Banfield has the experience, perspective to meet challenges facing Select Board
While his breadth and depth of service are impressive, what I like most about Dean is that he’s still an activist at heart.
At this year’s Town Caucus, I nominated Dean Banfield for Select Board. Here’s why:
Dean brings tremendous experience as a former member of the Natural Resources Commission, the Community Preservation Committee, the Solar Implementation Task Force, and the Finance Committee, where he also served as chair. Most recently, he served as deputy town moderator during 2025 Town Meeting.
But while that breadth and depth of service are impressive, what I like most about Dean is that he’s still an activist at heart. He embodies the spirit of our citizen government, authoring petition warrant articles, speaking up at public comment periods, and holding the town accountable to its goals.
We need Dean’s unique combination of insider knowledge and outsider perspective as Acton faces a perfect storm of fiscal, personnel, regulatory, and infrastructure challenges. He’s already up to speed on hot topics such as the plans for MCI, the condition of our aging municipal buildings, and the opportunities to make better use of town land to serve our evolving needs.
However, as I learned during my own time on the Select Board, you can campaign on a platform of contemporary issues, but you don’t get to choose the ones that dominate your term. Whether it’s a pandemic, a lawsuit, or global politics colliding with local events, you have to fall back on your sense of “what’s right for the town,” based on experience.
In those fraught moments of controversy, ambiguity, and consequence that the Select Board inevitably faces, I’d want my friend and neighbor of the past 30 years, who raised his kids here, engaged at every level of town government, and somehow remained an independent, critical thinker, to stand up for my concerns.
Please join me in supporting Dean Banfield’s campaign for Select Board.
Matthew Johnson
Winthrop Street
