Now that we’re well into 2021, I’ve been surprised that so little has been written about this year’s election for Mayor. I’m not always as well connected as are many of the regulars here, but I’ve personally heard very little about whether or not anyone will challenge Ruthanne Fuller?
It’s an interesting question. I’ve always been a big Ruthanne advocate. When she first ran for City Council I supported her saying that if I couldn’t be in the room myself when a decision was being made, she’s the one I’d want representing me. This is mostly still true. Our Mayor is incredibly smart, genuinely nice, and very well versed in our City’s financials going back to work she did as a volunteer before ever seeking elected office.
The question now is, how has she done as Mayor? There are some areas where I personally feel that she’s been very strong. I think that she’s done a lot to build professionalism among our City employees…the experience today if you have business with the City is usually much improved from what was there earlier. She’s done a fine job with Strategic/long range financial planning. I also think she’s been a strong advocate for Newton with the State across many areas; transportation and our response to the recent proposed MBTA cuts comes to mind.
However, I can’t give our Mayor straight As. In my opinion, she’s fallen dramatically short with respect to providing vision and leadership as our schools have dealt with the pandemic. This has been discussed elsewhere in Village 14 at length, but it’s a major disappointment for me. I think that she could have done much more to bring our School Administration and the NTA together, to question planning assumptions about the HS cohorts, and in setting visionary objectives that show we’re thinking ahead and not just reacting. I’ve also been disappointed with what I perceive as the absence of an integrated development plan for the entire City, vs. specific corridors like Washington St. I see the Mayor’s responses typically as reactive and not strategic. A specific example would be the back and forth over the location for a new Senior Center. At one point the Mayor suggested the Newton Centre parking lot. That depressed me. While I’m not a development geek, many in the past have pointed out how the parking lot could create huge opportunities for a transformational project in Newton Center. When the Mayor proposed it as a potential Senior Center site I realized that her planning was mostly piecemeal and without any strategy at all!
This brings me back to my original question, who might challenge Mayor Fuller? If no one else runs then our choice is easy. Four years ago, when the seat was open and the Mayor faced our then City Council President Scott Lennon she won by the slimmest of margins. In my view she’s vulnerable this year if a strong candidate steps up to challenge her. How do you feel the Mayor has done, and who would you like to see step up so that we have a choice?
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Newton does not have a good balance of people on the city council. The CC is hand picked by RuthAnne and there is not a sufficient number of councilors to oppose whatever vision she does push for the city’s housing development.
RuthAnne is quick to spend very large sums of money to hire consultants to support her point of view. She has speedily and arbitrarily made unilateral decisions which violate existing city ordinances. She has become very powerful with no accountability from the city council. Whatever she advocates for she has a majority of the council votes. As we look forward this is not a wise distribution of power. If she continues to be our mayor for 4 more years, I do believe the city must look closely at the imbalance of power which enables the mayor to rule autocratically and with little accountability.
I really hope Scott Lennon runs again. I think he would easily win. But there have been no indications that he is considering a run. I have nothing to go on this hunch, but I suspect Marc Laredo may be considering a run. He has been a strong voice and advocate for a more balanced approach to development. I would definitely support him.
When Ruthanne Fuller speaks I hear WahWahWah. When Marc speak he gets right to the heart of the matter
@Colleen Minaker – All of the city council is elected independently, not appointed, so she really has no control over that body other than potentially endorsing candidates. If you want a more diverse city council, vote for more diverse people and encourage other folks to run! You have the opportunity in March to vote for two seats and add some more diversity to the mix in both races.
I think any viable “outsider” candidate for mayor will have a huge advantage because they won’t have any baggage coming from the schools or the inconsistent COVID response, both of which haven’t been great. Voting to renew the superintendent’s contract this past summer (and the subsequent roller coaster ride parents, students, and teachers have been on since) will be a massive political albatross for Fuller and any other members of the school committee.
Imo, the only way an outsider wins at this point is if they run a populist grassroots campaign, which will likely be left/progressive: They are going to be starting in a fundraising hole. They would probably have to be younger <45.
A centrist, same-old candidate would get smushed like Ted vs Setti, who were both good candidates and people, but the race was never close.
Just my 2c.
Newton desperately needs new leadership. I hope someone throws their hat in the ring, soon, and I hope it’s a solid contender.
I have heard some potentials are looking at the race. A few strong candidates would include Paul Levy, Amy Sangiolo and David Kalis.
The acquisition of Webster Woods is a monumental achievement. I know all the candidates said in 2017 they would take the land by eminent domain if necessary, but I doubt the others would have actually followed through with it. Quite a contrast with Setti Warren for sure.
Mayor Fuller gets an F on the schools. Epic Failure of leadership. Other towns are now bringing students back full time. The HSs are all remote until minimal hybrid at the end of the month. There is no plan outlined for the Fall. Her lack of foresight and silence during the SC meetings spoke volumes. She was not up to the task. Her Unforgivable failure led to 12,000 students getting substantially less of an education than every peer district.
The way the schools have been handled in this crisis has been a complete fail. Mayor Fuller lacked a sense of urgency and leadership in this crisis. She stated she was just one member of the School Committee when she should have been stepping up saying what to do we need to do to get the kids back in school safely. As the Leader of our City, she had the opportunity to advocate that resources be put towards this effort and to demand accountability of the Superintendent and others. She should have using her position to apply pressure to get people working together towards a solution. Instead she sat back and let this mess happen, She missed the opportunity to get at the forefront of the hvac safety issues, it wasn’t until the City Council put pressure on the School Committee that Josh Morse got involved in September and approached the project in an efficient manner. In the meantime much fear was allowed to percolate. She has refused the help of medical and building safety experts who have offered their help since July. She rebuffed Dr Walensky’s help saying she was consulting some unnamed expert. She could have put together this medical panel who are tops in their fields but she resisted. People could have felt confident about the decisions made based on this expertise. They could have been educating the public making the public feel some weight is behind these decisions but instead she let fear prevail. There are divisions in our city among parents, students,teachers and general citizens of Newton, that could have been avoided or at least minimized. I’ve watched countless hours of School Committee and City Council meetings as well as talked to the Mayor herself. The last program and Services meeting showed that there is no ownership and no coordination among stakeholders on this issues. It would make a perfect case study on what not to do in managing a crisis from a leadership and planning perspective. Everyone saying not me. No apparent metrics for making decisions or apparent decision makers. It is sad how much our kids have been failed. I know the every day citizen doesn’t have the time to watch all these meeting but they are eye opening and disappointing. And some may say that for the greater good the kids shouldn’t be in school. That a year isn’t a big deal well unfortunately this crisis is going to have a long term effect on these students academically and from a mental health perspective. It’s disappointing that all stops weren’t pulled out to find SAFE ways to get them back in school because it was possible
I looked forward to some candidates to step forward and run against the Mayor.
She did handle one aspect of the pandemic pretty well:
She made sure large real estate developers could continue housing construction in Newton all throughout Covid. Education of students was a distant second…
Has the Mayor gone too far in giving Newton away to developers thereby creating an opening for a more moderate challenger? Who knows…
Don’t have much to add to the above. The mayor has been a total failure on schools. My family moved to Newton, with its expensive housing and real estate taxes, for the schools, simple and plain. The social contract has been broken.
I will be voting against her and look forward to a credible challenger. Never felt so energized to vote in a municipal election before!
I just want to jump in to ask for your ideas as to who might be a credible challenger? I hear the passion. Some of it I agree with and share. But I don’t think that our City is of one mind. Mayor Fuller still has many supporters across different constituencies. How much her response to the schools during the pandemic will affect voters is a big unknown. I certainly agree that the impact will be significant and that Mayor Fuller has lost many supporters (or that many of her supporters will be open to someone new if this person is an attractive candidate).
Are there elected officials, local or state, that would excite you? Are there others without a political record but with a strong background? For example we elected Setti Warren, a Newton native with strong roots and other good prior experience, but not as an elected official.
If we thought out of the box, who would we want to see take on Newton’s many challenges?
@Michael Slater – Someone with a strong business background not necessarily an elected official could mount a serious challenge. Two names I hear mentioned are Rob Gifford and Paul Levy. Other names I hear are Marc Laredo, Scott Lennon, and Amy Sangiolo. One thing is for sure Newton is not short on talent!
I am hoping that someone steps forward soon to challenge Mayor Fuller.
I feel that she listens and then does what she wants. I do not have a clear sense of a plan for all 13 village centers. I do not feel that all 13 village centers are treated equally. I think we need a Mayor that is down to earth and represents all the people of Newton. There is so much division in the city right now and it makes me concerned. Zoning is temporarily off the table for 2021 – this is simply a delay.
The one thing that I think Mayor Fuller is really good at is communication.
Mike, this discussion hits home for me. I ran for Mayor against Mayor Cohen for the exact same reasons, he was way too reactionary. The more I look at the covid response from the city, the more I feel disappointed. You all have to understand, it was a unique situation. I am disappointed that she didnt create an advisory committee….how in the world is it not the first thing that our elected officials dont do….how do the CC not draft a resolution to have one until now. I don’t know. Thios issue really lets me down.
Paul Levy, please.
Has diverse management chops and cares about the City. His track record far surpasses Fuller’s.
Mayor Fuller had unforced errors like the Senior Center before COVID, and her response to COVID has been disqualifying for a second term, IMO.
I have a name for you if you’re really interested in finding someone to run for Mayor….what about asking Mike Striar. He has a decent name recognition for a non-elected official. he self funded his campaign 15 years ago, I obviously dont know what his current finances are, but maybe he would consider doing it again, his family went through the newton family schools…he checks off a lot of boxes for people on here.
Anyone but Ruth!
Many thanks to Alec and Peter for the vote of confidence, but I’m otherwise occupied with a School Committee race on behalf of my rising kindergartener and several thousand other school children!
https://village14.com/2021/01/19/paul-levy-announces-campaign-for-ward-6-school-committee-seat/
Paul
Paul Levy would make an excellent Mayor. He has experience in both the public and private sectors and is visionary. Also, as Mayor he will be an ex officio member of the School Committee. His skill set would serve Newton well.
Has Michael Halle ever considered a run? I always appreciate his reasonable and nuanced approaches to things.
I could get on that bandwagon, MMQC!
Big Amy fan!!!!