Easthampton City Council swears in replacement for seat held by Gomez

Felicia Jadczak was sworn in Wednesday night as the Easthampton City Council’s new Precinct 2 councilor. STAFF PHOTO/ALEXA LEWIS
Published: 01-16-2025 2:22 PM |
EASTHAMPTON — The City Council welcomed a new addition to its ranks on Wednesday, swearing in Felicia Jadczak to replace Homar Gomez as Precinct 2 councilor. Gomez left the council to serve as a state representative.
At a special meeting, council members commended Jadczak, a small business owner deeply involved in the local arts scene, for her willingness to step up and serve her precinct as the only applicant for the vacancy. After an endorsement read by Nathan Markee, chair of the Easthampton Democratic City Committee, a brief introductory statement and a series of questions, Jadczak won the unanimous approval of the council.
“What I’m looking forward to doing is to really focus on helping and being a voice in terms of guiding Easthampton into the future,” Jadczak said at the meeting. “We have a lot ahead of us, and there’s a lot of uncertainty as well as a lot of opportunity, and I’m looking forward to being a part of this conversation with you all.”
The councilors asked Jadczak a series of their own questions on topics such as how she would tap into the diverse voices of her precinct, how she would handle difficult conversations in City Hall and how she would bring her passion for the arts into her role on the council.
At the core of each of her answers, Jadczak explained that relationship building has been a cornerstone of her leadership style in her professional life, and something she plans to bring to the council.
“Everything I do is around building relationships and forging these connections with people to make sure that we can serve our community and our city for a better future,” she told the council.
Jadczak also noted that she has become comfortable with working through differences and having difficult conversations through her professional experience in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work. Jadczak is co-founder and co-CEO of a small DEI and workplace consulting firm that has been in business for about 10 years.
“I have a lot of experience with leaning into discomfort,” she assured the council.
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Forging connections and breaking down barriers between people were also some of the main goals of Porchfest, the grassroots music festival that Jadczak worked to bring to Easthampton, which celebrated its second year in October.
“It’s really about this blurring of public and private, where essentially the public is getting invited into what are traditionally more private spaces, such as a front porch, a back porch, a driveway, a backyard, things like that,” Jadczak explained of Porchfest.
Not only does Jadczak see Porchfest as a chance to come together around live music, but it’s also a chance to meet neighbors “on a personal level.”
The arts community in Easthampton has been a point of passion for Jadczak, who has served on the Easthampton City Arts Coordinating Committee for the past two years and as chair of the Easthampton Cultural Council for the past year. As a member of the council, she said she hopes to serve as a “liaison” between the city’s artistic communities and City Hall.
Finally, Jadczak said that she hopes to be a voice of representation on the council, not just as a member of her precinct, but as a woman of color and a disabled person.
“I’m hoping to show people that they might be able to do this too, where maybe they hadn’t thought about this before,” she said. “My wish would be, if I choose to run in the fall, my wish would be not to run unopposed.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, Councilor Salem Derby said that three letters of interest had been submitted for the council vice president position, and that ranked-choice voting for the position will take place at the council’s next meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. No letters were submitted for the position of council president, but voting will still take place for that position at the next meeting as well.
The city’s biennial election will take place on Nov. 4, at which time all council positions will be up for election.
Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.