Until recently, the only thing I knew about Matt Kizner was that he was the pony-tailed guy who always has been the smartest guy in the room during Town Meetings. He goes up to the mic and presents his case, supported by data and facts. It’s so refreshing!

So when I heard that Matt was running for SB, my interest piqued. At first interaction, Matt may not strike some as “nice” as the other candidates are during small talk. A smart voter doesn’t base his or her vote on how nice someone is. (And I thought Matt was perfectly nice during our recent conversations.)

As I drove around town this past month, I noticed that many yards displayed both Matt Kizner and Jeff Doyle signs, which already bode well as a sign of cooperation. (Interestingly, none of the candidates endorsed one another—not even Shahidul Mannan and Matt Kizner—which is equally revealing.)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve run into Matt and had the good fortune to put him on the spot with a few pointed questions.  

Matt’s answers did not disappoint.

One of the places where I ran into Matt was at the public interview session for the three candidates running for the Director of Special Services. Sadly, no current Select Board Members showed up. And no Select Board candidates showed up…except Matt Kizner. And, as you might expect from Matt’s engagement at Town Meetings, Matt was engaged in this setting, too. He fired off a few relevant questions to each of the three candidates. And he took notes! (I’m a fan of a good notetaker; it shows that you’re paying attention.) After the interviews, I spent some time chatting with Matt and learned a bit more about his position on things.

This past Friday, May 16th, I saw Matt at the nonpartisan Meet-n-Greet. From what the “previously undecided” folks were saying as I milled about the room, Matt knocked it out of the park with thoughtful and clever answers to their questions.

Below are some of my takeaways about Matt’s positions on certain things (listed in no particular order). They are derived from (1) his formal statement on his candidacy; (2) his statements to me personally; and (3) his statements to the crowd at yesterday’s Meet-n-Greet. Where they are direct quotes, I’ve listed them as such.

• “It is my deep love of this … town that has driven me to be a service member of this community for more than 8 years.”
• “I’m very into numbers [and] our budget. What am I more into? You. Transparency. What do you want? This isn’t about what I believe. This isn’t about what my vision is. I have those thoughts, and I hope you come find me and you ask me what they are; I’d love to share them with you. But ultimately, we’re supposed to represent you. What do you think? What do you want? What are you concerned about? Come talk to me….I’m supposed to represent you. I want to be that voice. I want you to know that there is someone who cares about hearing you…left, right, up, down….as long as it’s green and orange and you’re a Hiller, I want to know what you have to say, and I want you to know that my voice is your voice, too.”
• “I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative.”
• “I thrive on digging into the details, finding common ground, and creating innovative solutions.”
• Heavy reliance on listening to the voters when being budget-focused.
• Wants to use a “smarter way to [make decisions that is] risk-based; no one is against smart government.”
• “Pro business.”
• “Concerned about our infrastructure.”
• “Desperate” to mitigate the citizens’ heavy tax burdens.
• “Implementing [those HPD] body cams [that were purchased so long ago as] a police commitment.”
• When asked about how he felt about the HPD’s October 1, 2024 unpreparedness to deploy any previously-drilled multidisciplinary protocol to the active shooter threat that remained an active shooter threat for up to 30 minutes (depending on your location at HHS) before being deemed a fake threat (“swatting”):  “It’s easy to agree that this was a potential ‘near-miss’ and a good time to hear a call-to-action on getting a real plan and procedures in place asap so that the frustration and confusion of a no-fatality event today is never the Uvalde of tomorrow, we want to ensure we have a plan in place so that every child who goes to school comes home safely at the end of the day.”
• “Clean drinking water.”

• Finding solid evidence of the MWRA’s connection to town water quality.
• Put an end to the “circles [that the Town has been going in] on [the water and sewer problems because] we’re overdue for action.”

• Invest in our roads now so we don’t pay a bigger price later on (because “failing to maintain roads results in rip-and-replace at SIGNIFICANTLY more expense to the taxpayer”). Essentially, Kerry Reed and the DPW should be allowed to fix the small problems before they become big problems. Move road maintenance from a capital expenditure to an operating expenditure, which would allow Kerry Reed/DPW to tap into a general fund to fix those small (less pricey) problems before they become huge (pricey) problems.
• “I want to get into some actual GOALS FOR THE SELECT BOARD. Maybe they can set and communicate goals and be measured themselves. Novel!” (Yes, Matt used all the caps, not me.)

For my fellow “unenrolled” (and other) voters….

Please don’t judge Matt by his party. Judge him by the person he is. If you’ve been listening to Matt at the ATMs over the past few years, you know Matt has a proven track record of being an independent thinker. I don’t think Matt cares if you like him; he cares if he’s proactively doing the job YOU hired him to do with your majority votes and your input at Public Forum.

And that’s exactly what this town needs.

Please VOTE KIZNER and DOYLE this Monday!

Dana Babbin
Hopkinton

Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HopNews. Letters may be edited for clarity, grammar, and length.