Three Candidates Enter Brewster Select Board Race

BREWSTER – With the annual election slated for May 20, candidates are lining up for the race. According to the town clerk, three candidates have taken out papers to run for the two select board seats on the ballot.

David Whitney, current chair of the select board, will not seek reelection this year. Cindy Bingham, the current vice chair, is also declining to run again. 

“I will have served three terms. I believe it is someone else’s turn,” said Bingham. 

Caroline McCarley, Harvey (Pete) Dahl and David Faherty are all interested in serving their Brewster neighbors as a select board member. As of last week, Faherty had returned his papers and qualified.

McCarley has been a full-time resident since 2021 with her husband, Dan Harkinson, but has been visiting with her family since 1983. She is currently a planning board member, chair of the Sea Camps advisory committee and a Brewster Ladies’ Library Association finance committee member. In her spare time, she is also a library volunteer and attends the First Parish Brewster Unitarian Universalist Church. 

From 2022 to 2024, McCarley served on the bay property planning committee. Brewster is a model of good governance, from award winning town services to transparent financial management, she said. 

Her interest in the Sea Camps properties has developed into one of her campaign priorities: charting the best path forward and maximizing the value of the land. In addition, she hopes to protect the town’s environment and water quality, focus on safeguarding vital natural resources, expanding housing opportunities and maintaining a strong and sustainable town budget that delivers essential services efficiently. 

“I am passionate about public service and spent decades in New Hampshire, where we raised our three sons, serving as a school board member, state senator and mayor and working fulltime,” she said. “I want to bring that passion and experience to the select board in Brewster.”

Dahl has spent his career in accounting and finance positions, working for technology and sporting goods companies. After moving to Cape Cod full-time with his wife in 2012, he decided to take a CFO position at YMCA Cape Cod, where he worked for six years. 

Dahl has served as the chair of the finance committee and is currently vice chair. He credits his time on the committee as his reason for running. 

“[I have] this institutional knowledge of the things going on, and you get to a point where, for me, the best way to use that experience is to move to the next level and be helpful, keeping the town of Brewster the way we want it to be. It’s a well-run town and we want to keep going in the right direction,” he said.

School budgets and consolidation remain big topics of conversation for residents, especially with spring town meeting approaching. Dahl says having an insider's perspective from the financial discussions can help him set a path for success. 

He also understands the concerns surrounding tax increases, especially with numerous projects coming down the pike. 

Dahl said his campaign will show voters that he is an independent voice, something he has learned from his years as a finance committee member, and that he respects the quality of Brewster’s town government and wants to continue to keep it that way. 

Faherty, a Boston native, has been a Brewster taxpayer since 1991 and a full-time resident since 2020, when he and his wife took advantage of remote work. Now a retired father of six and grandfather of 20, he is looking to become more involved with the town’s management. 

The catalyst for his campaign? Special town meeting last fall. Faherty was against the Sea Camps debt exclusion of $11.4 million and the capital expenditures that lumped multiple projects together. He also believes the reconsideration vote was done in bad faith after multiple residents had already left the meeting. 

He voted in favor of acquiring the Sea Camps property, but says the scope of the phases are too much of a burden to put on taxpayers in one fell swoop. 

“The reason for my position was to protect the taxpayers, to have a voice for those who are on fixed incomes that came here as retirees and now are faced with a higher property tax bill,” he said. “Also to protect families because families that are working here are having a hard time paying their taxes. I find it ironic that raising taxes to support Sea Camps development is how they are going to make our town more affordable for young families.”

His key campaign messaging centers around a “common sense approach to spending” and decision-making that would not overburden the taxpayers, especially those on fixed incomes. 

Faherty spent his career in the chemical industry, living in Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey and Japan. At one point he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to be the chemical advisor to the U.S. trade representative. He credits his capability with his experience managing large numbers of people and budgets under favorable and unfavorable circumstances. 

In his spare time, he is an advocate for the St. Vincent De Paul Society at St. Joan of Arc Church. 

The select board race is still in its early stages, with ample time for more candidates to submit their papers. March 28 is the deadline to take out papers and April 1 is the required return date.