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Hello again and happy new year to my supporters and to the residents of Newton. I took a break from my regular newsletter between the November election and the inauguration while I started to get a handle on the new job and my new role as an elected representative. But, as promised during the campaign, the newsletter is back! This newsletter will primarily cover city and neighborhood matters that come up over the course of my work, but to avoid any confusion let me clarify that it remains part of my campaign committee operations and will continue to be political in nature and expressing my views and thought process on things that come up as we go along, in addition to being informational about what is going on in the ward and city. It is not a governmental newsletter.
It has been a whirlwind transition period since the election, particularly as the citywide election recount pushed many of our training sessions into the holiday season on a compressed timeframe, but I am extremely excited to get to work for all of you, now that we are in 2020. I have been working closely with newly retired Ward 5 Councilor John Rice to ensure things switch over as smoothly as possible, and I have also been working closely with our new Council President Susan Albright (Ward 2-at-Large) to figure out what items from my wide-ranging campaign platform are good things to get to work on first. Of course, I’m also coordinating with the two at-large councilors for Ward 5, Deb Crossley and Andreae Downs.
It’s an exciting time to be on the Newton City Council because there are five new councilors (we all carpooled together to a statewide training in Worcester recently) and seven second-term councilors, as well as a new Council President and Vice President and a first-term mayor – which means a lot of energy and enthusiasm for moving forward on many policy arenas.
A few very important notes I want to highlight before anything else
My city email address is now set up (please use it often!):bhumphrey@newtonma.gov - It is generally preferred that people contact me about city business through my city email, rather than my personal or campaign email addresses, even if that was normally how you would reach me previously. Please don’t hesitate to email me about any city business or neighborhood concerns (although it is now advised that everyone first use the 311 reporting system whenever applicable). I will try to answer it as promptly as I can. There are tons of city issues flying to and fro past your councilors and not all of us are aware of things that might be very important to you; so, you should email me if you want to make sure something gets on my radar. Even if you believe you can guess where I will come down on a specific issue or proposal and believe we are in 100% agreement, you should still send me an email to let me know where you stand! Often in government, constituents are less likely to write to their representatives when they believe they are already on the same page, but the constituents who disagree will surely write in, and this can lead to the elected official being misled about the prevailing views of their district.
New Social Media Accounts: My new Facebook and Twitter accounts for city business (not political campaign or personal matters) are both @HumphreyWard5. You can certainly contact me there as well, although email is preferred for ease of public record-keeping. These are brand-new accounts, not the same as previous social media pages you might be following from my campaign. The Twitter account tends to be where I post live notes of certain types of public events. The Facebook page is usually for more general summaries afterward.
Office Hours: I will be holding regular office hours on a rotating basis through Upper Falls, Waban, and Newton Highlands, so that you can talk to me individually – or in some cases with another City Councilor if they are covering the same area at that time. If you absolutely cannot attend one of those office hours due to your schedule or mobility or other circumstance, please email me and we can set up a time for either a meeting or a phone call. I am still in the process of setting the schedule for the office hours, but I will probably be switching between Sundays and Saturdays to give people more of a chance of being able to meet with me. (I will also still be at the three neighborhood Area Councils of Ward 5 as an ex officio member. Also you should all feel free to email me to invite me to your community meetings, if you would like me to be involved on your top issues. I will do my best to attend as many as I can.)
My committee assignments: I have been assigned to the Programs & Services Committee (chaired by Councilor Krintzman) and the Finance Committee (Chaired by Councilor Grossman), the same committees that my predecessor Councilor John Rice served on. These assignments are, among many good things, key to working on many of my campaign platform goals like public ownership of public services, resisting fiscal austerity, and working to make sure that those in our city with more are contributing a greater share of our revenues than those with less. These two committees are where I will be doing the bulk of my work on the Council, and so if you have a question or comment about something closely related to those committees, then you should definitely let me know – but all councilors ultimately work on all issue areas and work with our colleagues on the other committees, and I am sure I will co-docketing great proposals in those other committees to support the work of my fellow City Councilors.
A few events since November
There are dozens of meetings and events I could recap since the election, but that would take up too much of your time and some of it would be out of date at this point. So, I will just briefly note a few pertinent things here (and you can email me back if you need more info on any of the specifics):
Area council meetings - I have been to three Newton Highlands Area Council meetings, one Waban Area Council meeting, and two Upper Falls Area Council meetings since the election. In upcoming newsletters, I will try to recap salient points in some elaboration as I did during the campaign, but this is just a summary roundup to get us caught up to present. Some of the hot button items at those meetings included discussion of the proposed mixed-use development across from the Newton Highlands T station, pedestrian access to the bridge over the Charles River at Christina Street, Newton Wellesley Hospital’s boiler upgrades, the Wellesley Office Park redevelopment for housing, traffic light patterns at Needham/Oak/Christina, and more. There are also upcoming Soup Socials in February and March for Newton Highlands and Upper Falls, respectively.
Observing office hours - I joined two of my colleagues (Councilor Noel and Councilor Grossman) at their office hours in December to get a better sense of how I can be helpful to my constituents in those sessions. I appreciate their willingness to show me the ropes! As noted above, I will release my own office hours schedule as soon as possible.
Leadership Caucus - In December, the Councilors-elect met in caucus, and by two votes of 14-10 we selected Councilors Albright and Lipof as our new Council President and Vice President, who ran essentially as a joint ticket. This was as I understand it an unusually contentious internal election, following on the heels of a city council election season that saw dueling slate campaigns. For that reason I have tried to be clear and transparent about my choice: I voted with the majority in both cases because Councilor Albright has championed municipal progressive legislation and is making it a priority to let rank & file members like me push bold legislation. Albright has also served as a mentor to me the past few years on matters of city government, and I felt that I could trust her to help me serve my constituents most effectively and to listen to me when I had concerns. That being said, as you will see below on some docket items, there are still many opportunities for all of us on the City Council to work on numerous issues across the aisle with colleagues who did not vote the same way on leadership election.
Newton Highlands Business Parking District - Last year, the city initiated a program to help free up parking spots for customers in front of Newton Highlands businesses by shifting employee parking down the block with an annual parking pass system. There is a proposal on the table now to make a slight expansion of this area further down Lincoln Street. On January 5, I joined my Ward 6 colleague, Councilor Brenda Noel, to go door to door to talk to residents about this proposal and give them written information about the plan and a way to contact us with further questions. The parking district crosses back and forth in both of our wards.
Scouts events - Some of you might know that I’m an Eagle Scout. Whenever someone in Newton attains the rank of Eagle Scout, the City Council gives them a commendation. As an Eagle on the Council and a former member of both Troop 182 and Troop 9, it’s now one of my jobs to represent the City Council to these two troops (and others) and deliver commendations. In late 2019, I attended Troop 9’s annual fundraiser dinner in Waban, and on January 5, I attended Troop 182’s Eagle Court of Honor (along with State Rep. Kay Khan) in Wellesley to present a commendation. If you or someone you know needs a commendation from City Council, please send me an email, and I will handle it with the Clerk!
Co-docketed items
I will be docketing or co-docketing various items at City Council over the next few months (and I will save those for future newsletters), but I have already signed on this week to three items that Councilors had previously introduced in the last term and reintroduced in this one. They are all early-stage inquiries (not specific policy proposals yet), covering the issues of housing, services, and the environment. Here are the summaries and list of other councilors co-docketing:
#29‐20 Review and possible amendment of Demolition Delay and Landmark Ordinances COUNCILORS KELLEY, ALBRIGHT, AUCHINCLOSS, CROSSLEY, GREENBERG, KALIS, KRINTZMAN, LEARY, LIPOF, MARKIEWICZ, BOWMAN, HUMPHREY, RYAN AND NORTON requesting a review and, if appropriate, an update of Chapter 22, Sections 22‐50 to 22‐76 that relate to demolition delays, historic designation, and landmarking.
#40‐20 Discussion with Department Heads regarding supportive services COUNCILORS ALBRIGHT, CROSSLEY, DOWNS, KELLEY, LEARY, GREENBERG AND HUMPHREY requesting a discussion with the Director of Health and Human Services, Director of Senior Services, Commissioner of Parks & Recreation and the Director of Planning and Development regarding what Newton is doing to support economically disadvantaged persons in Newton, including; immigrants, seniors, disabled individuals and families with adult disabled children.
#61‐20 Discussion to limit or prohibit the installation of fossil fuel infrastructure COUNCILORS CROSSLEY, KELLEY, LEARY, NORTON, ALBRIGHT, GREENBERG, AUCHINCLOSS, MARKIEWICZ, NOEL, DANBERG, KALIS, DOWNS & HUMPHREY requesting a discussion with the Sustainability Team to create an ordinance to limit or prohibit the installation of fossil fuel infrastructure in new construction and substantially renovated buildings, as well as to clarify the Council’s authority to prohibit the extension of gas mains subject to the condition of the existing infrastructure.
Thank you for bearing with me on a lengthy catch-up email newsletter. I hope the next few will be briefer.