Precinct: 8
Tell us a little about yourself. You can include your personal background, family, outside interests that are important to who you are as a person and a candidate.
As a long time resident of Lexington, I, along with my wife, two daughters and five grandchildren have been actively involved in many aspect of local life, including church, school, town government, and community groups. I worked for a local company, Global Insight, which became part of IHS Market and more recently S&P Global. My education background in economics included the University of Wisconsin, Boston College and teaching at Northeastern University. My career included significant international experience with service in the U.S. Army in West Germany, a lengthy business assignment in Toronto, Canada and numerous consulting engagements in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia. I learned Spanish by taking many courses in LCE and traveling.
Currently I am in Town Meeting, on the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Water Sewer Abatement Board. I volunteer for the Genesis Battle Green Run and Lexington Goes Purple as a board member. Three of my grandchildren attend Lexington schools, Estabrook, Diamond and LHS. In my spare time I enjoy golf, bridge and softball, and my wife and I engage in sports, swimming, skiing and long walks around Lexington.
How has your past experience — whether in your professional life, elected office, or as a community leader — prepared you for a role in Town Meeting?
I have consulted with numerous governments at the federal, state and international levels, on economic and energy issues and have testified as an expert witness in regulatory affairs. Much of my consulting activity involved studies of the economic, energy and environmental impacts of proposed policies and regulations. In Town Meeting I have paid particularly attention to zoning issues for which Town Meeting often has the final say. As a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals for over 10 years, I know quite well how zoning regulations are applied.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
Local housing development is a major responsibility of town government both to maintain Lexington as a beautiful example of a traditional New England town and to meet goals for affordable housing. It is imperative that Lexington make progress on affordable housing every year, particularly by having developers provide a portion of new construction. The State requires each town to have 10% of its housing stock or more as affordable or local zoning can be overridden under state law 40B regulations. Past experience with 40B proposals shows the possibility of enormous town change if we do not maintain compliance. It has been a lengthy struggle to get to compliance, mostly through credits from developments that meet the 25% threshold of affordable units that allows Lexington to count all of the units. For example a development with 20 units total and 5 provided as affordable would count as 20 towards the Lexington goal.
Recent zoning changes have added accelerated avenues for development of affordable housing. Town Meeting has the task of helping to guide developments to mitigate massing of units in any one area of town, to require high quality, energy efficient units and to meet our obligations for affordable housing. Note that the cost to the town of construction of or acquiring an affordable housing unit to meet our requirement can exceed $1 million while units that a developer provides may be similarly costly but are paid for by the developer not the town. There is a huge shortage of affordable housing for disabled persons which the town can help address. Also the types of housing developed via zoning along with energy efficiency regulations are a most important part of meeting Lexington’s climate goals.
The way Town Meeting develops consensus and support for new policies is very important as Lexington faces challenges for addressing environmental and societal issues under economic constraints.
My work experience focused on assembling and presenting the factual information necessary for informed decision making. Getting everyone unto the same page of facts is a most helpful approach to policy making.
I live in Lexington for the charms of an historic New England town, its excellent educational standards and the many pleasant activities available and will work to continue such advantages for future generations.