Meet The Waltham Candidate: Kelly Damm Challenges John McLaughlin

WALTHAM, MA — Since he was first elected in 2013, John McLaughlin has been the city councilor for Ward 4. And he hasn't had a challenger to that title. Until Kelly Damm. The mother of two moved to Waltham the year after McLaughlin took office and says she didn't think she'd be one to enter the political fray.

And then the 2016 presidential elections got her thinking about community engagement. It was something that was missing on a national scale and it was something, she noticed that was missing on the local level, too.

What's needed, she decided, was transparency that allows for deeper constituent engagement and involvement in Waltham. When she started to engage, she found it difficult. She went looking for information on the city website to hit up a city council meeting all she could find was the bare minimum, if that.

"Many of the council meetings only had minutes from months ago. There was not a lot of information about upcoming items aside from the docket. It's hard to come to the council prepared if you can't find anything on the website," she said. It can be off putting and disillusioning, for many. And that needed to change, she said.

Going to a city council meeting solidified that for her.

"When I attended the city council meeting earlier this year was shocked at lack of diversity: both demographically and in perspective," she said.

Who is she anyway?

Damm grew up in a New Jersey suburb before she went to Boston College. Her mom was a public school teacher and father a government communications officer, they instilled in her values of inclusion, compassion, respect and hard work, she said.

Mentors along the way taught her to approach life as a “traveler, and not a tourist” and to find solutions to problems by first identifying their root causes. She has spent the majority of her career in operations, administration and finance in the nonprofit sector, and works as an administrative professional in Cambridge but has traveled extensively in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish.

Damm says if there's one thing that has surprised her as she's been knocking on doors and stumping, is the question about whether she's going to have enough time between work and motherhood to sit on the council.

"It's something that I didn't find was being asked of my male counterparts," she said noting she's got a very capable husband who happens to be a great father. It was a family decision she said, to run. "I'm committed to this and don't see my parenthood as something that prevents me from being a councilor, but as something that might help me dive into the issues deeper with different perspective."

What's been nice, she said, is that there are other first time candidates who happen to be women. It represents a desire to help make a change following the 2016 US election and a sense that not everyone was being represented leading up to it.

"I think the presidential election was part of a broader realization that we need to have active engagement in between elections as well as during the elections to really make sure voices are being heard and as many people are weighing in and finding tangible ways to create change," she said.

Why her?

When asked what differentiates her from her opponent Damm stuck to her platform.

"I think that with that: I'm really at a moment in time where I'm really ready to push to take on leadership position to address issues that need addressing," she said adding that from her conversations with people in the community Waltham residents want new voices on the council. "I want to make sure everyone is heard. One of my priorities is to collaborate with residents to speak through at residents to make sure we're sponsoring meaningful resolutions," she said.

"I think that there's a lot of supportive voices in the community that are ready for some fresh perspective," she said.

On the High School and Fernald:

Damm said she sees securing the location for the new high school as the most urgent priority facing the city council.

She said she sees the Stigmatine property as the best option for the high school. And she sees the way there as a restart.

"I think that we need to first look at going back to the table and seeing if we can renegotiate and collaborate with the mayor and fully explore in a way that they haven't yet," she said.

Fernald is situated in Ward 4, and figuring out reuses for it is something she said she's on board with.

"We really need to be actively working to clarify the restrictions on it and really work on active plans for its reuse," she said.

The city is where it is, late to the game, on the Fernald and high school issue because it was lacking a master plan. This new cycle, she said, the city council should push to secure one.

"Waltham has all the assets it need to thrive and be successful but we need to make sure we're managing that proactively," she said.

Fun facts:

Damm's total spent on the campaign by the end of October? $3,548

Total by the incumbent $2,834.50

Photo courtesy the Kelly Damm campaign with permission.

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