Note: Village 14 has invited each candidate in next week’s special election to post a final guest column about their candidacy. This one is from John Oliver, who is running for City Council from Ward 1.
Thank you to the team at Village 14 for inviting all of the candidates for the opportunity to post as a Guest today.
My name is John Oliver, and I am running for the Ward 1 City Councilor-at-Large seat.
Throughout this campaign, I’ve had countless conversations with fellow Newton residents who share my passion for celebrating and enhancing what makes our city so great. I am running for City Council to represent all of us and focus on issues we care most about, that directly impact the quality of life right here in Newton. As we emerge from the COVID crisis, we must work together to help each other and local businesses recover from the pandemic and to make our beloved city even stronger.
My professional and personal background give me the tools to get the job done. I have 25 years experience as a change management consultant, working to successfully tackle difficult – and at times seemingly intractable – problems. I have been proud to give back to the city my family calls home: co-president of the Newton North PTSO (where my son is a freshman); former co-president of the Horace Mann PTO; serving as a board member at Newton Community Education, working with other parents to improve to our athletic fields, and volunteering as a youth soccer and baseball coach.
I have progressive values but I am not an idealogue. My approach to representing your voice on City Council will be practical and solutions-oriented. Here are the areas I will focus on:
City Services and Infrastructure
We need to improve the condition of our streets and sidewalks; renovate our Senior Center, Gath Pool, and multiple schools; upgrade our athletic fields; and preserve and enhance our open spaces These are issues that are central to our daily lives and with my experience in change management, I know how to help lead our city to get this work done.
Zoning
Rather than eliminating single family zoning, which is a divisive issue in our city (and which would increase teardowns and not create affordable housing), let’s fix the known problems in our zoning now, then see if there is broader support for additional changes beyond that. We need to increase the diversity of affordable housing (for both rental and ownership) as well as more diversity in types and sizes of housing. As your City Councilor, I will insist on more affordable units in market-rate developments.
Schools
As a parent and as your City Councilor, I will continue to advocate for our students and their families. Our school leadership must provide a safe environment for students, teachers, and faculty to build a strong community that supports and promotes our school system. This past year, our system fell well short of this mark, and has eroded confidence in the Newton Public Schools. I will work to rebuild that trust.
Policing
I believe in working with our police officers to improve public safety – our employees and the people who are on the front lines every day – and not in “defund the police.” I will carefully review the newly released recommendations of the Mayor’s task force to identify opportunities to improve public safety for everyone.
Climate Action Plan
We have a very strong climate action plan – now we must turn it into reality. I will bring my change management experience to help residents and local businesses adopt ‘green’ habits that are key to Newton reaching our goals
Finally, how we listen to and talk with one another matters. I pledge to promote productive discussions – not polarizing clashes – as we strive every day to do better.
I ask for your vote this week during Early Voting at City Hall, or Tuesday, March 16 on Election Day.
Thank you.
Looking forward to voting for John to represent ward 1!
Sounds great John, Good Luck and Thank you for running!
I think that in tone, temperament, and approach, John Oliver will bring back some of what we lost when Scott Lennon left the city council. I will enthusiastically be voting for him
John is completely correct in that we need productive discussions and people working together. There is too much talking past each other these days. There are too many people focused on their own agenda who are willing to divide people rather than bringing people together. It’s getting tiring. I like that John’s professional background involves listening and problem solving. He’s got my vote.
I am voting for John for a singular reason – schools. Newton’s unique mishandling of school reopening affected the “have-nots” and under privileged more than anyone.
Haves took their children to private schools, formed learning pods or doubled down on Mathenesium. Remote schools sent Women’s workforce progress back. And here in Newton, remote schools has shown to adversely affected BIPOC and less-privileged students more.
All candidates are for school reopening. The right question, however, is who will “fight” for public schools? Who will make it a priority? In my opinion, the answer is simple – from Ward 1 – John Oliver.
We all know how thankless the job as a PTO/ PTSO president can be. John is/was the PTSO co-president because of his commitment to public schools. John has volunteered to solve those “mundane” problems that affect our everyday experience – playable fields and facilities. And as a councilor, John will fight for appropriate school budgets and be our advocate with the SC.
Reopening schools is the mere beginning. C-19 highlighted that our High Schools are at capacity. At one point, we were seriously considering a hybrid model of 2 days in-person every 4 weeks, because of capacity. Pre Covid, we had classes at HS which were filled to the brim. John Oliver has outlined a thoughtful approach as we create new policies that may further exacerbate the HS capacity.
Finally, style matters! We are still a small city. John listens, engages, convinces, and gets convinced. I support John for bringing his thoughtful and collaborative approach to Newton City Council.
Vote for John Oliver!
@John Oliver. I included my positive thoughts about you in my comments on the post about Tarik, suffice it to say I fully endorse your statement and every comment and response above. It has been my pleasure to support both you and Tarik during this tumultuous campaign. My respect and admiration for both of you has only deepened as this campaign draws to a close.
And to Gail Spector. Nicely and fairly organized post. Thanks ever so much.
John,
Thank you for running. I do appreciate when people put themselves out there as candidates.
You say in this post that you have “progressive values.” Can you expand on what you mean there? You are running against a truly progressive candidate and you were a member of the Republican Party through the Obama and Trump administrations. How do you balance your self-described progressive values with the overly conservative Republican party through that period of time?
Thanks John, to you and all the others who chose to run. It has been a vibrant and informative campaign, and you’ve all given us clear choices. Thank you all for your contributions to our community.
Can someone elaborate about John Oliver’s history as a Republican? I’ve heard rumors but don’t know details and would like to know.
MMQT: he was outwardly living a normal life as a passable moderate Democrat, when he misplaced his phone and it was discovered loaded with email alerts from the Wall Street Journal as well as a background screen of Charlton Heston. We should really respect his privacy through this challenging time.