TAB reporter Laura Lovett ask City Councillors Scott Lennon, Amy Sangiolo and Ruthanne Fuller “what sets them apart from their peers.”
Three mayoral candidates tell the TAB ‘what sets them apart’
by Greg Reibman | Jun 13, 2017 | Mayor's race, Newton | 8 comments
Nothing sets them apart from each other.
Of course some might consider that to be a good thing if one also feels that any of the three would make a good mayor.
How did this differ in the last mayor election? What was it that made Setti stand out from the others?
And most importantly, did Setti achieve any results from the positions he stood out against the others
@bugek: Setti Warren ran in a preliminary that included a sitting state representative, two sitting aldermen and a individual running as a strong fiscal conservative.
We have a few non-city councilors who have pulled papers for this year (and still time for others to run) but so far none of the non-electeds have been certified to be on the ballot (but there’s still time).
Some might consider the lack of diverse choice as a negative situation. All 3 advocate for more debt overrides which means no change in present spending policies. The school spending trajectory is not good for Newton. I compared Newton’s school budget spending with other MA’s cities comparable in size to Newton. Our expenditures are significantly more, close to 60 per cent. Other cities spend below 50 percent. The sad reality is that the city side of Newton’s budget receives 28 per cent which is down from 50 per cent in the 2000 year budget.
Colleen, which school districts did you compare Newton with? NPS has 13,000 students. I have been told that only Hartford, CT comes close to the size of our district. You may have looked at cities with comparable populations, @89,000 residents, but maybe those cities don’t have comparable numbers of students in the public schools.
We have three good candidates, but I also think that there are major differences between them. You just need to dig deeper than the Tab.
The are several reasons I support Ruthanne. I see in Ruthanne someone with CEO level experience who if she had made different life choices could easily have been CEO of a Fortune 100 company. Ruthanne is brilliant and digs deeper. She’s made progress on issues that most would never touch (our water infrastructure is a big one). Yet on top of her analytical skills she’s also very collaborative. She understands that we need to work together in order to move things forward and knows how to do this.
Newton has huge issues not even being discussed. Some are financial. There are others…how to maximize the potential of Newton Centre comes to mind. I can’t think of anyone better to address these issues and actually move them forward than Ruthanne. If she wins I’m completely confident that before long we will have a strategic vision for Newton that helps the city meet it’s vast potential with an actual plan to quickly move items these forward.
This is why I support her. I don’t see the same capabilities with the other candidates. I think it would be a shame for Newton to pass on the opportunity of having Ruthanne lead us for the next 4 years and beyond.
In speaking with various candidates and elected officials it seems that everyone shares a consistent long-term vision for the city. The difference is in the path for getting there and in their management styles.