With Kristen on the Council residents, business owners, and taxpayers have an advocate on their side who will ask questions, get answers, and find solutions that maximize benefits while minimizing burdens.
Here is a look at some of the issues facing our community and the impacts that Kristen’s efforts have had.
Responsiveness: Most recently on Regulations
When stakeholders spoke up about concerns they had about the City’s updated Wetlands Ordinance, Kristen called Natural Resources committee meetings to bring both stakeholders and Conservation into the conversation, and resolved the miscommunication over the process. As that regulation comment process continues, NRC has decided to hold this item open so that concerns may continue to be addressed and questions answered.
Fiscal Responsibility
Budget Oversight
Kristen was the sole vote against the FY 2026 budget, which included a 6.5% tax increase to cover major cost increases in education, healthcare, utilities, and more—totaling a $17M gap from FY 2025. She argued the city must find alternatives to overtaxing working families and local businesses.
She advocated for greater transparency, bringing resident and taxpayer questions (as well as her own) to the Finance Committee for presentation to department heads, revealing more opportunities for the Departments to reduce expenses and for the City to recover costs.
Trash Fee Reform & Fairness
In 2025, residents faced a sharp trash fee hike—from $85 to $260 annually—with pushback from seniors and fixed‑income households. Kristen seeks fairer, more transparent approaches to the fees charged, and relief programs for those most affected.
Education Infrastructure with Tax-Conscious Oversight
During a debate over whether to submit a Statement of Interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for a replacement technical academy, Kristen supported researching the cost and community impact before committing—emphasizing affordability and avoiding surprise tax overrides.
She followed this with Budget Hearing questions about the maintenance required to ensure the safety of Westfield Technical Academy building(s), students, and staff until a replacement can be funded.
Kristen is dedicated to finding a solution to providing state-of-the-art athletic fields for our student athletes without increasing the risk of career-ending injuries, flooding, heat islands, and toxic exposure to our community.
Flooding & Stormwater Resilience
Westfield sits on a floodplain with complex hydrology, making certain areas prone to flooding and raising concerns over stormwater management and development.
Kristen promotes environmentally informed growth, maintaining wetlands buffers, and modernizing flood-control systems to protect neighborhoods near the Westfield and Little Rivers, and the Arm and Powdermill Brooks. She has been relentless in her pursuit of the full rehabilitation of the Little River Levee.
Community Empowerment
At a February 2025 public forum led by Massachusetts’ Environmental Justice team, Kristen rallied community members not to disengage—even when frustrated by officials. Her thoughtful leadership helped amplify resident concerns about zoning, aquifer protection, and toxic risk transparency. Kristen’s leadership on the Streamfield Energy project opposition was pivotal to Jupiter Power’s withdrawal.
From working to discover the cause and solution to the outrageous jump in water bills/usage to engaging 26 other residents officially as Intervenors in the battery storage permitting process, helping residents advocate for themselves and their rights is what Kristen does, to the best of her ability, everyday.
Clean Drinking Water & PFAS Advocacy
Kristen’s leadership in opposing the proposed Streamfield battery storage project was central to Jupiter Power’s decision to withdraw the proposal on April 25, 2025, after sustained public outreach and Council lobbying, demonstrating her effectiveness in environmental defense.
As a founding member of WRAFT (Westfield Residents Advocating For Themselves), she raised early awareness of PFAS toxins in our water back in 2016, becoming a trusted local voice on water science and public health, bringing much needed transparency, testing, and other resources to our community.
It was Kristen’s letter to MassDEP requesting a formal Public Involvement Process regarding the PFAS waste site at Barnes Air National Guard Base that resulted in the creation of the Barnes Restoration Advisory Board – the only publicly accessible forum to ask questions and learn more about the PFAS CERCLA process happening at the Base. (CERCLA is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as superfund, and is the law that regulates the process taken when there is an environmental contamination at a federal facility.)
That is why we made this webpage so you could get to know Kristen and then we could ask you…
