Today was the fall tree planting for the Newton Tree Conservancy. 76 new street trees were planted in 6 neighborhoods by their residents, volunteers and members of the Tree Conservancy with some help from the City Urban Forestry and Parks and Recreation depts.

I was with the group around Woodlawn Dr. We planted 12 trees in about an hour and a half.

Unfortunately Newton is removing more trees that it can plant so these efforts help to reduce the impact and maintain our urban forest.

This year’s campaigns are now over with a win for Area Council but a loss for Charter Commission. I do want to thanks the many people that encouraged me to run for the Charter Commission, the people that helped me during the race, the voters who cast a vote in my favor, the individuals and groups providing endorsements and the other candidates for the enjoyable interchanges along the way.

I learned quite a lot about running for a citywide office in Newton and would encourage others wavering about mounting a challenge for elected office to go for it. Worst case is meeting many great folks living and working in our community.

When I tell voters that I do not have a specific plan for changes to the charter I often get a question like, “Why run if you don’t want to change something?” In my case running is less a question of what to change and more a question of how we should go about the review.

I first became impassioned about the role of the Charter Review Commission when I attended a meeting of the LWVN on their charter review recommendations early in the signature drive. One recommendation was the abolishment of Area Councils. At that time we had the single Area Council in the Highlands but we were starting to see interest for forming others.

For me this was a sign that an important part of my local government was not understood by a group looking over the charter. While my Ward Alderman lived three doors down from me, it was the Area Council that was our link to the city government. The Area Council assumed the role of keeping us informed about what was going on in the city and the Highlands.

My running for this position is not to preserve the charter as written or make sure Area Councils survive. I am looking at my role as leading to deeper understanding of what we have now and how changes to the charter would affect the city and its residents.

I am Groot Gregory and a resident of Newton for a little over 20 years. I have been an advocate and active participant promoting STEM education since moving to Massachusetts in 1987 and more recently extending my activities to City affairs through the Newton Highlands Area Council.

I am running for the Charter Review Commission to investigate and suggest ways to improve how our City is structured so its residents have a greater voice in the policy process and so we can reduce the politics in making small local decisions. I feel residents are able to affect changes on a block by block basis but feel left out when envisioning what we all want Newton to be and become in the future. I believe the Charter offers this opportunity and I believe that I can play a positive role evaluating potential changes, evaluating the benefits and consequences, and presenting a plan to the whole community.

I have stated that I like the idea and the role that Neighborhood Area Councils can play, providing community engagement and a focused forum for our diverse villages. I am not a fan of term limits but can see staggered terms as a way of promoting more competitive electoral races. And the question of City Council (BOA) size must be coupled with the roles and responsibility we, as residents, bestow upon our elected officials.

I have limited experience in the public domain spending most of my career in the private technology sector. In industry, my job is comprised of listening to the market, proposing product changes, and building consensus within my organization to improve what we can offer. In my mind, those skills are not too far from what will be needed on the Charter Commission.

I look forward to hearing from you and ask for your vote on November 3rd.

Groot Gregory
296 Lake Ave
www.grootgregory.com

Note: This statement is posted to Village 14 and the Newton Tab Blog.

I have decided to run again for the Highlands Area Council and will be finishing signature collection over the Labor Day weekend.

Update: Looks like we only have 6 candidates on the ballot for the Area Council this time. We do seem to have a few residents who are mounting Write In campaigns so it could be a good election in Nov.

According to the Newton Election’s site I received at least 100 certified signatures and will be on the ballot.

I submitted my nomination papers today and look forward to officially joining the other candidates for the Charter Commission.

I was at the farmer’s market today collecting nomination signatures for the Charter Review Commission. I met several people interested in learning more about the process and and potential changes to consider. Of course I also spoke to a few likely to vote no on establishing the review concerned that change is not always a good thing.

I had the pleasure of running into fellow candidates Bryan Barash, Jane Frantz and Chris Steele.