Joe Pato runs for his fifth term on the Select Board

LexObserver sat down with Joe Pato, a candidate for Select Board, to learn why he’s running for reelection and how he feels about various town issues.

Pato is currently a member of the Select Board and has been for the past 12 years.

He represented Precinct 2 in Town Meeting from 2008 to 2013, was a member of the Appropriations Committee, and said he has been a member of or a liaison for “20 or 30” town committees, including Sustainable Lexington and the Noise Advisory Committee. 

Pato moved his family to Lexington from hilly Arlington Heights in 1996 so his children could attend its reputable public schools.

He was a research computer scientist for HP Labs for 28 years and was a visiting scientist at MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory for approximately ten years. 

“Data analysis is a strong point for me…but what I like to say is, I focus on data but it’s tempered and informed by our shared community values,” he said. “Numbers are important, trends are important, but so is understanding our community.”  

Asked why he wanted to run again, Pato said, “well, I’m good at it.”

Among other agenda items, Pato is focused on Lexington’s plans to build a new high school. As a member of the School Building Committee, he supports seeing the town’s current plan through — that is, building Bloom.

He argues Bloom is the best design plan because it would: be new, meet the district’s education plan, address safety issues that LHS’s current open campus invites, be least disruptive to students amid construction, impact the sports fields least, and be less of a visual impact on the nearby playground compared to other options. 

When the town began considering how to address the overcrowded and outdated LHS, Pato thought the current building could be “tuned,” he said. But as Lexington started looking at about 20 different designs, he learned adding to and renovating the current building wouldn’t be best. 

An ‘add-reno’ plan would make for a “very awkward layout,” at a higher cost, and with more disruption to students, he said. As soon as Lexington builds an addition onto the current building, it “would have to bring the other buildings on campus to ADA compliance and up to building code, which would cost “several millions of dollars,” he said. 

The current building would essentially have to be torn down to its ironwork to bring elements such as the HVAC systems and windows, among other items, up to code, said Pato. 

Today, the SBC is in the schematic design phase of the LHS building project. The Committee’s guidance to SMMA, the architect designing the new LHS, is to “make a modest design,” he said. 

Opponents of Bloom worry it’s not large enough to host new students that could join the district by moving into Lexington’s incoming MBTA Communities Act-compliant housing.

Refuting that worry, Pato said Bloom could host up to 3,600 students. Its central office space could be converted into classrooms and it has an expansion plan, which is required by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the state program the town is working with to fund the project. Pato also noted that younger grades reflect a reduction in enrollment over time, so if new students move to town, there will be enough space for them. 

“Yes, adding housing adds population,” he said. “But the target size should accommodate what we’re seeing pretty easily and it can flex to fit quite a bit more.”

Pato said the town had been wanting to increase its multifamily housing for years before the MBTA Communities Act’s inception. Pato voted for Article 34 in 2023, which called for Lexington to amend its zoning bylaw so multifamily housing could be built on over 200 acres of land. That exceeds the state’s goal for Lexington to zone 50 acres for new housing. 

Two years on, Lexington has received more development proposals than expected. Now, Pato supports reducing the scope to only two districts rather than the 12 Lexington originally committed. 

“I support a change now to only retain two proposed districts,” he said. “This will give us time to absorb development and assess if and how we might want to expand it.”

Town Meeting will vote on amending that bylaw on March 17. Pato hopes that what comes to the floor will still meet the state’s objective.

Asked how he aims to improve Lexington Center if re-elected, Pato said he’ll continue to look for opportunities to bring visitors to the Center and strengthen local businesses. 

Pato lobbied for adjusting the town’s liquor licensing strategy when a paint and sip business in Lexington Center complained that it couldn’t operate like its fellow franchisees, which all serve wine to customers. As the town’s policy stands, only businesses that serve food can also serve liquor, Pato said, and that paint and sip business did not serve food. 

“So we pushed through, collaboratively…to allow for a limited number of beer and wine licenses to businesses where food is not the primary service for the establishment,” he said. The town is still waiting for the legislature to give those extra licenses.

Nonetheless, Pato said that’s an example of how the town can “open up opportunities and create economic vibrancy for its existing businesses.”

“The economy goes up and down and diversifying what they can do and how they can make revenue is a good thing,” he said. 

Maintaining Lexington as a leader in sustainability is another priority of Pato’s.

With him on the Select Board, the town has: adopted sustainable building design policies, used its American Rescue Plan Act funds to offer free compost pickup to up to 4,000 households, and adopted community choice aggregation, which saves residents money on electricity supply. 

“I think a lot of what we’ve done, especially around sustainability options and the like, are things that we, as a community, have enacted locally to make global change,” he said. “There are lots of other communities that have used us as a model and continuing to do that is something I’m devoted to.” 

Pato also plans to continue to make Lexington’s roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars. 

While on the Select Board, Pato helped with the Battle Green Streetscape project, which brought a new roundabout to the intersection of Bedford St., Harrington Road, and Hancock St. — an intersection that had a high incident rate, Pato said. 

Some residents didn’t support adding a new roundabout to that intersection, however. So, he said, the Select Board made adjustments to its design so it better fit the desires and needs of the community. 

“That is an example of the kind of safety improvements I’m looking for,” he said. “Not everybody likes it but about 95 percent of the communications I receive…are very supportive of it.”

Continuing to engage in that kind of governance is something Pato is passionate about. He believes it’s best to be an active listener, absorb what others share, and engage in dialogue instead of pushing your points on others. 

“Working constructively, collaboratively, is core to the way I approach governance,” he said. “I want to make sure we keep doing that in the face of a national environment that has become much more fractious.”

At a time when residents may feel uncertain about the federal government, Pato believes Lexington’s leaders have held strong in making the community a better place. 

“I think historically, if you look at what affects peoples’ everyday life, municipal government, local government, is the key place,” he said. “It’s what keeps your garbage collected, the schools running, the roads active, and creates the economic opportunity for you in commercial areas.”