To Belmont Voters: 'I Have That Experience'

Belmont needs Selectmen with the experience to manage our affairs and lead us through changing times without sacrificing what we value most.

I have that experience.

• Town-wide elected office: as a member of the School Committee, I understand what it means to be accountable to the public, to manage public money, and to oversee a strong administrator. 

• Collective bargaining: I’ve helped negotiate labor agreements that are both affordable for the town and fair to our employees.

• Hiring: I’ve helped hire Executive Directors, high-level personnel, and our successful interim Superintendent.

• Regionalization: I’ve helped restructure and consolidate regional systems for clients, and can do the same for Belmont.

• Solving problems: For 30 years I’ve solved complex problems for complex organizations. I’m open-minded about solutions that include regionalization, restructuring, additional revenue and innovation.

• Leadership: Board service has taught me respectful, consensus-building leadership. By finding common interests we find effective solutions.

• Practicality: In 30 years of technology consulting, I’ve developed pragmatic and sustainable approaches that create efficiencies and improve services.

• Constituent service: I insure that issues important to voters get addressed.  I’ll work for development that adds to our tax base while preserving our small-town feel, and also to fix our roads and sidewalks.

My priorities are:

Finances: I’ll promote realistic multi-year financial plans to control costs, choose capital projects carefully, and give taxpayers clear choices between losing services and adding revenues.  I’ll also support efforts to consolidate or regionalize services whenever doing so improves quality or saves money. 

Leadership: We need a forward-looking Town Administrator to manage town government, and I’ll use my experience hiring and managing executives to help get the most out of a top-notch leader for Belmont.

Balanced Development: I’ll do everything in my power to keep Belmont a walkable community where families live for generations while enjoying open space, public transportation, access to useful businesses, safe neighborhoods, and excellent schools. I’ll press our planners to revisit Belmont’s overlay provisions, and insure that new development meets the needs of our residents while yielding much-needed tax revenue. I’ll work with the state and neighboring communities to preserve rather than develop the ecologically sensitive Belmont Uplands site.

Managing Change: Town government will be forced to change in years to come by financial pressures and the demands of an interconnected society. We’ll have to make hard choices, use new technologies, and deliver services via consolidated and regionalized operations. I’ll apply nearly 30 years of experience helping organizations change for the better to insure that Belmont never loses its special character.

Belmont is unique; a walkable community with open space, public transportation, safe quiet neighborhoods, great schools, and a diverse, multigenerational population. These qualities will continue to make our town desirable and successful. In preserving and strengthening them we will retain our shared values and our shared future. Despite the problems that face us, Belmont’s best days are ahead. 

Please help me become Belmont’s next Selectman by giving me your vote on Monday, April 2.