news these days, It is an almost daily occurrence to hear about a ransomware attack, a data breach or a critical infrastructure compromise somewhere in the United States. Cybersecurity is a unique skill set I intend to bring to the board, with the intent of leveraging available state and federal resources to help assess our current posture and helping define a path forward.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.