By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Recently, The Citizen spoke with out-going Selectman Cathy Cordes about her entry into participatory small town democracy through Town Meeting and about the experiences that led her to become a Selectman 12 years ago.
Cordes will officially step down this Saturday when her successor is chosen in an uncontested race for her seat in the Town election. See The Citizen’s “Elections 2013” page for a list of all Town candidates for a variety of offices, their position statements, and letters of endorsement: https://thebedfordcitizen.org/town-election-2013/ .
Cathy Cordes:
We moved to Town in 1976. We moved from the south. When I was going to school, you had a firm foundation in Civics and I grew up in a military household so service to country was part of what you did—it’s the expectation that we grew up with.
But in south Louisiana, which is where I lived, there was not so much of an opportunity for that. And there was a pervasive feeling in society at that time—I’m talking the mid-60’s—that government was ‘bad’. So there was this contrast between the who that I was and what I believed and the society that I found myself in.
And then, in 1976, when we moved up here to Bedford, I found myself in a very different kind of society. And the first thing that I noticed about it was that it was open Town Meeting. When I realized what that was all about. . . . I don’t think I’ve missed many since I first got here. Because the concept that I had the right to go sit in that Town Meeting and that’s where the decisions of the Town were made. . . .it was just like being in a Candyland for me. It was a fabulous thought.
I did what every young mother did. I got involved in the schools, I worked with the PTO. Faye Russo—whose sons went to Center School—had re-initiated the PTO that had begun in Bedford years and years before but had kind of fallen apart.
None of the elementary schools talked to one another—they were very separate, very individual. Within the life span of my oldest son in school—within those six years—we went from a K-6 system and closed both Page and Center Schools. It was a huge turmoil time—and lots of opportunity for involvement.
I started going to School Committee meetings because I wanted to know how decisions were being made in the schools around programs and all of the reconfiguration stuff that was going on. I was part of the reconfiguration committee and at the same time I started doing computer work as a volunteer and worked with Ralph Hammond to introduce computers in the elementary schools. I loved it so much that I went back to school and got my Masters in education and then got hired in Bedford as a computer teacher until 1994.
Along the way, I was also on the Capital Expenditures Committee and then in ’94 I went on the Finance Committee.
So, some of my involvement in town is because I had a desire to be involved in the political life of the town. One of the things I love about Bedford is that it is so easy to become involved. You don’t have to know somebody, you don’t have to wait to be invited but I also know that a lot of people do go on committees because they are invited—people on committees invite someone else who they think will be good. It might not occur to somebody to even think about being on a committee until somebody asks them.
I had served on Capital Expenditures with Shelly Moll and Shelly moved from Capital Expenditures to Finance Committee. Shelly called me up and asked me to be on Finance Committee and convinced me that I could do it because it was not something that I thought I could do. I thought it was accounting and number wizards and people like that. I mean, you do have to know how to add, you do have to be able to read a spread sheet but some of that stuff you can learn—those are skills you can learn.
The values of a town are really discussed when you look at the budget of a town and I learned that, working with Shelly on the Finance Committee. It was a great education for me. I really learned about the inner workings.
Shelly left Finance Committee to become a Selectman and the next year when Val Asbedian resigned because of his job, short of the end of his term—this is the one committee that you can’t appoint a replacement, it has to be a special election— Shelly called me up and asked me to run and I decided it was time to be a Selectman. And I knew that Shelly would be there for me to show me the ropes.
When you look at how easy it is to get involved in this town—you don’t have to take it to the extremes I took it. You don’t have to be a Selectman—I mean, Selectman can be a little crazy-making. It’s a big commitment but there are a lot of community things you can do that are much shorter in terms of commitment and much easier to do—and yet, you really do have an impact and really do make a difference.
The number one good trait of a Selectman—and I can’t think of a Selectman I’ve served with who hasn’t had this trait—is that your driving force is that you love this town and you feel committed and responsible and you want to make sure the town continues to be well run. Everybody I’ve served with, that’s been their underlying thing.
I am very encouraged about the number of the next generation that have stepped up to the plate and are running for election this year. I think this is a good indication that Bedford is still a place where people know their voices can be heard and can make a difference in the character and future of our town.
I’m going to say some time-worn things about what’s important to Bedford now are the things that have always been important: you need to maintain a good sense of fiscal responsibility—it’s not helpful to have the taxes get so high that the people who love Bedford can’t afford to live here and that means that, because personnel are such a large percentage of the contract, you have to keep those personnel costs at a reasonable level but you also have to pay a good, basic wage.
There’s a balance and maintaining that fiscal balance is the number one responsibility of Finance Committee, Selectmen and School Committee. It’s even harder on School Committee—understanding the balance between what parents want for their kids and keeping those contracts reasonable is a tightrope walk.
And being able to do things that make a good quality of life in Bedford is also important. We talk about how bad the traffic is but things could be worse. We do have more sidewalks now than when I moved into town. We are not as rural a feel—we’ve had a lot of construction, we’ve brought a lot of people into town and I think the town is the better for it but I think that also takes a kind of broad-scale look: how do you move things gently so that it’s not a shock to the system of the people who have lived here forever and yet you’re providing the kinds of services that the new people who are moving in expect?
That question is a question that all our committees answer. Planning Board looks at the big picture over a long period of time but the Library, the Board of Health, the Transportation Committee, the Bicycle Committee—everybody looks at that quality of life issue. Understanding the tension between how things were and the way some people would like things to be—and doing that dance that provides the best for Bedford. . . .You have that opportunity with open Town Meeting where that kind of discussion can take place and can play out—and it’s appropriate.
If I have a legacy, it’s Community Preservation. We’ve done $15M worth of projects since the beginning of Community Preservation that has touched literally every part of town. It is an aptly named act. They don’t mean just about the built community. . . .they’re talking about the community life and the character of the community.
I feel that being given the position of Selectman by the town is a real privilege. I always took seriously the responsibility that I was being vested in by the voters and I appreciate their confidence in me and letting me serve because it’s a real honor and a privilege.
And I’m not going away! I’m going to live in town. I’m not leaving.
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