Basic contact information
Email rbrucemurphy @ comcast.net
Bruce Murphy – Caucus Nomination Speech
Final campaign statement
How time flies; this will be my fifth time asking the voters of Bedford to vote for me for a position on the Board of Assessors.. I first ran for this position to fill the seat that opened up when my friend Dick Boffa retired in 2008. At the end of my current term I will have served eleven years on the Board. If I am elected, and complete my next term, I will have served more time on the Board of Assessors than I did on the Finance Committee. To date I have served the town of Bedford in an appointed or elected role for twenty-three years. How time flies.
To be honest, this year I realized that I am reaching an age when I need to think about cutting back. My loving wife, Lora, and both my children will tell you that I probably should have reached that conclusion a year or two sooner based on the ambient stress levels I had been exhibiting.
So I had a decision to make.
Well the fact that I am running again is an indication that serving on the Board of Assessors is not one of the commitments I chose to eliminate. Let me tell you why. New England small town government is one of the purest forms of democracy existing today. I am a great believer that democracy works because it is the system in which people can feel that they get a “fair shake”. And taxation, the bill we receive for the goods and services provided by government, is one of the areas where fairness is a primary concern. In the main, I believe Bedford voters believe they get a “fair shake” and I take a lot of pride in the small contribution that I make to that in my role as an Assessor. I am not ready to give that up just yet. I like the feeling I get from contributing to the fact that “Bedford works”.
If were looking at the next three years of simply “keeping a hand on the tiller”, I might have come to a different conclusion. That is not the case. The coming years will be eventful for the Board of Assessors. We will be replacing our Director of Assessing and our discussions with Sarah Stanton, our new Town Manager, have already shown that this may be an opportunity for some creative thought that will set the Town up for success for many years to come. Additionally The Board has voted to significantly reorganize the management of the professional and administrative staff and the process of exploring and developing the new configuration and presenting it to the voters has started. I am looking forward to helping develop our new Charter language in this area and working out the operational details of this change over the next couple of years. And finally, the MITRE Pilot program will come to an end during the current term and the Assessors will have a role to play in contributing to the negotiation of a new Pilot deal. Arriving at an estimate of value for the most valuable piece of property in Town will be an interesting technical challenge. These are all unique and interesting problem solving opportunities and I would like the opportunity to participate in them.
I would hope you would conclude that my long service to the town in this and other roles would qualify me to do so. And so, I am asking for your support in upcoming election in March.
Thank you for your time and attention.