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As the snap shots below show,
I was an active and effective City Council President and City
Councilor for ten years. I was fair and honest, and tried to
bring reason to the Council floor. I was a stand up Councilor,
who accepted responsibility for my decisions and fought opposition
appropriately. I was also innovative, always pushing to take
Haverhill to the next level. I was compassionate for all of Haverhill's
citizens as I tried to base my votes and support on the solutions
that were the best for the City as a whole.
- Challenged
all Haverhill Mayors to professionally manage the City and to
be fiscally responsible
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- Only elected official
to anticipate financial crisis and take immediate action:
voted against the Fiscal Year 2002 Budget because it ignored
the budget crisis and postponed the deep cuts needed
to offset the huge debt incurred by the Hale, which amounts
to approximately $7M for each of the next 22 years. The FY 2002
budget increased the likelihood and extent of future city worker
layoffs by failing to hold the line on spending.
- What I said during
FY 2002 budget review: [
click ]
- What happened after
FY 2002 budget review: [
click ]
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- During my tenure on the City
Council, I made specific proposals [ Link
to Budgetary Projections Proposal Adobe® PDF File Format ] and lobbied city officials to professionalize
the City's budgeting, financial management and business practices
by introducing performance management, zero-based budgeting,
multi-year budgetary and financial planning, and 5-year capital
improvement planning. I proposed to start restructuring the
City long before our financial nightmare surfaced, which
would have enabled a more gradual impact on city services and
job losses.
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- I worked with Mayor Guerin,
a Citizens' Focus Group that I organized and the City Council's
Administration and Finance Committee, that I led as Chairperson,
to begin to establish long range planning as an integral part
of the City's budgeting and decision-making process. Mayor
Guerin's 2004 budget broke new ground in addressing long term
city needs, by offering The City Council choices for re-structuring,
such as combining Water and Wastewater with Public Works Department,
as well as combining City and School Departments such as Finance
and HR. These re-structuring actions have only recently
been addressed.
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- As President of the City Council,
I continued to push for further advances in long range
planning despite its decreased emphasis by the current
administration.
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- Strong supporter
of public education for our youth:
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- Founded Danny's Friends Mentoring
Program for Haverhill's youth in 1994, which provided volunteer
mentors and homework help to students for over a decade
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- Won a $180K grant from the Federal government to support
mentoring and tutoring;
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- In my 2003 re-election bid for
City Council , I donated all of my campaign funds raised
(approximately $6000) to Danny's Friends Mentoring program;
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- Teamed with Community Action
Inc. to win a $25K Bell-Atlantic grant to provide low-cost
computer Internet access for Haverhill students.
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- Led fight for funding
to achieve Haverhill High School
Accreditation
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- I lobbied extensively
for fixing the HHS facility to provide a healthy learning environment
and to meet accreditation standards. On the Council floor,
I pushed and voted in favor of the $29.5M bond to fix
the HHS facility within the budget, despite the high risk, because
there is no alterative to a sound education for our kids. The
$29.5M bond was approved by Mayor Guerin and City Council
and accreditation was maintained;
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- Mentored at Consentino Middle School;
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- Led business idea contest
to challenge Haverhill students.
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- Strong leader
for an Up-to-Date and Lasting Infrastructure
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- Advocate for many citizen and business
traffic and safety
issues, including traffic light enhancements, new and upgraded
sidewalks, reconfiguration of downtown parking spaces, new street
lights and new traffic signs;
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- Lobbied for long term capital improvements program
to identify major repairs;
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- Initiated effort to address water pressure/volume
deficiencies in rural areas - led to installation of new
infrastructure;
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- Member of the Nettle School
Rehabilitation Building Committee - completed renovation on-time
and within cost;
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- Staunch advocate of repairing school buildings
- pushed hard especially for Hunking and HHS roof replacements.
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- Supported
strong public safety departments to keep citizens safe
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- Voted for additional police
and fortified fire protection when feasible;
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- Supported funding for
new Police Station including the integrated police
and fire dispatch;
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- Strong supporter of Community
Policing;
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- Joined Citizens Against Substance
Abuse (CASA);
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- Danny's Friends Mentoring Program
- helped to keep kids off the streets.
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- Led City
Council in economic development:
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- As Council President in 2004,
I proposed a specific plan to business community and elected
officials for City to attract bio-tech manufacturing companies
by partnering with bio-tech research and development companies
in Cambridge and Boston
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- Haverhill could offer the skilled
work force and lower cost of doing business;
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- Senator Baddour arranged meeting between City
and Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and Bio-tech
officials
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- Present administration declined
to participate;
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- As City Council President, I
led essential Council efforts to provide permits and zoning
to support new residential development in downtown.
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- While cautioning that
a broader plan was needed in the downtown, to include
a commercial mix, for it to flourish;
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- As City Council President, I
led Council efforts to re-zone our industrial parks to
allow for non-manufacturing companies, such as Whittier Re-Hab
expansion, to locate in parks;
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- As City Council President, I
helped to facilitate sewer line to
Hilldale Industrial Park to enhance prospects for businesses
to locate there;
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- Spearheaded the City's downtown
Cyber-District economic development pilot - it was the only
plan for downtown in 1990s and was intended to be one
piece of the puzzle for the downtown:
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- Worked with MVA.net and Verizon
to install the first fiber optic infrastructure in the
downtown;
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- Helped to attract/retain
at least 20 technology companies before the .com bubble
burst. About a half-dozen "core" companies remain their
today;
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- Worked with industry and the
State of Massachusetts to study the business impact to the downtown
of using hydrogen fuel-cell technology to augment electricity
in the downtown. Hydrogen-fuel technology, used most notably
in electric cars and data centers, has the potential to be a
business draw and decrease dependency on foreign oil;
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- Won a $10K technology
grant from Verizon;
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- Worked with task force members
to introduce e-commerce to traditional businesses, such
as Haverhill Beef;
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- Developed and implemented a
free "pilot" electronic coupon program on the
Haverhill community portal (www.HaverhillUSA.com) during the
2002 holiday season for Haverhill businesses. About 37 businesses
participated (including our current Mayor's law office) in this
effort to introduce electronic commerce to retail businesses
and to help integrate many different types of businesses in Haverhill's
downtown.
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