One of the youngest politicians in the Pioneer Valley says he’s departing his current role in Chicopee. As he tells WAMC, it’s not because of any love lost for the job - if anything, he says, more people his age should get involved.
Chicopee’s no stranger to young residents running and getting on city committees and the council. As MassLive reported in 2017, at least three candidates 25 and younger won their elections that year.
A few years later, enter Timothy Wagner. First running for school committee at age 18 in 2021 amid the pandemic and fresh out of Chicopee Comprehensive High School, Wagner would win a seat and later move up to the city council after putting his name forward in 2023.
Running with support from friends and family and earning his associate’s degree at Springfield Technical Community College while serving, Wagner says a love of education, policy and representing the city fueled much of the past four years.
That first stint on the school committee was especially interesting, he tells WAMC.
“In my first year there comes the arrest of the former superintendent,” he recounts. “That was sort of a real trial by fire, and then getting appointed to the search committee was just extra learning.”
Wagner would have a hand in selecting current-Superintendent Marcus Ware, picked in the wake of former superintendent Lynn Clark’s arrest and dismissal. Clark had been accused of making false statements to the FBI amid an investigation.
Advocating for replacing the aging Barry Elementary, putting forward transparency reforms while on the city council and helping craft an economic development director position, Wagner has tried to avoid complacency.
But now, he’s planning to vacate his seat on the council in August, announcing his departure in June. The news comes months after he said he wouldn’t be seeking another term.
“I had a feeling going into it that I wasn't going to run for re-election - I was pretty adamant on the school committee about not wanting to run for any other office,” he says. “I'm still very passionate, first and foremost, about education policy, and up until recently, I was planning to seek the open Ward 8 school committee seat that was upcoming in Chicopee. But things change. I got a new job - it's out in the Boston area, we'll see if that sticks. But, that sort of sped up the timeline of considering my options for public office.”
While he’s eager to spend more time with his boyfriend, family and friends while taking on his new job, Wagner says he didn’t make the move lightly. He says state service is big in his family, what with his mother being a career civil servant and his father serving as Chicopee’s state representative for some 30 years.
As he prepares to leave the city of 55,000 later this year, Wagner tells WAMC the way he went about introducing items and forging a path on the council may not have been perfect – he became accustomed to a number of proposals being shot down or rejected – but he has no regrets.
He also encourages his fellow youths to get involved in their own local government.
“… watch a school committee meeting or two. Watch your city council meeting. Watch your town meeting - go to your town meeting!” he says. “If you're a registered voter, town meeting is the greatest thing ever. It's the ability for all the residents of the town to be able to go and have a voice and an input on stuff. And you know, maybe you like it – you might run for select board, if you live in a big city or town, you might run for city council after. So, I think it’s really important to be able to inform our young people what’s going on and get them involved.”
Wagner tells WAMC his last day in office is Aug. 31.
