Biographical information
I’m 61 years old and grew up in a suburb of Chicago. I attended Purdue University on a Naval ROTC scholarship graduating with a BS in nuclear engineering in 1986. Upon graduation I served eight years as a surface warfare officer, including four years aboard a frigate making two deployments to Europe.
My last duty station was at the Newport Naval Base where I met my wife, Keli. We’ve been married for 32 years and moved into our home in Mendon in 1996. We have a 26-year-old son, Conor, who is currently serving as a Marine Infantry Officer, and a 24-year-old daughter, Kacy, who works in retail on Long Island.
After leaving the Navy I’ve worked as a project engineer in several different sectors of the economy and for the past 14 years, served as an operations leader for a military contractor that coordinates the movement of household goods for U.S. military service members as they move from one duty station to another.
How long have you lived in Mendon?
30 years this coming September. We moved into our house on Labor Day weekend 1996
What professional or volunteer experience will you bring to this role?
The two most impactful skills I will bring to my role as a member of the Select Board are problem solving and leadership. Throughout my 40-year working career, I’ve had the privilege of leading teams responsible for achieving operational goals for the organizations they serve. This experience, coupled with the training I’ve received, has allowed me to become proficient at observing a current condition and then developing an effective plan of action with regard to how to bring about the desired new end-state condition to include considerations for project timeline, staffing, roles and responsibilities, budget, risk management, and effective communication with all stake holders. My project management experience has equipped me very well with being able to bring parties together in a cooperative manner as we strive to achieve a goal.
Why did you decide to run for Select Board?
Service to things other than one’s own self-interest is very important to me. At almost 62 years old, I’m at a stage in my life where I can commit more time to the Mendon community and I recognized an opportunity to serve.
Please describe other Mendon activities you’ve been involved with, including any other elected or appointed positions.
I coached Mendon junior baseball for eight years and served on the baseball board for six years in several roles.
What values guide your public service?
I am guided in both my personal as well as professional life by an unbending commitment to integrity and character. These shape at all times how I interact with others. I do my utmost to always behave ethically and honestly. I say what I mean and mean what I say. It’s important to me to demonstrate through my actions that I can be trusted as well as counted on to deliver.
I’m a certified “Character Does Matter” youth mentor with the Travis Manion Foundation, which is an organization that empowers veterans and families of fallen service members to develop character in future generations. The foundation’s ethos is “If Not Me, Then Who?”
How do you make decisions when there’s no perfect option?
It’s rare that perfect options are available. Rather, big decisions tend to require effectively navigating good and bad outcomes as well as risk and reward. I am one that believes details matter very much. When presented with a decision, I do my best to understand all impactful details. As part of this process, it’s important to solicit opinion from all stakeholders and those that are closest to the details. I purposefully attempt to allow the details to guide my decision and avoid anecdotal or personal bias from having meaningful impact.
What do you see as the three greatest challenges facing the town and what should the Select Board be doing to meet these challenges?
1. Fiscal preparedness and discipline to get ready for a drastic pullback by the federal government with regard to financial support to the states. The current federal administration has already voiced the opinion in specific areas that it will pull back aid and support and force the states to handle these items themselves.
The current federal plan is to completely shut down the Department of Education. This, along with recent court rulings that the tariff approaches undertaken by the federal government are unlawful and all monies need to be paid back, I believe will extremely challenge the federal government financially. In addition, the nation has just passed an annual interest on the debt of 1 trillion dollars for the first time. I anticipate very significant austerity measures on the horizon at the federal level, which will in turn challenge our town significantly. We need to consider this in detail now and develop an effective plan to build our sustainability fund and free cash to levels we believe will be sufficient to address substantial budgetary cost increases.
2. Continued attention to infrastructure projects such as roads. I’m aware of many sections of roadway in need of effective asphalt repair. It’s my understanding that in the near future the highway department will be purchasing a new asphalt milling machine, which will allow the department to perform more substantial repair of asphalt road sections as opposed to simply patching potholes.
I’d like to see the creation of a current assessment report of all road conditions to support the development of an effective repair plan based on the opportunities resulting from the use of the new milling machine. Similarly, with the fact that considerable reconstruction work will be occurring on the Providence Street culvert, I’d like to see an assessment completed of all culverts and similar structures in the town so that an appropriate plan of action can be developed to ensure safe and effective conditions are maintained rather than only responding to failure.
3. Continue to foster and develop a sense of community throughout the town. I believe it’s important that there is a strong sense of “we are all in this together for the common good.” With each passing year I continue to be concerned that there are some that allow their selfish interests to impact their approach to issues faced by the town. This coupled with an ever-growing distrust of government institutions can erode a healthy and positive outlook toward one’s community. To counter this, I believe it’s meaningful to engage as many residents as possible and listen to what’s important to them and what they’d like to see happen here in town. When we feel that we are genuinely being heard and listened to, we are more likely to want to be involved. Our town needs as many residents as we can to want to be involved in our community and help serve the common good. It’s meaningful that elected officials are demonstrating through their actions that their highest purpose is to serve their constituents.
How would you balance long-term planning with immediate needs?
There are positives to be gained by approaching the financial management of the town like one considers their own family household budget. Resources are limited and effective prioritization is crucial. When considering large personal expenditures, I start by asking myself, do I need this or do I just want it? In addition, I work hard to gather and deeply consider all the details associated with each line item of expenditure. Armed with this information, I then attempt to prioritize the items.
Next, I allocate resources to each item keeping in mind a higher allocation goes with a need as opposed to a want or nice-to-have. Similarly, there is a higher level of commitment to those nearer-term needs as compared to needs that have a longer time horizon.
Hopefully there are enough resources to cover the needs while leaving some left over that long-term planning can be considered. If this is not the case, then I concentrate on the needs. Long-term planning is possible as long as needs, especially those that have been determined to be immediate, are first properly addressed.
Having said this, over the past two months of attending Select Board meetings and becoming familiar with the details of the town’s financial position, I believe our community is currently in a good place. This has been achieved through the efforts of the Select Board to effectively meet needs while also giving an eye to future planning over the past several years and it deserves the appreciation of our residents.
Mendon Commons sent questionnaires to each of the 13 candidates running for town office in the May 19 election. We are publishing the responses through May 18.
