Neil Harrington: Salem Mayor Special Election Candidate Profile

SALEM, MA — Salem residents will head to the polls on May 16 for a special election to choose the city's first newly elected mayor in 17 years with Neil Harrington and Dominick Pangallo the two candidates on the ballot to serve out the final three years of the term through the end of 2025.

For this election, Patch sent each of the candidates five questions specific to Salem to help voters decide who they feel is best suited to lead the city as its chief elected official.

Harrington served as Salem's mayor from 1990 to 1997 and has been the town manager in Salisbury since 2003.

His answers to Patch's candidate questions can be found here:

What do you believe are the most important priorities, experiences and perspectives that the next mayor of Salem should possess?

The next mayor should have multiple years of municipal management executive experience.

Managing a city as complex as Salem requires someone with a track record of making tough decisions, an understanding of how to be accountable to all residents of the city, and the type of sound judgment that only comes from actually doing the job.

Salem is, in many ways, a much different city than it was when residents last elected a new mayor in 2005. What aspects of the transformation, if any, do you believe have been the most successful, and what aspects, if any, do you believe have been detrimental or in need of improvement/change?

The image of the city has unquestionably been influenced by the forceful personality of former Mayor Driscoll. She very skillfully positioned her administration as having transformed Salem from a quiet, mid-sized middle-class community into a vibrant, more inclusive, modern, professionally-run city. She was positive, upbeat, and a powerful promoter of her style of governing, and was able to parlay that image into a successful run for higher office.

On the flip side, I would argue that Salem was hardly a nondescript backwater community before she was elected in 2005. It is a venerable city with a long history of producing leaders and people of local and national influence in a variety of fields, including government, business, education, literature and the arts.

Kim Driscoll governed from a position of strength and controlled the narrative of the city for 17 years. She served the city well and we wish her success as lieutenant governor.

There is now an opportunity to open the windows and let some fresh air into the mayor's office.

As mayor, you will also be Chair of the School Committee. How would you approach that aspect of the job and what do you believe is the most important focus when it comes to the direction of Salem Public Schools?

As mayor and chairperson of the School Committee, I intend to be more than a cheerleader for our schools. I want to assist Supt. (Steve) Zrike in making the entire system more aspirational and implementing improvements that give all students the best opportunity to reach their academic
potential.

Our public schools have several dedicated teachers and staff and many students do very well, but many others are not prepared for college or the world of work. If Salem wants to be known as a community where our schools are seen as one of our greatest assets, we need not only to celebrate the successes of our current system, but acknowledge its shortcomings and work hard to correct them.

As mayor, I want to be a force for positive change, so that not only the image but the reality of what is going on in our schools convince more Salem residents to have greater faith in the system as a whole so that we can merit the trust of more parents with school-age children.

Salem had some of the most aggressive COVID-19 mitigation strategies in the state during the pandemic. What did you learn through your role in municipal leadership during that time and how would that inform your future decisions on public health and the relationship between government and city businesses?

I served (and still do) as town manager in Salisbury during the COVID-19 crisis and implemented many of the same policies that were put in place in Salem during that very trying period. However, Salisbury has a much smaller population than Salem and is more spread out in terms of geography and does not have a downtown similar to Salem's, so the challenges were less daunting than those faced by the Driscoll administration.

Being proactive and communicating effectively allowed Mayor Driscoll to become one of the leaders in the state in responding to the COVID-19 situation. Her embrace and support for outdoor dining, for example, allowed several restaurants to weather the challenges of the public health crisis and survive the disruption caused by the need for social distancing.

In Salisbury, aggressive outreach by the health department, including sharing resources and information with surrounding communities, allowed the community to cope with COVID and helped several businesses as well.

I believe all of us in municipal management positions who made the difficult decisions on how to handle the public health crisis are much more prepared in case a similar situation occurs in the future.

What are the top 1, 2 or 3 things you most hope voters consider before casting their vote in the special election?

Governing a complex city like Salem requires not only hands-on executive experience but the willingness and ability to listen to all voices in the community and to include all perspectives when making decisions and tough choices. I have done just that in my 25+ years as serving as a chief municipal executive, both at the city and town levels of government. As voters make their choice in Salem on May 16, I would ask them to consider the following:

Which candidate has a proven record of success as an experienced leader in municipal government and is running on his own record, and not someone else's?

Which candidate has a long track record of being held accountable to the electorate and to the residents of two different communities, and is used to listening to all different points of view before making tough decisions, and which candidate has only had to report to one person — the former mayor who is no longer in charge in Salem?

Which candidate wants to continue the positive achievements of the Driscoll administration, while admitting that the approach to some problems has not worked so well and needs to be corrected so that the city can move forward in a united manner?

Who is the candidate that people know and the leader they can trust?