People are Policy

People are Policy

Question: I think there’s something that you haven’t mentioned, and that’s the unintended positive consequences of encouraging volunteerism. Recently, a publication cited Gartner as being the kindest city in Massachusetts, number 96 in the country. Part of it’s because you focused on people.

Answer: Well, yeah, people are policy. I’ve said that from the start. That’s a tagline I took from my internship I had with former Governor Baker and former Lieutenant Governor Polito. And that was actually the theme of their going away, get together that they had after they left office, was that people are policy is the main foundation that you have to have when you’re in here. Every decision you make, every proposal you put forward, every thought that you have when you’re sitting in these chairs in City Hall has a person aspect to it behind it. Even if it’s something as simple as selling Helen Mae Sauter, and I’ll use that as an example, because that’s something we just talked about, there are people who live in the neighborhood who want to know that the building is not going to fall in, that any proposed uses of the property are not going to be a detriment to the neighborhood. There are people who are waiting for housing opportunities, that if a housing opportunity goes in there, that maybe that’s somewhere that they could live. There are people that are looking for employment opportunities, that if a business goes in there or there’s office space in there, maybe that’s where they’ll work. And you have to look at all of those things from a people perspective, and that’s how you’re successful on the job.

Putting Constituents First – How that was Proven right in front of us during the interview

Question: Now, the last five years, there have been

Answer: Werner, Can we take one quick timeout? I’m just going to deal with the situation up here.

Question: Sure.

Answer: If I remember where I put it. Yeah, I didn’t remember that. Sorry about that.

Question: Oh, that’s okay.

Constituent: How are you doing?

Answer: Sorry about that. I was looking for a letter.

Question: Oh, that’s all right. Let’s see. That’s quite all right. All right.

Question: So, just a note for the public, we’re in the process of doing this interview. And guess who is more important, a constituent. So, without revealing any confidences, the constituent was looking for some information that was important to that constituent.

Answer: Yeah. Yes, there was a constituent that just came in. Thank you for taking the break in the interview. I just need to make sure that the constituent got the information that was there. And it was just a quick in and out, but it’s one of those, you know, someone takes the time to come into the office. We want to make sure that we take care of them.

Question: And that’s the norm here.

Answer: Yeah.

Question: So, sometimes you hear crazy stuff on social media about not paying attention to constituents or some of that nonsense. But I just saw it firsthand how it was more important for you to get that letter out. I mean, that could have waited.

Answer: Yeah.

Question: But that was more important because that’s who you serve.

Answer: Yeah.

Question: You don’t serve the media. You serve the public.

Answer:Yeah.

Question: So, that just is very telling right there for those who are paying attention.