Challengers change face of council

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November 6, 2009

By Joni Quinn

When the new City Council is sworn in next year, one-third of the seats will be filled by newcomers.

Candidates Michael Young, Colin LePage and Sven Amirian won seats on Election Day, knocking out incumbents Michael McGonagle and Kenneth Quimby. The third incumbent, James Donahue, declined to seek re-election.

Young finished a strong fourth with 5,268 votes.

"I am very pleased and excited with the outcome and am looking forward to working with the mayor, School Committee members and my fellow council members. Hopefully we will meet some of challenges that face our city," Young said.

Young said he is devoting his time to learning more about his position, as well as the ins and outs of city government. His first task as councilor will be to put together a committee that will be responsible for donating his council salary to local charities.

LePage, who finished sixth with 4,768 votes, said he is thankful to all his supporters and media endorsements, which helped lead him to victory.

"I'm ecstatic about the win and really glad all the hard work has paid off. There were a lot of nervous moments because you never know how many people will turn out and vote for you when they say they will, but everyone has shown so much support," LePage said.

As a councilor, LePage said he is looking forward to getting out in front of the city's recycling effort and saving the city money as was intended when the project began. LePage was the driving force behind the implementation of the city pilot single-stream recycling program.

"I really hope I can now do more and improve on what we have already accomplished. I'm glad the voters gave me the opportunity to serve on the council and I hope to serve them well," LePage said.

Amirian, who finished eighth with 4,706 votes, said he was thrilled with the outcome.

"It just feels fantastic to have all the hard work over the past few months pay off. It doesn't matter what place I fell in, only that I've attained a seat.

Amirian said his first action as councilor will be to continue to help implement single-stream recycling throughout the city as well.

"This is something we need to move forward with as quickly as possible," Amirian said.

McGonagle just missed the cut, landing in 10th place with 4,590, just 105 votes behind Councilor William Macek. McGonagle was on the council for one term and was disappointed in the outcome.

"It's not what I figured it would be," he said. "There were a lot of strong challengers. It will be a strong council and I wish I was on it. I enjoyed my time on the council and I will stay close and follow the issues and we'll go from there."

However, McGonagle added that there might be a silver lining.

"I'll take the two years and will stay close with a lot of things I'm passionate about. Time off isn't such a bad thing either. I'll work on my business and spend time with my granddaughter," he said.

Quimby couldn't help but be disappointed by Tuesday night's outcome. He finished in 12th, 106 votes behind McGonagle, at 4,484 votes.

"I don't know why I didn't win, what I did," he said. "Maybe I didn't do enough. I don't know."

Quimby vowed to continue to be a fixture at City Council meetings, despite being ousted.

"I'm still going to be there. I'm addicted. I'm going to be there as another figure, from the audience. I got defeated but it's not like I'm not going to continue to go," he said.

He added that he will be back to run again in 2011.

"I am a fighter. I just look ahead to the next election. I'm looking forward to running again. I'll keep going. I'm a machine," he said.

With his second-place finish, re-elected Councilor Robert Scatamacchia will likely continue to serve as the council's vice president. Traditionally, the city councilors choose the top two vote-getters as council president and vice president.

Scatamacchia said he was surprised to see McGonagle and Quimby lose their seats, but noted the exceptional effort by the new challengers who made the cut.

"I have to give credit to the new people. They worked very hard," he said.

Scatamacchia, who will be starting his 15th year on the council, finished behind Council President Michael Hart.

"I'm very proud of the fact I was the second highest vote getter," he said. "When you're number two, you can only move up one but you can drop down several, so I'm glad the voters re-elected me."

Staff reporters Cara Spilsbury and Julie Varney contributed to this report.