Waltham Committee Quits, Cites 'Roadblocks' With Mayor

WALTHAM, MA — The group of people tasked by the mayor to help move Waltham into a more eco-friendly and greener city in the most cost effective way disbanded in protest after what they said were "roadblocks," the group announced in a newsletter.

"We were frequently met with resistance and disinterest from the Mayor and Waltham employees. During 2017 those roadblocks became substantial enough that the Committee determined we could no longer proceed," according to a newsletter announcement.

The mayor did not respond to request for comment. We will update if she does.

The Waltham Energy Action Committee was a volunteer team made up of five energy-efficiency minded professionals and a staff member. The group was originally formed by the mayor in 2009 at the request of several citizens. The goal of the committee was to help green the city. Thanks to their hundreds of hours of time and effort, the team helped Waltham win a Green City grant earlier this month. But it turns out it's not easy being green.

"We report to the Mayor with the goal of advising the City in developing priorities, policies and programs focused on reducing energy use and costs. While we are proud to have accomplished many things over the past eight years ... we have not been as successful as we would have liked," reads the announcement.

The group described its relationship with the city council as a good one. But try as they may, co-chair Melissa Downes told Patch, working with City Hall didn't work. Downes said what prompted the final vote to disband were "ethical concerns;" concerns Downes said she emailed the mayor about multiple times last fall. She said the team got no response. Finally, worried the team would get blamed for improperly spending money, she said they pulled the trigger.

The team is made of people who are not only passionate about energy efficiency but many of whom work and specialize in the industry and know the ins and outs of various laws and special state funds available for such projects. They were in the process of applying for a HUD municipal grant and eyeing a particular state refund through Chapter25A procurement law that allows a municipality to skip the lengthy bid process that costs money and go with an approved energy engineering firm. If they did this, according to the law, the city would get reimbursed a portion of the cost. By going the this route with an Eversource approved vendor the rebates reduce the overall cost, said Downes.

But the city took the project from the team tasked with handling this, and then took it through an unnecessary bidding process, in what Downes said was probably an effort to find a cheaper firm, but in the process missed out on a chunk of state money, and ended up costing the city.

"I know that there's a lot going on in the city and this may just sound like us complaining," said Downes. But the group's experience highlights struggles other advocacy workers in the city have gone through when dealing with city hall, she said, based on emails the group has received following their announcement.

There's also issue with the new high school. The energy committee advocated for a net zero building. Once the site for a high school is chosen, the team that is putting it together is going to run into questions about how to make that happen cost effectively.

The news comes just after the state was awarded Waltham a Massachusetts Green Community grant and the award would provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for energy efficiency projects on municipal buildings. The $250,000 grant is just the first year of the multi-year project and would get more as the process continues. Similarly sized Brookline, for example, has received $808,500 in grants since 2011, according to the state.

In order to remain in good standing with the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources who awarded the grant, the city just has to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent in five years. No small act, without a team of people dedicated to this, according to the group.

At this point, Downes and the former committee are more interested in making sure the grant gets executed in the most cost-effective way. "We're not about the past, we're about the future," she told Patch.

And what will that look like? Collaboration, she said, that and expertise and trust in expertise.

"This will take collaboration, executive leadership, and utilizing recommended best practices suggested by the state and employed by other municipalities. It will take input and pressure from elected officials, citizens, and employees of Waltham to see that the award is used well, additional grants are sought, and savings resulting from the energy efficiency work be reinvested in additional energy-efficiency projects," reads the newsletter.

There's one more thing Downes hopes people will take away from the group's protest. A protest they made quietly in November waiting and hoping, she said for a different result. She said the group made the announcement public this month because they wanted to get the attention of the new City Council.

"If they want the city to be resilient and work on things like energy efficiency they're going to have to put pressure on the government," she said.

Former committee members included Committee Co-Chairwomen Melissa Downes and Kathy Randel, and Beth MacBlane, Jim Mniece and former Waltham City Councilor Stephen F. Rourke.

Previously On Patch:

Waltham Is A Green City: It's Official

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch