With a deep sense of optimism, gratitude, and commitment, I announce my candidacy for re-election to the Lexington Select Board. I would be honored to have your vote on Monday, March 3, 2025.
Working on hard problems—with and for the Lexington community—is what I love to do. I’m good at navigating our community through tough issues, and I have the track record to prove it. I strive to develop consensus, engage all respectfully and equally, and search for the value in all ideas.
Lexington is facing three great challenges: the growth in multi-family housing, the fate of our inadequate and failing high school building, and our ailing climate and environment. My priorities are to:
- Rally our community to support a Lexington High School building project that strikes the right balance for students, taxpayers, and our community as a whole.
- Address the impact of multi-family housing development on our schools and services, lands and roads.
- Enact sound climate and environmental initiatives, like extending our curbside compost collection townwide—reducing trash disposal expenses and preserving valuable nutrients.
- Provide continuity and support for our excellent new Town Manager.
I don’t do drama. I approach decision-making by throwing away assumptions, digging for facts, and clarifying the issues with you, my constituents. I believe in building support by stating a clear case and collaborating with stakeholders to find solutions. I take my own positions, but always respectfully.
Here’s just a small sampling of my leadership:
- After constituents reached out for relief from incessant construction noise, I spearheaded changes to put enforcement teeth into the town’s noise bylaw.
- When discord emerged over policing, I co-led a community-wide listening tour that fostered understanding and enabled our Police Department to be more responsive to community concerns.
- As Covid-19 struck, I developed technology that allowed 200+ Town Meeting participants to successfully conduct town business remotely while safeguarding everyone’s health.
- I marshalled broad support for sustainable systems and energy supplies for town infrastructure projects, protecting our environment while saving residents millions of dollars each year.
- I proposed the compromise to the LHS “Bloom” design that will lessen the impact to our playing fields–without increasing disruption to student life.
To learn more about me and to endorse my candidacy, please visit JoePato.org. And I’d love to hear from you—please contact me here. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Joe Pato
I wholeheartedly support Joe Pato’s re-election to the Lexington Select Board! Joe has consistently demonstrated thoughtful leadership and a commitment to serving our community with integrity and respect. His ability to tackle tough issues—whether it’s addressing construction noise, advocating for a balanced high school building project, or championing sustainable initiatives—shows his dedication to finding solutions that benefit everyone.
Joe listens to all voices, builds consensus, and approaches challenges with facts and collaboration. Lexington is lucky to have such a dedicated and capable leader, and I’m confident he’ll continue to guide our town through its challenges with the same care and expertise he’s shown in the past.
Joe:
Since you “love to hear from” voters and since part of the “small sampling of [your] leadership [is that you] proposed the compromise to the LHS “Bloom” design that will lessen the impact to our playing fields–without increasing disruption to student life.”, like many voters I speak with, I have this question, which I don’t know the answer to:
Why is our School Building Committee (on which you sit) pushing Bloom at a cost of two-thirds of a billion dollars, designed for 30 fewer students than we already have before any new MBTA dwellings are built (which could add students by the hundreds) without ever having considered, let alone estimated the cost of, the phased designs outlined in the Schools’ own 2015 Master Plan?
I wish you explained this SBC decision, which to me is as poorly thought out as was the decision in April 2023, based on no prior long-term financial analysis, to rezone 228 acres for MBTA developments — a bad decision that you supported, a fact you did not remind voters of.
It is because I did the necessary analyses (in 4 tabs on https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s_I7RFfVAdjIUpE8YOAFl7M3OA2SwF0j/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=116971253884586510151&rtpof=true&sd=true) that you and others in Town government finally realize the magnitude of the April 2023 mistake, which someone who knows Lexington far better than I do qualified for me as “Lexington’s biggest mistake in a century”.
Patrick Mehr
for Lexington Select Board
Priorities: https://patrick4lex.org
Help my campaign: https://patrick4lex.org/endorsedonate
Supporters: https://patrick4lex.org/supporters
Bio: https://patrick4lex.org/bio
Election is Monday, March 3 (https://patrick4lex.org/wherehow-to-vote)
the town of lexington is about to lose a lot of residents because they are constantly refusing to be interested in consulting with the Concord municipal light plant to build out their own public municipally owned fiber optic broadband ISP network institution for all schools, government buildings, residents, and libraries because the Internet speeds provided by Comcast are way too much slow and unusable at Lexington high School in the town of Lexington, Massachusetts.