METHUEN — There's no shortage of familiar names on the ballot in this year's City Council races.
Of the 15 candidates vying for nine open seats, 11 are incumbents or have served on the council before. Two others are running again after unsuccessful campaigns in 2007.
The only race featuring true political newcomers is in the West District. With two seats up for grabs, James Hajjar and Edward Guy Jr. are challenging incumbent councilors Jeanne Pappalardo and Deborah Quinn.
Both Hajjar, who works for a telecommunications company, and Guy, a retired city police officer, said they are running to infuse the council with fresh ideas.
"You definitely need new blood," said Guy, who retired in June as a Methuen police captain after 39 years on the force. "I think this is just a natural progression for me."
Hajjar said he would use his management experience to help run the city like a business, replacing "personal and political agendas" he has observed among other councilors.
"New leadership is needed," he said.
Incumbents Pappalardo and Quinn embraced their opponents' call for change.
"I've only been in politics for four years," said Quinn, currently the council president. "When they say that we need new blood and new people, I am one of the new people."
"I still feel like I'm kind of new," Pappalardo said. "I feel like I've worked very, very hard for the West District."
In the Central District, four candidates are running for two open seats.
Incumbents Philip Lahey Jr. and John Cronin Jr. have served four years on the council and are seeking reelection.
"There's a lot of unfinished business," Cronin said. "Experience is needed on the City Council. I think the upcoming budget is going to be a very difficult one, to say the least. If someone's going to open up the budget, they're going to have to know what they're looking at."
Challenging Lahey and Cronin are Fadi Chahine and David Lavallee.
Both Chahine and Lavallee ran unsuccessfully for Central District seats two years ago. Lavallee also lost a bid for Central District councilor in 2003.
Lavallee said the biggest problem facing Methuen is favoritism in city government.
"I feel as though I have integrity, and I feel the present City Council doesn't have that," he said.
Chahine said he is running on a platform of "transparency, honesty and integrity.
"I am a new voice with new ideas and I will carry the voices of residents to City Hall," he said.
In the East District, incumbent councilors Joseph Leone and Larry Giordano and former councilor Patricia Uliano are running for two open seats.
Uliano served three consecutive terms on the council from 2000 to 2005.
In the last four years, she said, political and special interests have carried more weight on the council than the interests of taxpayers, prompting her to run again.
Both Leone and Giordano said major challenges in the next two years will be balancing the city budget in the face of state aid cuts and paying for a renovation of the high school.
"Basically, we've got to spread fewer dollars a little bit thinner, and we've got to find a way to pay for the high school," Leone said.
Three at-large council seats will also be up for grabs on Nov. 3. Incumbents Jennifer Kannan and Stephen Zahni and former councilors Joyce Campagnone and Kathleen Corey Rahme are seeking those seats.
Kannan and Zahni said the high school renovation will be a priority during the upcoming term. Balancing the city budget will also be a challenge, they said.
"I've been through this process four years in a row," Zahni said. "I know exactly what the expectations are."
Campagnone last served on the council in 1998, Rahme in 2007.
Both challengers said recent news over the hiring practices in the police and fire departments gave them incentive to run for the council again.
The city has taken heat this year for appointing reserve police officers and reserve firefighters who ranked lower on the civil service list than other candidates who were bypassed. In at least some of those cases, those appointed were related to city officials.
"When the civil service debacle came to the forefront, that was a motivator for me," Rahme said, adding that several members on the council were "conspicuously silent on the matter."
"I just want to see that everyone's treated equally and the taxpayers are getting their dollars worth," Campagnone said. "It should be one set of rules for everybody."
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