You Deserve a 21st Century Government. Let’s Build One Together

The Waltham High School’s Education Plan is an inspiring document that outlines a modern vision for our City’s students. Here are a few quotes from the report:

• “Over the course of the past 48 years since its original construction, WHS has served its community well…While substantial in size, the sprawling and inflexible structure is at odds with today’s 21st century educational practices…”
  
• “The Waltham High School program and/or new facility should…Build in the flexibility to move in directions that we don’t even know yet…[and] Create a 21st century learning environment where ALL students are engaged in authentic, real-world problems that are connected to rigorous standards…”
  
• “[Elements that] lead to increased student engagement and learning [and which] will likely play a key role within the newly envisioned...Waltham High School [include]…Involving strong communication…Socially and civically activated…Welcoming of outside experiences…[and] Engagement in debate.”
  

Waltham seems prepared to invest in future generations by delivering an infrastructure that meets their needs. As society and technology evolves, so must our goals and expectations within education.

Why can’t we set the same vision for local government? Why can’t we hold our elected representatives and other public service providers to the same rigorous standards?

This is not to say that we should accelerate recklessly into the future and be damned anyone who can’t keep up. We accomplish this feat together. We demand change together. And even if we stand on different sides of an issue, we fight together for a better, more accountable system that responds to our concerns and encourages us to participate in the process.

“But, this is the way we’ve always done it” is often a death sentence for businesses. Let’s not allow our government to stagnate holding on to the same mentality.

Here are a few thoughts about how we might transform the City of Waltham into a beacon for modern governance. If the State can use the abovementioned Education Plan as an exemplar, it can also watch us build a new standard for how municipalities may engage their residents.

Elections & Voting

To summarize the 2017 Waltham municipal election:

• Only 26.2 percent of the 34,073 eligible voters showed up at the polls.
  
  
• One incumbent ward councilor faced no challengers (although this was a record turnout for new candidates, generally).
  
  
• According to candidates’ Pre-Election financial reports, a total of $193,698.45 had been raised for their campaigns to date, and $116,991.89 of these funds were spent during that particular filing period.

From this benchmark, let’s see where we can make some improvements…

Increase Voter Registration and Turnout

A 21st century government, in my opinion, analyzes the data behind low voter turnouts; seeks to learn more through resident outreach surveys, town hall meetings, and the like; and then boosts these numbers to facilitate truly representative elections. Let’s work to eliminate systematic disadvantage or disenfranchisement, in any form, within the City of Waltham.

Welcome More Candidates & Inform More Voters

A modern, inclusive, forward-thinking government values and prioritizes accessibility. It nurtures the trend of new candidates and develops enhanced channels to public service. Let’s publish – on the City’s website and elsewhere – more guidance about how to run for office and the expectations of candidates once elected. Let’s see more candidates join the field, and let’s leverage the City’s existing resources to promote informed voting. Local government should own the responsibility of communicating to voters (a.) who has declared themselves as a petitioning candidate, (b.) who has achieved ballot access, (c.) a basic profile and contact information for all public office seekers, and (d.) the issue stances of each eligible candidate based on a list of community-sourced topics.

Reduce the Influence of Money in Politics

If a representative government should function in one regard only, it should exist to sustain itself as an open and fair institution. The informed voting strategies above should be incorporated into the City’s existing budget and framework, for the benefit of all candidates and voters alike. Politics has been a pay-to-play sport, and it’s time to reject that status quo. I would rather see $193,600+ donated towards addressing the community’s needs directly instead of towards its current or potential representatives. A candidate of limited means should have an equal opportunity to serve the public because a candidate’s success should be measured by the quality of his/her ideas, not by the quantity of his/her donors or local connections. By ensuring that candidates’ messages are accessible to all voters without additional campaign dollars, we change the relationship between public office holders and those who seek to support their cause – or influence their judgement – financially.

Reform the Election Process

Regarding the actual voting process, an innovative government is one that considers emerging methods and technologies to better serve its citizens. Ranked Choice Voting is one alternative approach to elections where voters rank all candidates by order of preference instead of choosing one winner. The system then tabulates preference votes per candidate and eliminates the least popular ones in a series of rounds, until one candidate emerges with a true majority of all votes (more than 50%).

• For example, in the 2017 Preliminary Election for Ward One, eventual winner Councillor Romard received only 36% of the local vote. Opponents Daniel Keleher and Matthew Waddick received 33% and 31%, respectively.
  
  
• The current system saw Romard and Keleher proceed to the Municipal Election over a month later, with Romard claiming victory in the end.
  
  
• In Ranked Choice Voting, the 317 voters who supported Waddick would remain in the process if they had marked their second candidate preferences, which would have been done in the same initial trip to the ballot box. The votes would then transfer from the eliminated Waddick to either Romard or Keleher, automatically, to calculate the final winner based on the totality of voter preferences.
  
  
• Romard may have emerged as the victor here anyway, depending on voter choices, but the City could simply eliminate the procedural need for – and the costs associated with – Preliminary Elections if it adopted Ranked Choice Voting.
  
• If, indeed, all 317 Waddick voters had preferred Keleher to Romard at the time of the election, then, after a single episode of Ranked Choice Voting, Ward One may have seated a different Councillor. Additional research is needed to speculate on the feasibility of this outcome. But we can infer, at the very least, that the month spent prior to the Municipal Election spotlighting a ‘Romard versus Keleher’ contest may have been used by voters to more comprehensively weigh their preferences among the three original candidates. Who would have been your first, second, and third choices? That second choice may have been a very important one.
  
  

Overall, proponents of Ranked Choice Voting claim it “Ensures Majority Support….Promotes Diverse Candidates…[and] Curbs Negative Campaigning.” Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is even reportedly interested in bringing Ranked Choice Voting to Massachusetts. As a growing number of municipalities consider this alternative voting system, Waltham can join the forefront of the movement. The City may not choose to adopt this electoral reform in the end, which is totally is fine; some communities may not be interested. But committing to an openness and willingness to innovate is the bigger picture here and one that Waltham voters should demand.

Municipal Services

A 21st century government also strives to continuously deliver more efficient and more effective public services. Its operations are driven by data whenever possible, its procedures evidence-based. It should consider investing in new technologies or leverage further the ones already implemented within its budget.

Even if Waltham excels in this regard currently, we should not allow complacency to impede additional progress. A cursory review of the City’s website yields the following positive observations about its current investments in technology:

• The website utilizes a responsive design and a Google Translate widget, for multi-device and multilingual accessibility.
  
  
• The City offers an online payment option for Real Estate, Personal Property, and Water Bills, Excise Taxes, and Parking Tickets.
  
  
• Public comments may be submitted via a general purpose “Send Us Comments” webform or to specific employees’ contact forms. A separate “Report An Issue” portal is also available.
  
  
• The City utilizes a dedicated emergency alert system via CodeRED while also providing email notifications for various types of website content.
  
  
• The City and many individual departments, boards, or municipal partners manage social media accounts.
  
  
• Other great features available to Waltham residents include online GIS, online and searchable ordinances and City charter, online signup for Recreation programs, and streaming meeting videos, among others.
  
  

Based on my personal interactions with these tools as a resident or derived from my professional experience as a website project manager, I would make the following recommendations as next steps for the City to take full advantage of its available resources:

• Hold personnel to a consistent and proactive standard of timeliness when responding to online messages. In recent memory, I’ve had three timely responses to inquires but a couple of unreturned submissions.
  
  
• Utilize the website’s email notification feature to its fullest extent or remove categories from the signup page -- to manage resident expectations, etc. I have registered for all types of notifications, including twenty-nine (29) variations of minutes and agenda publication alerts, yet it seems I only receive emails for the City’s newsfeed and one or two other categories.
  
  
• Develop a more robust, centralized “Doing Business in Waltham” section of the website to assist both new and seasoned owners in the community.
  
  
• Continue to investigate other services, such as online permitting solutions or financial transparency portals, to augment the City’s already strong portfolio of technology. Similarly, conduct on-going assessments of service usage by residents – and service maintenance by staff – to ensure that the City’s investments have been made appropriately.
  
  

Conclusion

As a millennial, it may be easy for me (or even cliché) to advocate a more digital-driven government. Regarding how government ‘should’ work, some of my ideas may not be that original fundamentally. Yet, I stand for them with a youthful (or naïve) enthusiasm. I would bring inexperience to a council meeting room that has seen representatives with decades-long resumes, yet I choose to run for office all the same. Why should Ward 6 take a chance on me?

My answer is this: look at the City’s plan for our students, for our aspiring youth leaders, and then let me blaze another trail for them from their classrooms to the City Council.

I may be the next Ward 6 Councillor, or I may not. But I want one of those students to be the next Councillor. Or perhaps, if not for the next election cycle, then for the one after that. Or for the one after that. I want this local government to be ready as soon as he or she is ready.

I want to build a 21st century system of governance in which these kids may place their faith, in which they see fairness and justice for all. I want ambition, compassion, and imagination to frame their understanding of public service. I want to do my part to heal the polarization in our society, and then I want another rising star to take that ball and run with it. I want our future leaders to see us take responsibility for and fix the problems that surface under our care, today, so that they may be empowered and focused on the issues that emerge under theirs tomorrow.

The next generation starts today if we let it. Let’s get to work.

Steven Lester is collecting nomination signatures for the Special Preliminary Election for Councillor Ward 6. The filing deadline is Tuesday July 3rd. Please contact him if you would like to see a perspective like this brought to City Council. Thank you for your time and consideration! Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lester4ward6/

(Photo Credit: Pexels.com)