Rich Adduci leans back in his seat, and points over his shoulder at the sign posted outside of French Press Bakery and Café. It’s one of the seemingly ubiquitous “Not our vision” signs, posted throughout Needham Center, showing the opposition of many local businesses to the Envision Needham Center project.
“Those signs, seeing them all over Needham Center, that was a motivator for me,” Adduci said, explaining why he decided to run for Select Board.
Adduci moved to Needham from Westborough in late 2023, and just as he and his wife, Beth, were getting settled, the tumult over the MBTA Communities Act began. Adduci came to support the referendum to overturn the more aggressive Neighborhood Plan, feeling that town leadership had acted without considering the way the majority of Needham residents really felt.
Then, when the controversy over the Envision plan to potentially change parking and traffic patterns in Needham Center bubbled up last year, Adduci thought he saw the same process playing out, spurred on by many of the same leaders, with little possibility for change. He realized there was a town election coming up April 14, and saw that only Bill Dermody and Cathy Dowd had announced plans to run ﹘ two candidates for two open seats, two longtime town residents, both active in the current town government, no one who could realistically be considered an “outsider.”
“I thought, well, that means more of the same,” Adduci said. “That means no change. And I honestly thought to myself, what do you want to do? You know, do you want to get up and explore running, or do you just want to let it go?”
He called the Town Clerk’s office, learned about the requirement to submit signatures to become a candidate, and within hours he was outside Trader Joe’s in Needham Heights, talking to potential voters. What he heard made him feel his candidacy was filling a need.
“Overwhelmingly, I hear from people they want change,” Adduci said. “They want different on Select Board, and that’s me. If folks want more of the same – four-to-one votes, referendums, petitions, lawn signs ﹘ they shouldn’t vote for me. I’m the wrong guy. If they don’t want somebody to be direct and transparent, again, I’m the wrong guy. That’s who I am.”
Adduci, 59, works in information technology, and the Chicago-area native came to Boston in 2006 to work as chief information officer at Boston Scientific. In 2018, he went out on his own, founding Esito LLC, a cybersecurity company that works primarily with private equity funds. After their two children left the house, he and Beth moved to Coolidge Avenue in Needham, looking for a community with a vibrant downtown and a lively feel. They found it in Needham, but they also found a uniformity in town government that put them off. Adduci describes himself as “a registered independent, fiscally conservative who is socially liberal,” and who believes he could offer a new voice on the Select Board. At the moment, many votes on the Select Board are 4-1, with Josh Levy voting against the majority.
“It’s always voting four to one, the same four people together against one,” he said, adding that he would expect to change that and vote with Levy on many issues, while maintaining independence. “I’m my own person. I’m here to represent the community, and whatever that means. So if the community’s perspective isn’t aligned with Josh, then I won’t align with Josh.”
The Envision situation is part of what motivated Adduci to run, and is clearly one of his major campaign points. Keeping costs down on the Pollard Middle School project is also key to him; with costs to rebuild Pollard estimated at $336 million, he wonders if there are ways to keep costs down.
“I think we should really look at the Pollard project. No doubt it needs to be done. But are there ways we can do it more cost-effectively, so that taxpayers keep more of their money?”
He also said he is upset about the treatment of seniors at the Stephen Palmer residential property, which will be returned to town control in early 2027, and likely converted to another use ﹘ but seniors living at the building will need to vacate their apartments at least six months before that, which Adduci considers unfair and tragic.
“The only regret, the biggest regret, I have about Stephen Palmer is I didn’t know about it sooner,” Adduci said. “I couldn’t go to a select board and complain about it. I was blind to it. I didn’t know about it. I didn’t see it anywhere. And I regret that, because I feel strongly that what we’re doing is not right.”
That, he says, is where an outsider like him matters. He can offer a fresh view on issues, and introduce a new perspective in a town where, in his mind, too much of the town government speaks in the same voice.
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