Governor Baker Addresses Annual Chamber Gathering

Surrounded by beauties, beasts, and a slew of local politicians, Governor Charlie Baker held court at the annual Reading-North Reading Chamber of Commerce 2017 Meeting.

Speaking in the IMAX Theater inside Jordan's Furniture Thursday, Baker talked of subjects from weed wacking, to the Health Connector, and the Department of Children and Families. And from beginning to end, the focus was on the Commonwealth's 351 cities and towns.

"One of the major objectives of our administration when we took office was to rebuild the relationship between the commonwealth and the commonwealth's cities and towns," said Baker. "We came into this wanting very much to work hard and colaborate with our colleagues in local government. For us to truly be successful we have to build 351 strong communities, 351 places where people feel like things are headed in the right direction, 351 communities where people feel the possibilities and opportunities are positive and heading in the right direction."

For Baker, it started with the Community Compact Program when he took office in 2015.

"The state's historic approach to managing its relationship with cities and towns is to tell them what to do, give them no money, and tell them to suck it up and figure it out. Element after element of this thing was how we go about helping local communities do the work they need to do on behalf of their citizens."

Baker's administration put together a menu of best practices and told cities and town they could pick some of the things off the menu and the state would provide them with technical assistant and funding to get it done. So far, 270 of 351 communities have signed up to participate in one of these best practices. The Community Compact Program had three goals. The first was to give cities and towns the opportunity to worth on things that had a long-term benefit. Secondly, it gave participants the opportunity to share knowledge. And finally, as Baker said, "it was a chance at the state level to see what itches need to be scratched at the local level."

And along the way came an effort to make things easier, to eliminate the unnecessary obstacles to progress.

"It was all weed wacking," said Baker. "But the weeds as we all know, often times can get in the way of somebodies ability to accomplish their objectives."

He also spoke about his efforts to "fix stuff." One of his first fixes was the Department of Children and Families.

DCF "was in a really tough place when we took office," said Baker. In response, DCF has hired 170-190 new social workers since Baker took office. They've gone from roughly 1,500 families living in motels and hotels across the state to 67 today. And the focus has changed. "The game plan here should be to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place," said Baker.

Baker also spoke of the time spent "fixing a very broke Health Connector. I mean very broken. Like didn't work at all." He called the Health Connector an "entity that really couldn't get out of its own way." He explained that when he took office a call to the Health Connector meant a 45-minute wait on hold. Today that time is down to 30 seconds.

Sounding like a governor happy with his progress to date, Baker pointed out a recent US News and World Report that said Massachusetts was the No. 1 state in the country to live in.

"Which of course since I get grief for stuff I have nothing to do with because I happen to be sitting in the chair, I get full credit for the bad, so I'm going to take full credit for that one too."

Baker summed up his comments by referring again to Massachusetts cities and towns.

"What people expect of us is that we collaborate, and work together in the sandbox and get stuff done on behalf of the people of Massachusetts. That's the approach we've taken on this stuff from day one. I believe that's what you expect of us. In the end if we build 351 strong cities in towns around Massachusetts a lot of other stuff will take care of itself."

Prior to Baker's remarks, the Reading-North Reading Chamber honored Bob Turosz with the Community Award for his 40 years of service at the North Reading Transcript ... Baker was introduced by the Chamber's Executive Director Lisa Egan. What would a trip to Jordan's be without Eliot Tatelman, who gave the opening welcome to those assembled, complete with a well-planned cell phone interruption by some named "Donald."