Author: kerriganforclinton

The results weren’t the ones we were looking for today but that’s just the way it is.

I’d like to congratulate Matt Kobus and Brendan Bailey for their wins and wish them luck. Thanks to Debra Goodsell for running such a great campaign.

Thanks to all the current and former board members I’ve had the pleasure of serving with over the past nine years. Thanks to the town officials and employees who make Clinton such a special place to live.

Thanks to you for all the support you’ve given me since 2017. Doing this job has been one of the great blessings and challenges of my life.

Thanks to my partner Jill and my sons Kevin and Finbar. Time to get the trivia team together for Wednesday nights at the brewery!

And thanks to Coach Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers, your national champions in American football.

Best, Sean

I’ve asked a lot of you over the past few weeks so I’ll try to keep this short.

Monday is Election Day is Clinton and I need your help. Please vote for me for your Select Board.

Since 2017, I’ve been lucky enough to work with a ton of talented town employees and volunteers, the people who keep Clinton running. I’ve worked with Matt for six years in every way possible, and I hope I get another three years together. I’ve worked with Debra and Brendan on several initiatives, including expanded tax credits for our veterans and seniors. They’re good people.

What I’ve learned in those nine years is that people who live in Clinton love Clinton. It’s a great town that’s been home for so many of us for so many years. We all want to make it better.

The thing is, our little town is getting bigger. We have neighbors joining us from all over the state, and all over the world. They understand that a walkable, affordable town with everything we have to offer is a place where they want to settle down, just like my great-grandfather did a hundred years ago and like my wife and I did in 2013 when we bought out first house.

This might seem scary to some but, to me, it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to look at new ways to share how our town works, to share how we can all can get more involved in making things better. If our town is going to continue to grow, we all have to do our part.

I want to keep doing my part. I want to keep listening to you. I want to keep turning our challenges into solutions. I want to keep opening our town up to everyone who wants to be a part of this special community.

You gave me a chance in 2017. Please do it again on Monday.

With your support, I know we can keep moving Clinton forward. Together.

Interested in how two of the candidates running for Clinton Select Board stand on the issues but pressed for time? I broke down the recent candidates night by topic so you can jump to the issues that matter most to you.

Election Day in Clinton is Monday, June 8, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

If you like this post or anything else about my campaign for Clinton Select Board, please share with your friends. Monday is just days away so now, more than ever, we need to spread the word.

Intro and opening statements:

What sets you apart from the other candidates, and what else in your background makes you the perfect candidate for this office?

There are some large issues on the June 1 town meeting warrant, from the important business of setting the town budget to paying for capital items and the new library, but getting the word out is hard. How would you encourage people to attend this meeting and vote?

Do you support the new library project?

What would you like to do to encourage more participation in town government and more voter education?

The current Select Board is often divided. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of common ground. How do you bring the board together and push through the important business this town needs to accomplish to move into the future?

What are your thoughts on how to work with and manage the incoming town administrator?

How does the town meet its infrastructure needs with the money available?

Housing is a major concern throughout the state. How can the town help add housing while maintaining the town’s character and also provide the services a growing population demands?

How do you address the issues, both real and perceived, for downtown and move downtown into the future with the limited resources Clinton has?

Closing statements.

We’ve been lucky.

For years, some of us on the Select Board have been pushing for better communication, for finding better ways to share news about what’s going on at Town Hall, whether that’s openings on town boards and committees, changes in services or regulations, or big events like town elections and the annual town meeting and how they work.

But, since business as usual was working for the most part, the regulars weren’t worried. Their Clinton rolled on: they knew how to get things done, the same 200 or so people showed up at town meeting every year to pass the town’s business, and all was good.

Until this past Monday. 

On Monday, we were completely unprepared for the fact that 600-plus people might care enough about something to show up to town meeting. The meeting took five hours for a normal-size warrant, mostly because of the procedural requirement for paper ballots and voting by precinct that made everyone who waited an hour to get into the building get up and get back in line for upwards of another hour—twice.

Just as bad, I’ve heard from many of you that the number should have been higher. Many members of the community who also care about Clinton weren’t there because they either weren’t aware when town meeting was or how it works. 

We have to do better. 

We have to do a better job of getting people involved in the annual budget process and making that budget easier to understand, so they’re not coming to town meeting and being asked to digest a $71 million budget in minutes. 

We have to do a better job of getting the word out about town meeting and local elections, what’s at stake, and how the important issues will be decided. 

We have to do a better job of opening up our town to newcomers. I get that Clinton has been Central Mass’ best-kept secret for years, but that secret is out. The town is growing, we have new neighbors, and they now have an equal stake in what’s happening here. 

Nights like Monday should be a way we get more people involved in town government. They should be a way we get more people excited about seeing their voice and vote make a difference in their community. 

Instead, people who have never been to town meeting before walked away confused and angry. 

The next iteration of your Select Board has a big challenge ahead, working with the incoming town administrator to repair the damage done on Monday.

But there’s a tremendous opportunity in front of us, too. Hundreds of you showed us that you care about what’s going on in Clinton, and that you want to be involved. We have to find a way to bridge that communication gap and open our town up to this untapped resource. 

Who do you want leading those efforts? The people who think what’s been good enough for them should be good enough for you? The people who think that if you can’t figure out town hall then it’s your problem? The people who think all that’s special about Clinton is for them, not you? 

Or do you want a proven leader who’s shown a commitment to communication and transparency time after time over the past nine years: launching the town’s Facebook page, expanding cable TV coverage to streaming on YouTube, expanding public meeting coverage on those outlets to include every major board and committee, and never ducking your concerns and complaints. 

Since 2017, I have pushed to make our town more open and accessible to everyone in Clinton, whether you’ve been here for generations or moved in last week. 

If I’m re-elected, I will redouble those efforts and work with department heads to commission a townwide survey and see how people get their information, what they care about, and how we can better share what’s going on in Clinton. I’ll work closely with the new town administrator to leverage her ideas and the best ones we can find elsewhere to make sure nights like Monday never happen in Clinton again. 

You deserve nothing less.

Election Day in Clinton is Monday, June 8. Polls are open at Town Hall from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

If you like this post or anything else about my campaign for Clinton Select Board, please share with your friends. Monday is just days away so now, more than ever, we need to spread the word.

My re-election campaign announcement is in today’s Clinton Item. In 500 words, I share some reasons why I hope you’ll consider voting for me for Clinton Select Board on June 8.

If you’re not an Item subscriber, please consider it. For a few dollars a year, you’ll be supporting a local paper that covers our town and keeps local officials (and candidates) honest. A lot of communities aren’t so lucky.

Here’s the text:

I’m Sean Kerrigan. I’ve been on your Clinton Select Board since 2017 and I’m asking you to re-elect me on June 8.

I’m a journalist by trade and the first rule of journalism is to show, not tell. We’ve come a long way together over the past nine years and, as a result, today Clinton is in the best shape it’s seen in a generation. While other people might tell you this isn’t true, I’m going to show you why it is.

Some people will tell you they’re accountable, responsive, and transparent. I’ll show you the town Facebook page, with which hundreds interact daily and which I created. I’ll show you my website (kerriganforclinton.org), my email (kerriganforclinton@gmail.com), and my phone number (617-319-4738). I have nothing to hide and I’ll never hide from you.

More important, I’ll also show you a local community-access TV station that — thanks to my leadership as a member of the Cable Committee — now broadcasts every major board meeting on cable and YouTube. That’s real transparency, not talk.

Some people will tell you they’ll practice fiscal responsibility. I’ll show you nine years of balanced budgets, during which time we added nearly $3 million to the town’s stabilization fund (with another $500,000 coming this year) and two key positions to our administrative team. Used correctly, the assistant town administrator and HR director will strengthen town services and deliver the real results in efficiency others talk about in public but oppose in private.

That’s how you make sure our community is well managed for generations to come: With smart decisions, brave action, and strategic compromise, not empty promises.

But just because things are great today doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges ahead. In 2023, I said we couldn’t turn back to the old ways, however safe they may appear. That temptation might be stronger than ever for some of you now, but nostalgia is not a plan. We need to stay focused, stay united and keep Clinton headed in the right direction.

We’re losing a major employer in Jabil. We have a property on Sterling Street that’s our next best chance at transformative development. State aid continues to fall short of what towns like Clinton need. These are real problems that need real leadership, not just rhetoric.

Lastly, you deserve someone who represents your values. Over the past year, our beautifully diverse community has come under attack. I stood up to ICE and passed a resolution letting the people of Clinton know that everyone who lives here deserves the same liberty and justice we all are supposed to enjoy under the Constitution.

That’s because, if you live here — no matter where you’re from, when you moved here, what your accent is like, or who you love — you’re a Clintonian. I’ve been showing up for Clintonians like you since 2017 and, as long as I’m in office, I’ll never stop.

I’m Sean Kerrigan, your Select Board member. Please vote for me on June 8 and let’s keep Clinton moving forward. Together.

The Clinton Item and Clinton Community TV held a candidates night May 20 for candidates in the upcoming Clinton Select Board race. Two of us showed up, and I enjoyed talking about the issues and challenges facing Clinton with fellow Select Board candidate Matt Kobus.

Real leadership is not a popularity contest. Real leadership is not hereditary. Real leadership happens when you show up and do the work.

Check out CCTV coverage of the event below. And please share it with your Clinton friends. Our town deserves candidates who will show up whenever and wherever a challenge appears, not just when they feel like it.

Election Day is June 8.

If you’d like to support my Clinton Select Board re-election campaign with a lawn sign, please send me an email through this site or at kerriganforclinton@gmail.com, or call/text 617.319.4738. Happy to drop one off!

I’m happy to share that I’ll be seeking another term on the Select Board at the town elections this June 8. 

In the next few weeks, I’ll be making a formal announcement and asking for help with the nomination paper signatures needed to get back on the ballot. And I’m looking forward to talking to you about where the town is going and why I’m the person to help deliver what we all want: the best Clinton possible for everyone. 

In the meantime, however, I want to clear up a false narrative several of you have told me you’re hearing: that I don’t have the time to do this job any more. It’s not true.

This past fall, I had an exciting change in my family and work life. At the time, I was worried this new arrangement would take up most of my evening time and, since I’ve promised myself I would not serve on the Select Board if I couldn’t give it my full attention, I considered making this current term on the board my last. 

Thankfully, my fears were unfounded. My schedule hasn’t changed and this new arrangement hasn’t impacted my service on the Select Board in any way. 

Sadly, there are some people in this town who are willing to lie, or spread lies, in order to keep power and advance their agenda. If you ever have a question about anything someone says about me or says I said, please just reach out. I’m at kerriganforclinton@gmail.com and 617.319.4738. Or say hello if you see me around town. We might not agree on everything but I promise I’ll always tell you the truth.

We’ve made a lot of progress in the past nine years, but there’s plenty more to do, and I’m more excited than ever to tackle the challenges facing us. Hope to see you soon.

Sean

The Clinton Item did a story this week on the resolution the Select Board passed on October 22. While I appreciate the coverage and all the Item does to cover our community, I wanted to clarify a few things written in the story.

The lede—”National debate entered the Clinton Select Board meeting…”—makes it sound as if we were debating tariffs or the federal government shutdown. What we were talking about was Clinton, and whether we should show our support for members of our community who are feeling anxious and unsafe because of the color of the skin, the language they speak, or the jobs they work.

Nothing could be more local.

It’s easy to brush off the Trump administration’s mistreatment of immigrants as a “national debate,” something that’s happening in Boston, or Chicago, or New York. But the fact is it’s happening everywhere, including Clinton. Members of our community—neighbors and friends, merchants and coworkers—are being targeted by federal immigration and customs enforcement simply because they look different, or speak Spanish or Brazilian, or sometimes just because an ICE agent has a hunch. That’s illegal under our Constitution and I don’t want it happening anywhere, including in Clinton.

Clinton is where my family and I live, and it’s where I’ve been elected since 2017 to represent the community—not just people who look like me, but the entire community. Clinton is a town of immigrants and has been since before my great grandfather came here near the turn of last century. But we need to stop thinking of Clinton as the town of our childhoods, whether that’s 20, 30, 40, or 70 years ago. All it takes is a walk down High Street or a visit to any classroom in our schools to see that our community is more diverse than ever.

That diversity makes us stronger, but only if we treat every member of our community with dignity and respect. I’m proud to have put forth this resolution, and I’m grateful for the support of Matt Kobus and Julie Perusse. I think the Clinton Police Department does a great job looking out for everyone in our community, and I have no doubt they’ll continue to do so. This resolution in no way challenges the work they’re doing or their partnership with state and federal authorities on things like drug enforcement.

Two other issues with the Item’s story. First, my colleague’s name is Bill Connolly. It was misspelled throughout the story. Second, the quote  “I think, unfortunately, maybe we’re looking at different news sources, but it’s exactly people like those new citizens that I’m looking at” was attributed to Mary Dickhaut when I said it in reaction to Mr. Connolly’s comment about members of the community who recently became U.S. citizens through the outstanding work done through the Philip E. Philbin Clinton Adult Learning Center. To the best of my recollection, Ms. Dickhaut offered no comments on the matter other that saying she didn’t support the resolution.

The text of the resolution is as follows:

A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF FREEDOM IN OUR COMMUNITY

A resolution of the Clinton (Mass.) Select Board affirming its commitment to the freedom and dignity of all members of our community in the wake of increased unlawful attacks and abductions from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies. 

WHEREAS, the American experience—and the history of the town of Clinton—is inherently rooted in the immigrant experience; 

WHEREAS, the 2020 U.S. Census reported that more than 17 percent of Clinton respondents were foreign born;

WHEREAS, statistics from the Massachusetts Department of Education for the 2024–25 school year reported that 44.5 percent of all Clinton students were of Hispanic or Latino descent, and that 36.1 percent of them spoke something other than English as their first language ;

WHEREAS, the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees protection for all from unreasonable searches and seizures without a valid judicial warrant;  

WHEREAS, the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that no state may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

WHEREAS, recent law enforcement actions across the country, throughout Massachusetts, and in Clinton have caused fear, anxiety, anger, and uncertainty for many in our community;

WHEREAS, these actions have discredited the Clinton Police Department and negatively affected the department’s relationship with its community; 

WHEREAS, we hear the concerns and feel the pain of our neighbors, their friends, and their families; 

WHEREAS, we believe that a diverse and unified community means a better, stronger, and safer Clinton for all of us; 

WHEREAS, the Clinton Select Board is committed to the freedom and dignity of every member of our community; 

NOW, THEREFORE, THE CLINTON SELECT BOARD RESOLVES AS FOLLOWS: 

1. The Town of Clinton stands with those affected and offers them our full support.
2. The Town of Clinton condemns the targeting of individuals because of their race, how they speak, or the jobs they work.
3. The Town of Clinton demands U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and any members of law enforcement or the military obey the United States Constitution and all federal, state, and local laws.
4. The Town of Clinton shall dedicate no resources toward supporting illegal abduction by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or any other federal agency.
5. This resolution confirms our commitment to local actions that promote the freedom and dignity of every member of our community. 
6. These values will be reflected in all local government institutions, effective immediately.

Your town’s official website, clintonma.gov, has been redesigned and relaunched.

Besides getting a much-needed facelift, we’ve tried to make clintonma.gov easier to navigate and more useful, giving you quick access to the answers and services you need from local government.

It’s also a great way to pay your municipal bills and see what’s happening in town. And you can sign up for text and email alerts to get notified when an agenda is posted, an event is scheduled, or when town news or jobs are posted.

Check out clintoma.gov today and let us know what you think!