After ten years serving as the Ward 5 city councilor, John Rice has decided not to seek another term. He will keep his job as executive director of the Hyde Community Center.
In Councilor Rice’s words:
“Some people think this will mean I will be leaving the Hyde Community Center which is not the case.The Hyde is a community development nonprofit that I hope I can serve as Executive Director for many years to come.
Beside running the Hyde and being on city council not many people know I have a full time business development job for the largest trade show industry website and I travel to trade show convention centers around the US throughout the year.
In summary I ran for office in 2009 on a campaign to build community in the three villages in Ward 5 and Newton Highlands, Upper Falls and Waban all have Area Councils now and have their own Village Day celebrations. I also ran on upgrading Ward 5’s infrastructure and I was fortunate to be the ward councilor and on the building committees for Angier and Zervas and the complete renovation of Newton Highlands Playground. So it is time for me to move on from City Council but I will stay active in community building activities in Newton.”
We’ll miss him. A lot.
Thank you John for your years of service on the City Council! You will, as you always have, continue to contribute to to the community.
John has been a wonderful mentor and I greatly appreciate his efforts to show me the ropes! He will be missed!
John Rice is the quintessential Ward Councilor/Alderman and the archetype of that most local kind of representation that prompted me to join the fight against the City Charter Commission’s recommendation that Ward Councilors (elected only by a single Ward’s residents) be eliminated from the City Council. John has been laser-focused on the health of Ward 5 and the awakening of the political hearts of its Villages. He has shared his expertise through facilitating the formation of the Upper Falls and Waban Neighborhood Area Councils and the growth of the Newton Highlands Council so that Ward 5 now has wonderful local neighborhood connectedness. He devotes time and personality to all three Villages, attending most of the three Area Council’s monthly meetings where he listens and guides and connects residents with City resources. As the current President of Waban Common, Incorporated, a new non-profit dedicated to improving the new public open space across from Angier, I have personally watched him as he has gone above and beyond in attempting to move the slowly turning wheels at City Hall. He is involved, interested and always effective. Thank goodness he still has another year and a half to serve. Whoever walks in his shoes will have to stand tall!
Did I mention that he always has a smile on his face?
John is one of the good ones.
John, while I’ll miss seeing you on the council, I’m confident we’ll see you plenty on the public side of the rail. So it’s not goodbye, but see you soon. Keep up the great work at the Hyde and everywhere else you touch the community.
I love this guy! Class act. Great friend. Glad to be able to work with him for another 18 months! I will still see him at the Hyde Center for years to come. We have all been fortunate to work with John. I thank him for his service and for his attention to Newton and its citizenry.
John is a stellar city councilor and has certainly achieved his goal of building community in Ward 5. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know John through my time on the Waban Area Council. He has always taken the initiative to engage the community on issues of importance (like traffic planning at Angier and Zervas), and has always been thoughtfully responsive to resident concerns, no matter how small. He’s also shown great patience in answering my many questions about how City Hall works! I’ll miss working with him!
As a lifelong Ward 5 resident, I want to thank John Rice for his incredible service over the past 9 years and in advance for the coming remainder of his final term. I appreciated his responsiveness on a number of everyday nitty-gritty constituent service issues like sidewalk plow routes, as well as his key votes on some big-ticket items before the City Council in the past decade, too. I also really appreciated his support for me when I ran for Governor’s Council in 2016. I met with John early this morning, and he shared with me his thoughts about the big changes for the better that have happened in Upper Falls, Waban, and Newton Highlands over the past decade, as well as what needs to happen next.
While he will be leaving big shoes to fill, as he and I discussed, I am planning to file to run for John’s Ward 5 seat in next year’s city elections. It may seem like a long way off right now, but I think everyone in our ward deserves the opportunity to meet potential candidates for their next representative, and it will take some time to get to everyone, even in a single ward. I have been gratified by the number of people who have asked me to run for the seat already and thrown their support behind my vision of a community that welcomes everyone, especially to our vibrant village centers. I will have much more to say about my plans in the months ahead, but for today I’m just applauding John’s dedication and tirelessness to building up our three villages – and I’m figuring out what needs to be done to ensure that the torch is passed smoothly next year so that our entire ward continues to have incredible constituent services and a reliable vote for progress on the City Council.
I’ve been very impressed with John Rice and how thoughtful and responsive he is. He also runs a tight ship at the Programs & Services Committee. Newton has been fortunate to have his services all these years.
One day, years ago, we were sitting at home in a heavy thunderstorm. There was a crash, and the lights went out. 20 seconds later there was a knock at the door. It was John of course, saying, “hey, I think a tree just came down on the wires to your house.”
John’s been a great friend, mentor, and representative, and I’ll look forward to working with him in however he chooses to involve himself next.
Thank you, John, for all that you have done for this City. Glad that you will still be at the Hyde Center, though. You are one of Newton’s best!
Among the many things I love about John was how he organized an appreciation day for Rodney Barker at the Congregational Church a year ago spring, just a few month’s before Rodney passed away. Rodney’s health was getting worse almost by the day and John rushed to get everything in place so he would be able to attend and participate in the festivities. John, you will never know how much that day meant to Rodney and to all his friends including me and you.
John Rice is a mensch.
Always cheerfully ready to help in anyway possible and will outwork anyone.
Holding essentially three jobs, I’m convinced he doesn’t sleep. More like Ward Energy Bunny than Councilor!
They broke the mold when John was elected in 2009 and it will be hard for anyone to fill his shoes.
A giant loss for the Council. I had the great fortune of working closely with John for 8 years. He is the absolute epitome of a true public servant. He got more things done than I could possibly list, and never cared whether or not he got credit for them.
Terry is absolutely right about the high bar he has set. I think I would rather follow The Beatles on Ed Sullivan than be the next Councilor from Ward 5!
John will be a very hard act to follow.
He is a class act. I can think of no
contemporary city councilor/alderman
that has accomplished as much as he has during his time in office. He has a great attitude, isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and has never been a bomb thrower. His institutional knowledge, long residency in the city and ability to listen and network have made him an extremely effective public servant. His focus is on action, not dithering. John’s handiwork can be seen not only in ward 5, but throughout the city. The Newton Highlands Playground/fields would never have even completed, much less
started had it not been for John.
I’ve been a royal PITA to you over the years John, but I will always be grateful for your service and your kind demeanor.
Thank you!
The most amazing thing about John is that not only does he get a phenomenal amount accomplished, he always makes it look easy, and he’s always so pleasant while doing it. He may not be on the council next term but I have no doubt that he will still be one of the city’s most prolific do’ers. He’s an inspiration and an ideal. Thanks for it all John.
John,
You will be missed. You call residents back promptly and help them with their city concern. Who ever takes over, has some very large shoes to fill.
Thank you for your service to the City as an alderman. And good luck with the Hyde.
So sorry to hear this. Of course I’ve only had the pleasure to work with Councilor Rice for a short time but, I am inspired by his pleasant and gentle way of running a meeting while getting a lot accomplished. As a new member of the council he is one of the councilors that I look to as a role model. Happy to serve with him on the council for the remainder of his term.
Nicely done, John.
John Rice is the “go to” person on the Council. He is effective, knows how to get things done, and certainly embodies “community” in everything he does. So John, get some rest because I’ve got a lot of projects lined up for you!!
As one of John’s constituents, I’ve always appreciated his responsiveness. Best wishes on your “retirement,” John!
John Rice has been outstanding both as a
Ward Councilor and as a Committee Chair.
His success in helping the residents of Upper Falls and Waban to establish active Neighborhood Area Councils will resonate in the Ward for the forseable future just as his partnership of the Hyde Community Center with the Newton Highlands Neighborhood Area Council has been a model for other villages.
As Chair of the Programs and Services Committee, he has had the dubious honor of Chairing Public Hearings and deliberations on most of the most divisive issues before the Counci. He hss handled
these difficult duties with fairness, decisiveness, and good humor. Ward Five in particular and the city in general have benefited great;u from John’s service.