Longtime Newton resident, former executive director of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, Newton Sustainable Materials Management commissioner, co-founder of the Newton Halloween Window Painting Contest, and NPS parent Meryl Kessler has announced her run for city councilor at-large from Ward 3.
From her announcement:
I’m excited to announce that I’m running for Newton City Council. I want you to be among the first to hear this news, and I hope that I can count on your support in this important citywide race.
I’m running for a simple reason: To ensure that Newton continues to be a great place to live, work, and raise a family.
The last year has challenged us in ways previously unimaginable. It has also highlighted many of the issues we faced long before COVID-19. So, like many communities, we need immediate action not simply to build back, but rather to “build back better.” We must ensure that we are well positioned not only to recover in the short term, but to thrive well into the future.
I have the experience and skills to offer positive, forward-looking solutions to the pressing issues we face.
My family chose Newton as our home 26 years ago. Through my two decades as a community leader and volunteer, I have been fortunate to work with many thoughtful and dedicated Newton residents. I know how great our city can be, but I also understand the challenges we face.
As a lawyer and nonprofit leader—most recently as Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts—I’m a doer, a problem-solver, and a consensus-builder. I’ll use these skills to move our city forward.
My vision for Newton includes four priorities:
Recovery and Rebuilding
Fiscal Health and Transparency
Community Building
A Sustainable Future
You can read more about them on my website.
But just as important as my vision is your vision. A core value of my campaign is being a leader who listens—actively and respectfully. I will do my best to meet as many of you as possible—whether distantly in person or via Zoom—so that I can find out what’s on your minds.
And always please feel free to email or call me to share your ideas, questions, and reactions. I look forward to hearing from you.
If you’re able, please consider a donation to help my campaign start off strong.
If you’d like to volunteer, please join us by signing up here.
Please stay tuned for announcements of upcoming events. And thank you for joining me in this work.
I wonder if she will pledge to take no donations from developers.
Hmmm. So is she targeting Kelley or Wright because they are very different
Did she endorse Mr Barash during the last special election? That’s all I need to know to make my decision.
i.e. does she put Agenda above the needs of Newton Residents? Candidate’s can now say whatever they want to please voters but they have left a digital trail of their true intentions
Pride: TFW a Newton City Council candidate announces from Needham! This may be a historic first. Needhamites for Meryl!
Fun fact: if you follow that Cutler Park boardwalk down to the train tracks, look both ways and carefully tiptoe across the commuter rail bridge to Millennium Park, scurry up the embankment from VFW Parkway to Berwick Street, and then keep on going through the Arboretum, Fo’ Hills, Franklin Park, and Dorchester, then you can make Sullivan’s Castle Island in under 4 hours. I did it twice last week! They now have the freshest haddock in Boston, no joke.
But wait…is handsome Fido not on a leash? SMH. It’s because of Newtonites’ unleashed dogs that my canophobic wife refuses to walk through Cutler with me anymore.
@Claire She is targeting Wright because she is part of the “Developer Lobby”.
LOL. She makes her announcement, and already posters want to focus on is development. We certainly have tunnel vision on the forum!
From her experience, she sounds like a great candidate for city council. Glad we will have a contested election in Ward 3, always a positive.
Thanks for running Meryl! Look forward to the debates.
It seems unfortunate that she doesn’the mention education and regaining the confidence in Newton schools as one of her priorities. Although she is not running for school committee, every elected official should have it as one of their priorities.
@Fig
Meryl’s husband happens to be Scott Oran of Dinosaur Capital. https://www.dinosaurcap.com/team
Plenty of people are still upset about Austin St development. So it’s going to be a little difficult keeping development out of the conversation.
Simon,
Thank you for this disclosure, i hope it this will be a focus point (and not considered a smear)
Makes sense now …she endorsed mr Barash over having a more diverse council because luxury development is more important to her
@Fignewtonville,
Correct me if I am wrong but, isn’t her spouse Scott Oran a developer (Austin Street)? If so, it isn’t exactly much of stretch to make the connection to development. And since zoning design will surely come up as an issue, why isn’t this an appropriate topic as opposed to tunnel vision? If this is the only issue people are ultimately concerned with I would agree with you re: tunnel vision. But this seems rather an obvious point of inquiry.
@Simon-
Missed your post as I was writing. Thanks for confirming what I thought.
Just sent another donation to Wright.
Lisa and Simon:
I didn’t know who her husband happens to be. I don’t know the backstory of any of the spouses of our elected officials. Absent Scott Oran doing more business in front of the city council, I’m not sure why I care. I’m also not sure why this is what you would focus on, but perhaps I’m just being naïve.
She isn’t running as Meryl Kessler, wife of Scot Oran. I don’t know her at all, but from her launch post above, I like the League, I like the window painting, I like the focus on sustainability.
I also think the tunnel vision comment is clearly applicable. You didn’t focus on any of the actual items in her platform, or her experience. Just her spouse’s job. Maybe my marriage is different, but there is a LOT my spouse and I disagree on, and we certainly don’t always vote the same way. And my spouse would certainly tease you a bit if you made the assumption that I could convince said spouse to vote for someone or something, just because I support it.
Let’s hope the wider Newton community is a little more open to independent thinking between spouses…and little more willing to accept that a person’s worth as a political candidate is not tied to her spouse with marital knots. It’s 2021, not 1950.
Also, I don’t think Austin Street is the dirty word folks on this forum who opposed it think it is. I mean the construction period was hard, and the design of the building isn’t my favorite, but the patio in front is much loved now, folks love Cafe Nero, all of the doom and gloom about parking hasn’t come to pass, and the Newtonville Village Improvements are turning out great (if they ever pave the darn thing). I’m sure some folks hate it, but you can’t please everyone with any project.
As for who will fund her campaign, I keep telling folks this, developers don’t fund a significant percentage of Newton political campaigns. Looking at the recent lists, it is mostly grass roots driven. And no one, on any side, seems to be lacking for funds. And even if a candidate accepts a donation from a developer principal of a few hundred dollars, it actually means very little in politics from my experience. This isn’t the Northland special election.
Well, so it begins I guess. I’d like to find out more about Meryl before I vote for her, I’ve seen both Ward 3 folks on zooms so it will be a tough decision I think.
Fignewtonville,
Please, if her husband was the head of the NRA you’d be making sure people know
You just choosing to ignore the fact in her case. Its very relevant since we are overhauling zoning
I don’t know Ms. Kessler but I am happy to hear we’ll have a contested election. I look forward to learning more about her as the campaign proceeds.
@fignewtonville – My wife is always emphatic that she bears no responsibility for her husband’s actions.
Bugek:
I can honestly say I wouldn’t give a flying hoot. Absent a conflict issue involving her husband’s firm and business before the council, I wouldn’t care. Just because you seem unable to separate the two, doesn’t mean that I can’t. I have zero clue what anyone’s spouse does on the council. Zero. Never thought to inquire or ask, even when I’ve talked to many of them. Sometimes they’ve mentioned children occasionally. But for purposes of the council, I see no need to inquire regarding their personal lives.
But it seems clear what the focus of the opposition will be. Like I said, that’s a very 1950’s way of looking at marriage. She also seems to be a pretty strong candidate to me on her own record and accomplishments. To narrow that down to: (a) development bad and (b) her spouse is in development, so Meryl bad, well, that’s just silly in my book. And old fashioned, which is my mama’s way of saying half-ass backward.
Why don’t we just ask her what she thinks about zoning and large development and judge her on that? Instead of assuming her husband’s viewpoint will simply exit her mouth verbatim.
@fignewtonville I didn’t think you could actually be so naive. If a developer makes a phenomenal profit while building in this city, don’t you think his family will benefit from that?
Fignewtonville
Luckily we live in a democracy. If she wins, good for her.
We are simply asking for transparency. I hope people can bring up the potential conflict of interest ($$$) and not be accused of smearing/sexism. People can make up their own minds once the facts are laid out of the table.
Have we established whether she endorsed Barash?
Apparently , yes
She is listed under “resident endorsers”
https://www.bryanbarash.com/endorsements
@Fig-
When you take a position as either an elected official or a municipal employee, you are bound by state conflict of interest laws and you don’t have the luxury of saying that your spouse’s business interests are of no concern to you. The test relates to the appearance of a conflict notwithstanding the individual official’s best intentions. So in private discourse, by all means we are not bound by the views/actions/interests of our loved ones. But when one takes a position in the public domain as an elected official, those matters and business dealings of our spouses/family do become relevant. Disclosure: My husband was until retirement a career federal public defender who took his obligations so seriously that he would not even endorse local candidates for public office, nor engage in any electoral activity in any form.
Development is a top 3 issue in Newton. Yet her Website makes zero mention of development or housing. All (4) candidates from March had positions on development and housing. Candidates from the recent 4th district congressional race had their housing on their website – yet Ms. Kessler does not. Hmmm…
I’m going to respond to a few of the posts above in separate posts, because I think this “conflict” issue is misunderstood and there is a temptation to spread misinformation about it.
Lisa: You state:
“I didn’t think you could actually be so naive. If a developer makes a phenomenal profit while building in this city, don’t you think his family will benefit from that?”
A few points here Lisa.
1) I’m not so sure Austin Street produced a “phenomenal profit”. My recollection is that it had an extremely long development period, both land acquisition costs (the $1,000,000 Ground Lease) and ongoing parking requirements (the first floor parking lot which meters went to the city, a year long delay after the winning bid due to a frivolous lawsuit (and yes if your lawsuit gets dismissed that moniker qualifies), delays during construction, then a lengthy lease-up around the same time as Covid, and potential loss of commercial rent due to Covid. Couple that with increase affordable units (which I 100% agreed with), I would guess that Austin Street was not a home run, but perhaps a solid single, with much of that profit realized due to falling interest rates. Lots of folks assume “phenomenal profit”, but the deal had major requirements and setbacks, and some bad luck along the way.
2) I looked up Dinosaur Capital (the owner of Austin Street). They have projects all over New England. Austin Street is built. At this point they are basically a landlord in the city, absent a new project that would go before the city council. I don’t know of any decision that the city council could do at this point that would impact the already built building at Austin Street. And nothing on their website indicates that Dinosaur is contemplating additional projects in Newton.
So I’m not being naïve, not at all. If Dinosaur Capital does further projects in Newton, I’m sure Meryl would need to recuse herself from any votes on such matters (more on that later, in responding to the other Lisa). And Austin Street is a finished project. And again, Meryl is her own person and I’m sure can separate the personal from the professional, just like every other city councilor.
My recollection is that several city councilors over the years have owned businesses within the city directly. Some of those businesses clearly benefited from city involvement or decisions. There are conflict rules put in place by Massachusetts for municipal employees (including city councilors). There is a law department in City Hall for a reason. And this isn’t even that type of direct conflict, this is, at best, an indirect conflict by marriage, and there are rules for that as well.
So not naive, just have some knowledge about the law and the rules involved here, and also I refuse to criticize someone for being married to someone involved in real estate, before I even have the chance to hear her proposals on zoning and permitting.
Bugek, you state:
“Luckily we live in a democracy. If she wins, good for her.
We are simply asking for transparency. I hope people can bring up the potential conflict of interest ($$$) and not be accused of smearing/sexism. People can make up their own minds once the facts are laid out of the table.”
I agree 100% on the democracy part. We get to vote on her candidacy, and folks can judge for themselves.
As for your second comment, let’s be clear. No one is accusing Meryl of not being transparent. It certainly wasn’t a secret who she was married to (well, I didn’t know, but Jack and others clearly knew up front, so I’m guessing it was shared among a wide group of folks by now). So clearly nothing is being hidden here.
You mention “potential conflicts of interest ($$$)” and the hope that folks can bring those up without being smeared or accused of sexism. Here is where you lose me. If you identified an ACTUAL conflict of interest (such as Meryl’s husband has current business in front of the city, and Meryl wouldn’t commit to recuse herself), I’d agree that this would be a very necessary topic of conversation. But you haven’t. You’ve just made a vague insinuation of “potential” conflicts, without identifying any actual conflicts, EXCEPT the fact that Meryl’s husband a few years back was part of the ownership group that developer Austin Street. Again, that project is done. It has no current business in front of the city. If it did, Meryl should not vote on those issues. Absent that, your “potential” conflict is basically that Meryl’s husband is a real estate developer, and therefore Meryl has a inherent conflict because her marriage partner is a big bad developer who makes “$$$”. You hope not to be smeared or accused of sexism for pointing out this potential conflict, but it seems to be all you are doing is judging a candidate not based on their positions but based on her husband’s job, as if they are one and the same, or as if he speaks for her in a professional capacity. I’ll leave it to others to label that, but I did want to point out the difference between ACTUAL conflicts vs POTENTIAL conflicts that exist based on supposition and rumor, as well as point out the role of the city law department in making sure things are above board, and
Lisa Parlagreco:
2 quick things before I respond to your post.
1) Glad you are continuing to post here, and I hope you continue to do so.
2) A tip of the cap to your husband. Public defenders are the best of us, and deserve more kudos. Hard job, but they can make a real difference. I’ve known some great ones. May he enjoy his retirement.
Ok, with that out of the way, I’m going to comment on your post.
You state:
“@Fig-
When you take a position as either an elected official or a municipal employee, you are bound by state conflict of interest laws and you don’t have the luxury of saying that your spouse’s business interests are of no concern to you. The test relates to the appearance of a conflict notwithstanding the individual official’s best intentions. So in private discourse, by all means we are not bound by the views/actions/interests of our loved ones. But when one takes a position in the public domain as an elected official, those matters and business dealings of our spouses/family do become relevant. Disclosure: My husband was until retirement a career federal public defender who took his obligations so seriously that he would not even endorse local candidates for public office, nor engage in any electoral activity in any form.”
First of all, I agree with everything you state in the post, but you are not applying the law to fit the facts here, and that is very important. YES there are conflict of interest laws. YES what your spouse does can matter, YES the appearance of a conflict can matter. All that is true.
But without context, those above true statements can fuel a misinformation campaign, and I don’t want that to happen. Let’s look at the actual rules, and apply them to the facts at hand.
Here is a helpful link, provided by Massachusetts, to all municipal employees (there are required to read it annually and sign it annually as well I believe).
https://www.mass.gov/service-details/summary-of-the-conflict-of-interest-law-for-municipal-employees
It contains very useful examples of violations and no violation.
“Example where there is no violation: An appointed member of the town zoning advisory committee, which will review and recommend changes to the town’s by-laws with regard to a commercial district, is a partner at a company that owns commercial property in the district. Prior to participating in any committee discussions, the member files a disclosure with the zoning board of appeals that appointed him to his position, and that board gives him a written determination authorizing his participation, despite his company’s financial interest. There is no violation.
There is also an exemption for both appointed and elected employees where the employee’s task is to address a matter of general policy and the employee’s financial interest is shared with a substantial portion (generally 10% or more) of the town’s population, such as, for instance, a financial interest in real estate tax rates or municipal utility rates.”
Also:
“(f) Appearance of conflict. Acting in a manner that would make a reasonable person think you can be improperly influenced is prohibited. (See Section 23(b)(3))
A municipal employee may not act in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to think that she would show favor toward someone or that she can be improperly influenced. Section 23(b)(3) requires a municipal employee to consider whether her relationships and affiliations could prevent her from acting fairly and objectively when she performs her duties for a city or town. If she cannot be fair and objective because of a relationship or affiliation, she should not perform her duties. However, a municipal employee, whether elected or appointed, can avoid violating this provision by making a public disclosure of the facts. An appointed employee must make the disclosure in writing to his appointing official.
Example where there is no violation: A developer who is the cousin of the chair of the conservation commission has filed an application with the commission. A reasonable person could conclude that the chair might favor her cousin. The chair files a written disclosure with her appointing authority explaining her relationship with her cousin prior to the meeting at which the application will be considered. There is no violation of Sec. 23(b)(3).”
So the rules here are very clear. There are violations if Dinosaur Capital has direct business in front of the city, including Austin Street, and Meryl doesn’t disclose and recuse herself. Absent that, in situations involving more general real estate or land use issues, Meryl would need to disclose to the city that a relative has something of value within the city that could benefit potentially, and after disclosure the city law department would need to give advice regarding the conflict.
The rules are very clear here, both in terms of recusal and disclosure. And the City has folks to help with this, and I’m assuming it comes up a fair amount. And frankly it comes up in just talking to city councilors, many of whom volunteer on local boards and such and mention it often. This isn’t new, this isn’t difficult, this isn’t going to be a challenge if Meryl gets elected.
My objection here is that many folks (not you Lisa P) will throw around the term “conflict of interest” during the election, have no knowledge of the ethical rules here, no knowledge of the facts regarding Austin Street being a closed project, and use the rumor and innuendo to smear a candidate for city council. I encourage those folks to read the link I provided.
If all you have is Meryl is married to a developer, which is public knowledge and will be disclosed to the city, you don’t have any sort of ethical morass here, there are rules for any possible conflict that might occur, and there are no current conflicts absent new business before the council by a relative of Meryl. Zoning will affect every city councilor member in a monetary fashion, not just Meryl, unless they rent their home.
Effectively what folks on this thread are saying when they point out what Meryl’s husband does as if it is an important fact is that having a city councilor who is married to a developer who did a project in Newton is too close for comfort for them. Meryl is literally sleeping with the developer enemy. They just don’t want to come out and say it like that. So instead they will use words like “conflict of interest” as if the conflict exists. I disagree with that approach. And the law and the guidance from MA provide the actual ethical requirements here. Let’s not forget that.
We should judge our candidates based on their positions and their transparency. I’ll wait to hear the various candidates positions on all topics, and make a decision from there. I hope others do the same.
@Fig
I don’t think developers have values that I want representing the city. They have outsized profits based on successfully manipulating zoning laws to their advantage, while the City gets a lesser benefit in the way of policy objectives and tax revenue. As I wrote on the other thread, real estate development is one of the most profitable industries in our economy, and manipulating government is a core part of the business. While people may disagree with their spouses on issues, the ethics of their career choice is rarely one of them. Meryl Kessler does not share my values.
Re: sexism. I would feel no different if Scott was running for office and Meryl was running Dinosaur Capital. Unless you have some evidence that this has to do with gender, rather than simply marriage affiliation, please stop making this charge.
Can we please get away from the “All developers are evil” trope? It’s getting old. Seriously. Have any of you been to the seating area on Otis Street? It’s often packed with people (as much as possible during a pandemic). I’ve even seen people out there in the dead of winter, bundled up, having a birthday party. How did it happen? Well, a developer worked with the city to create a public space.
And you know the mural on the wall there? In case you don’t know about it, go ahead and read about it: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/23/metro/amid-pandemic-blank-wall-newtonville-blooms-with-public-art/.
Meryl is behind that. Oh, and so is developer money. How about the Greenway Arts project that I worked on along with the Upper Falls community? Developer money was behind that. You like your schools? Well, we can continue to pay for them if we have money… we can raise taxes, but that’s just not going to get us there. We’re going to need more development to pay for that. Tired of potholes? Same thing.
Stop with the “Newton vs. Developers” narrative. It’s tired, it’s old, it’s not true, and it’s really not helpful to anyone.
Pam represents the minority vote on the city council. Kessler would vote for unlimited development and zoning reform. There is a majority of councilors now on the city council to pass new laws to suit Ruthanne’s aggressive housing agenda.
Pam works tirelessly to outline the negative aspects of ZAP’s push to alter the quality of life in Newton.
@Figgy,
Your thoughtful post is why you are at the top of my favorites here. We may not always agree, but your posts are always very considered, informed and well stated.
L
@Alec, When you say all developers don’t share your values and are unethical, who are the people that have built all the houses in Newton?
Unless you built your house or apartment yourself, it was most likely built by a developer. I understand that you think they make too much money, but don’t go overboard.
Chuck,
Would the following developer be considered bad?
A private equity company with 7 billion in assets whose responsibility is to investors seeking the highest return on investment (or yield). Its primary source of income is 26,000 rental units it collects from renters who can never build equity.
It was in the news recently for maintaining a section 8 development in such disrepair that quote
“The lawsuit claims many former residents now have medical conditions related to their exposure to toxins in the apartments, including some who endured hospitalization.”
So, bad or not? Its Northland development
Lisa P.: Thank you, your post made my day during a very difficult week.
Regarding some other folks commenting about developers and shared values, I do want to acknowledge that I’m not blind to the fact that there are some awful developers out there. I have no intention of defending all “developers” because there are a bunch I would never want to defend. So when folks talk to me, on this forum or otherwise, and say, I hate developers because of a personal experience, or a development on their street that went sideways, or even when a developer follows the rules but doesn’t pause to at least listen to neighbor’s concerns about noise, or trash, or aesthetics, I get it. I’m sympathetic. And it is not my intention to minimize those feelings.
I also don’t think developers are a monolith. There are also some very good developers who do business in Newton and Boston. I know a lot of those as well. And yes, they all want to make money. So do I. So do most of you. And yes, they are often very frustrated with building in Newton, especially larger projects. I understand that as well.
To tie it back to this thread, I know very little about Dinosaur Capital, the folks who built Austin Street Apartments. And I’ve criticized some aspects of the project, as folks might remember. But the building was built to agreed upon specs, they won a beauty contest to build said building with some great folks judging the entries, they delivered some great commercial tenants (remember all the angst about banks and nail salons?), and the plaza and the art work look quite nice. I heard one of them speak at a Newtonville Area Council meeting, and there was nothing negative at all. And after prodding by the city council (thanks Amy S) they delivered a larger percentage of affordable units than any other project in Newton done recently. So even if you are going to criticize Meryl for being married to a developer, my personal view is that I’m not seeing anything negative here with this particular development company. I do realize the permitting process with Austin Street was hard and folks on both sides might still be bitter about it, but I’d like to think the vast majority of folks have moved on and will now judge the project, and the overall Newtonville improvements funded in part by the project, without demonizing the developer.
Anyway, I think I’m talked out about this particular subject. Have a great week all.
Bugek:
I believe this particular case was settled. It is an interesting article. I’m not defending Northland, just thought you might like to read the end result, and some of the facts.
https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Northland-settles-New-Haven-Church-Street-South-15110428.php
People are characterizing positions as pro-development vs no-development. It’s more complicated than that. Development is necessary. I would prefer city councilors that would stand up to developers to strike the best possible deal for the community. In this particular Ward, that’s Pam Wright. Unless somebody else steps that I trust, I am only voting for Ms. Wright to maximize her probability of staying on the city council.
I do know Meryl Kessler, and I think she will make a terrific City Councilor representing my ward. I’ve know Meryl and Scott Oran for almost 20 years. We first met when our daughters were in the same class in middle school and high school. We have kept in touch ever since.
Meryl is not just a past Executive Director of the League of Women Voters, she has also been involved in many community organizations that do great work right here in Newton. Currently, she is on the board of Newton Community Pride, supporting arts and culture in our community. As a director and officer of the Newton Cultural Alliance, which has spent the last 5 years converting the historic Nathaniel Allen House into a cultural and arts center in West Newton, I am looking forward to working with her and the other members of Pride to promote arts and culture in Newton.
The concerns expressed here about conflict of interest are overwrought. If elected, Meryl would have to recuse herself from any vote concerning a development in which Scott is involved. But that does not mean she is a rubber stamp for every development that comes before the City Council for a special permit.
It is disappointing that some of the comments here have resorted to gaslighting and fear mongering. I would like to think that Newton residents are better than that.
BTW, @fignewtonville, thank you for being the voice of reason.
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