Julie Flowers: Beverly City Council Candidate Profile

BEVERLY, MA — Julie Flowers is running for her third term as an At-Large Beverly City Councilor.

The Beverly High alumna is a registered Democrat but says she takes very seriously that Beverly's municipal-level elections and governing are non-partisan and that she strives to serve the residents of the city in that way.

Flowers earned her bachelor's degree in English and Spanish from Wellesley College and a Master of Divinity degree from the Harvard Divinity School in 2007.

She is a 42-year-old mother of a Beverly Middle School student and resides in Ward 4. She has worked as a minister at the First Baptist Church in Beverly for the past 14 years.

The citywide general election is on Nov. 2.

Campaign website

https://julieforbeverly.com/

Why are you seeking elective office?

I am running for reelection to a third term as one of your three Beverly At-Large City Councilors because I am proud of the work that we have begun together, as a community, and because I would love to have the privilege of continuing that good work together with you, the people of Beverly. In my two terms on the Council, I have sought to listen well; to learn as I have led, and to work hard for Beverly's residents. I strive to be available, accessible, and responsive; and I work hard to advocate for those whom I am elected to represent — all of you.

Coming out of these difficult months of the pandemic and continuing our shared work on resiliency-planning for our coastal community; as well as COVID relief and recovery for our small and local businesses, as well as our residents; and work to continue to become a city where all people can feel welcome and seen, valued and safe, are all issues that call for experienced and compassionate leadership. In addition, I am thinking about ways to improve our city communication out to residents, ways to invest more fully in our roads and sidewalks as part of our capital plan that would allow us to use an expenditure of free cash to work on streets and sidewalks in areas where the need has been long deferred, and thinking about ways to work together as we think about the big picture of how we balance the real and present need for accessible and affordable housing — indeed, housing of all types — and particularly affordable and accessible housing for our seniors who would like to continue to call Beverly home, with the critical need to preserve green space and ensure our infrastructure is keeping pace with our growth as a city.

I am eager to bring that kind of leadership to our Council for another term, and I would be honored to have your vote in November.

The single most pressing issue facing our city is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

There are several top issues facing our community (climate change and resiliency; street paving, sidewalks, and infrastructure needs; representation of our residents in the face of pollution caused and left by a large corporation — Varian — that is yet to be cleaned up; work to continue that our city is moving forward in areas of inclusion and equity; pandemic relief and recovery for our small and local businesses and for our residents and thinking about the balance of development and growth with the need to preserve open and green spaces in our community). These are all issues of prime importance to me and on which I hope to continue to work, to be a voice, and to be an advocate.

I further believe one of the most pressing issues facing our city — and, actually, our entire region — is the issue of affordability and the need for housing that is affordable, accessible, and where people are treated with dignity and respect. It is undeniable that the North Shore is both a beautiful place to live and an expensive place to live. We have an ever-increasing cost of living here, and that increasing cost puts a strain on those who live here or who wish to live here when it comes to the cost of housing.

This affordability crisis affects people of all ages and with all types of backgrounds — from young people who are just starting out to our seniors, many of whom have lived in Beverly for all or nearly all of their lives, and who can now not afford to sell their homes and downsize, as there is no affordable next place for them to live. With a housing stock where 12% of the total housing is deemed affordable, Beverly has been a leader in our region on this issue - but 12%, although a goal for which communities strive, still leaves far too many people without attainable housing.

More than that, this is not an issue that we can solve alone. We need more of our North Shore neighbors to join us (and to join with cities like Salem and Peabody, with whom Beverly has a memorandum of understanding around striving to address the housing crisis together) in the effort to create more truly affordable housing for people at all ages and stages of life.

Throughout my two terms on the Council, the issue of affordability and accessibility in housing has been an issue of high importance to me, and I will continue to focus on this issue in the future. I believe there are ways to think creatively about our zoning in new ways that could expand housing possibilities (for example, creating zoning for ideas like tiny houses or micro-apartments for those who are seeking a small space to call home, as well as considering expanding accessory dwelling units, allowing for more shared spaces, particularly for our seniors to share living space with younger folks and families in our community), and I further believe that we can leverage the use of our Affordable Housing Trust even more fully when new buildings are being built.

Of particular importance at this time, I believe, is the need for more housing for seniors — for those who have long called this city home and wish to continue to live here and age-in-place, but are also ready to downsize to a smaller home and are struggling to find places to do so that are affordable. If elected to a third term, I will continue to be an advocate for more truly affordable housing for our seniors, which would allow many people like those I have met knocking on doors and talking with people to sell the homes they have owned for 30 or 40 years and move into a new place in the city they love to call home — allowing more homes in Beverly to then become available at more accessible price points for young people or those seeking to buy a first house.

I believe our communities are stronger when we recognize the importance of housing and of housing with dignity and of ensuring that those who work in our community, providing services and helping to create the feel and vibe of this city that we love, can all afford to also call this city home.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am the only incumbent Councilor At-Large running for reelection this term, in a moment when our council is facing some very real transition (in the loss of long-term and seasoned leadership from President Paul Guanci and Councilor Tim Flaherty, both of whom will be much missed; and in the loss of Ward 3 Councilor Stacy Ames, who has been an incredible voice and advocate for her ward and for people across our community and whose voice will also be extremely missed). As such, I bring all the experience that I have gained and all that I have learned over my two terms in office, as well as my proven track record of being a representative who is accessible and responsive to people and who will always strive to meet with residents, hear people's stories and needs, and work collaboratively and creatively with fellow elected leaders and with the mayor's team at City Hall to try to meet needs and address problems for our residents.

I also strive to be a compassionate and empathetic leader, someone who listens first and seeks to understand fully, learning what I do not know, and then leading from what I have learned, and that I have shown myself to be a leader who is unafraid to stand up or speak up for people. I am motivated to run not only by my 10-year-old and his peers (all the children and young people of our community, who are our constituents and to whom and for whom we are responsible, even if they cannot yet vote), as well as by those in my parents' generation and beyond, seeking to still make a home in Beverly and age in place — not to mention all of us in between; I view my role as being a listener, an advocate, a collaborator, and a voice for people, and I would be honored to continue in that role for another term.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

I believe that Beverly responded well to the COVID-19 public health emergency and pandemic, striving to work as fluidly as possible and to work creatively across departments to respond (as an example, during the height of the pandemic when our school buildings were not open, many of our school nurses worked with our Public Health Department and Public Health Nurse as contact tracers, helping to ensure that Beverly was able to keep up with that important work at a critical time), to keep our community safe, and to communicate effectively out to the community. I also believe that our work to continue to respond to — and, especially, to help our community and its businesses and residents recover from the pandemic is not done and will be a central focus of the upcoming term for those elected to serve and to lead.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

I am dedicated to working on issues around environmental stewardship and care; to helping our community continue to move toward being a more green community; and to continuing the work that we have begun — some of it in concert with our colleagues across the Veterans Memorial Bridge in Salem — on a climate resiliency plan called, appropriately, "Resilient Together." As coastal communities that share a coastline and share a responsibility to protect that coastline and our residents, I am proud and pleased that we have begun this work, and I hope to be reelected to help to continue to work toward climate change mitigation and resiliency goals outlined in the project itself.

I am also dedicated to working together with our community leaders to improve communication to our residents from our city, as a whole. As Beverly grows and changes and becomes more busy, I believe our communication plan and approach needs to change with it, so that residents can receive robust information and updates from the city in a timely fashion and using multiple modes of communication, to ensure as many residents as possible are reached. It is my firm conviction that it is time for a new communication plan for the city, and I would like to help to work on prioritizing and creating/implementing such a plan.

I would like to continue to work with other city leaders on our infrastructure needs and, particularly, I note the need for us to make a serious investment in our streets and sidewalks. Beverly works to put $2-$3 toward paving of streets and sidewalks each year, which is a great way to chip away at the need, but it is undeniable that we have many streets and sidewalks across our city that have been waiting 30 or 40 years for paving work. I would like to see us consider a plan to take a portion of our free cash, which we have traditionally used for capital projects (rather than recurring costs) and investment a significant portion into streets and sidewalks as a capital expense. We have not always viewed streets and sidewalks in this manner, but I believe they are part of the capital needs of our city and that such an approach would allow us to make a meaningful step forward in catching up with some of the deferred needs in some areas of the city.

I am also interested in seeking new and creative revenue streams for our city — supporting efforts to pursue clean energy initiatives, for example (our EV school bus is a great example of how pursuing clean energy solutions can also be positive for the city in its finances, as our bus has now become the very first in the commonwealth to be putting energy back in the grid.), and seeking innovations around fiber internet infrastructure. I will also be a voice for balanced growth and development that takes into account both the need for our city's growth and innovation and the real needs around maintaining open and green spaces, as well as quality of life for all our residents.

This list is by no means an exhaustive one, and I welcome (always!) emails and phone calls and in-person conversations from residents to share with me about the needs you see in our city and the ideas you have, as well as for you to ask me questions about particular issues of greatest importance to you.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

In my first two terms on the City Council, I have been dedicated and responsible, making sure I am fully prepared for meetings and have done my homework on issues coming before the council. I served this term as the Chair of the Subcommittee on Public Services, and although the pandemic and the shift to remote meetings changed, in part, the way our subcommittees met and functioned (much business of the council was voted out to the full council as a matter of course this term, rather than going through our subcommittees), I am proud to say that in my role as Chair of Public Services I called and held public hearings on two issues that were coming forward to the council with great importance from residents: a hearing about the return of public trash barrels to some areas of the city and a hearing about the impact of rat populations on our city and our residents and what the city's role in a mitigation strategy might be (this second hearing was called and led in conjunction with Councilor Scott Houseman, Chair of Legal Affairs, and the Legal Affairs Subcommittee members were part of this hearing alongside my Public Services colleagues, Councilors Ames and Rotondo).

In both cases, I view these as on-going public conversations that the council will continue to take up and to engage on with members of the public and with the mayor's administration, working toward positive and meaningful resolutions for our residents and our city.

I believe that my professional work at First Baptist Church on Cabot Street also equips me with a skill set that serves me well in city leadership, as well: the ability to listen deeply and well and to hear what is at the heart of someone's story; to recognize where there is need or need for change; and an empathetic and constructive style of collaborative and creative leadership to work toward solutions and solve problems for people.

Outside my City Council work and my professional work, I serve now as the Arts and Enrichment Coordinator for the Beverly Middle School PTO, after serving in that role for three years on the Hannah Elementary School PTO. In that role, I work alongside faculty and staff, as well as fellow PTO leaders and volunteers, to bring to the schools strong enrichment programming that works to support the excellent work being done by classroom teachers each day. I also am a member of the Beverly Rotary Club and serve on the Board of Harborlight Nursery School on Cabot Street.

I am also a mom to an amazing kid, which is among the roles of which I am most proud — and it is a role in which I have to bring to bear all of my best skills — listening, meeting people where they are, conflict resolution, comforting, problem-solving, time management, budgeting, and more.

I believe that my ability to juggle multiple projects and needs at a time, my listening skills, and my strong work ethic — all of which come into play and are cultivated and honed in all my roles — all come together to serve me well and make me well-suited for the work of serving as an At-Large City Councilor.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

I have been asked this question before by The Patch, and so I have to share the same quote that I shared before, because it stays with me and is part of what guides me, in my personal life and in my public life.

It is, I suppose, not exactly advice, but rather a quote that I grew up hearing and of which I was always reminded, and it both stays with me and informs and inspires my work and my dedication to my community:

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." (John Wesley)

I believe in the power of shared community, and I believe in the power that each one of us has to do good to and for one another and in and for our community, each in our own way, and each in our own corner of the world.

I believe that those seemingly little drops of water can fill a big bucket. That's what keeps me going and fills me with not only incredible hope but incredible awe.