Michael S. Rosa

Michael S. Rosa has served on Billerica's Select Board for more than a quarter century, from 1998 to 2016 and again from 2017, and was its chairman several times. A Town Meeting member from 1994, he first ran for selectman in 1997, finishing third with 1,062 votes behind James F. O'Donnell Jr. and Cosmo D. Cavicchio. He won a seat the next year with 2,477 votes, alongside Ellen Day Rawlings, and the board's report for 1998 noted that "Mr. Rosa ran a hard issues based campaign."

His signature cause was returning part of the town's free cash to the taxpayers. Year after year he brought articles to town meeting, as selectman or as petitioner, to apply a million dollars of free cash to reduce the tax rate, over the objections of the Finance Committee and the town managers, who wanted the money kept in the stabilization fund. In 2001 he told the meeting that "this money came from the taxpayers and therefore it should be returned to them"; that article lost, 74 to 87, and a similar one failed in 2002. In 2008 he argued that a million dollars would mean about fifty dollars for each taxpayer, and in 2010 the meeting voted his motion to transfer $252,097 from free cash to offset the residential tax bills. A proposal to use a million dollars against the 2014 taxes lost, 71 to 95.

With Rawlings and the Vision 2020 Committee he joined the Conservation Commission in sponsoring the 1998 purchase of about 160 acres on Rangeway Road, and he spoke for it at town meeting. For many years he chaired the Street Acceptance and Discontinuance Committee, reporting its public hearings and recommendations on the acceptance of private ways to town meeting. As chairman of the World War II Veterans Memorial Committee he presented the design for a permanent memorial to the town's men and women who served in the two World Wars, for which the 2002 fall town meeting voted $48,500; the granite memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day in 2004. He also sat on the selectmen's committees on the water treatment plant, the Welch's Fund and tax title land sales.

He was re-elected in 2001, 2004 and 2007, and the board chose him as chairman in 2005. In 2006, as chairman, he accepted from Robert Kinsman of the Historical Commission the American Planning Association's National Historic Planning Landmark award for the Billerica Garden Suburb in North Billerica, recognized as the first attempt in the United States to provide workers' housing on the European garden city model. He chaired the board again for several terms between 2008 and 2015. He topped the field in 2010 with 2,596 votes and was re-elected in 2013 with 4,361.

In April 2016 he finished third for two seats, with 2,864 votes behind George J. Simolaris Jr. and Kimberly J. Conway, and left the board. He then served on the Finance Committee, and in 2017, as a Finance Committee member, he spoke against an article to accept a street by town meeting vote as contrary to the town's by-laws for private citizens. At the April 2017 election he returned to the board at the head of the poll with 1,874 votes, and he was re-elected in 2020 with 3,403 votes and in 2023 with 2,130.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1997, town election: Selectman, James F. ODonnell Jr. 1,625, Cosmo D. Cavicchio 1,453, Michael Rosa 1,062
2. Billerica Town Report 1998, town election: Selectman, Ellen Day Rawlings 2,497, Michael Rosa 2,477
3. Billerica Town Report 1998, Board of Selectmen report: election of Mike Rosa, who ran a hard issues based campaign
4. Billerica Town Report 1998, town meeting Article 25: purchase of Rangeway Road land; Selectmen Rawlings, Rosa and Hurd spoke in favor
5. Billerica Town Report 2001, town meeting Article 43: one million dollars to reduce the tax rate, Selectman Rosa speaking; lost 74 to 87
6. Billerica Town Report 2003, fall town meeting 2002 Article 13: $48,500 for a World War I and II memorial; Selectman Rosa, Chairman of the World War II Veterans Memorial Committee
7. Billerica Town Report 2004, town election: Selectman, Ellen Day Rawlings 3,003, Michael S. Rosa 2,846
8. Billerica Town Report 2005, Board of Selectmen report: board reorganized electing Michael Rosa as Chairman
9. Billerica Town Report 2006, town meeting: National Historic Planning Landmark award for the Billerica Garden Suburb presented to Selectman Chairman Rosa
10. Billerica Town Report 2008, town meeting Article 20: Selectman Rosa proposes returning one million dollars of free cash to the taxpayers
11. Billerica Town Report 2010, elected officers: Selectmen, Michael S. Rosa, Chairman, term to April 2013
12. Billerica Town Report 2010, town meeting Article 12: Selectman Rosa moves $252,097 from free cash to offset residential taxes; carried
13. Billerica Town Report 2013, town election: Selectman, George Simolaris Jr. 4,649, Michael S. Rosa 4,361, Robert M. Correnti 2,180
14. Billerica Town Report 2014, Street Acceptance and Discontinuance Committee report signed by Michael S. Rosa, Chairman
15. Billerica Town Report 2016, town election: Selectman, Kimberly J. Conway 3,470, George Simolaris Jr. 3,081, Michael S. Rosa 2,864
16. Billerica Town Report 2017, town meeting: Finance Committee Member Rosa speaks against a street acceptance article
17. Billerica Town Report 2017, town election: Selectman, Michael S. Rosa 1,874 (top of the poll)