Cities and Towns About To Get New State Partner

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito sat down Wednesday with Rappaport Institute visiting fellow Danielle Cerny to take stock of the last eight years of state-local government relations. [Screenshot]

Colin A. Young, SHNS

In an event that at times felt like it was capping off the Baker-Polito years, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito on Wednesday sat down with a researcher from the Harvard Kennedy School's Rappaport Institute to take stock of the last eight years of state-local government relations.

Like other governors, Gov. Charlie Baker made collaboration between state and local governments a central part of his governing philosophy early on. Polito, who like Baker had served on her town's select board, took on the role of municipal liaison and ingratiated herself with mayors, selectmen and town administrators all across the Bay State. Within a few years, each of Massachusetts' 351 cities and towns had signed onto a "community compact" that featured state help to pursue at least two best practices and, the researcher said, local leaders were buzzing about the administration's partnership.

"We set out a few months ago to try to understand what was happening on the ground, what was so different about the way that this administration was working with cities and towns that we kept hearing about," Danielle Cerny, a former deputy chief of staff to former Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo who is now a visiting fellow at the Rappaport Institute, said. "And what were the pieces? Did it really work? Could we bottle it, particularly as we start to prepare for transitions here and elsewhere. How could we try to capture this?"

Cerny's policy brief, titled "Empowering Cities And Towns: The Baker-Polito Approach To Local Collaboration And Capacity Building," settled on four underlying principles that other administrations could tap into to replicate the Baker-Polito approach: First, cities and towns need to be a priority from the top down. Next, if the state is going to ask municipalities for feedback, it has to be willing to listen and follow through on at least some of that feedback. Third, making modest investments in local capacity building can result in significant improvements. And finally, states should strive to consolidate and simplify funding opportunities, and make sure that municipalities know how to access them.

"Something that really struck me while writing this piece, and particularly talking to local leaders, was that the approach added up to more than just the sum of its parts," Cerny said. "It's not just a handful of programs. It really was a new working relationship between the state and cities and towns."

Polito said both she and Baker were molded by the "informative, inspiring, and very meaningful" work they did as members of the Shrewsbury and Swampscott boards of selectmen, respectively. She said she and Baker feel that local government is "the least appreciated, but should be most valued."

"When you think about when you go out to vote, the least participated in in terms of voting [is] a municipal election, yet [it] is the most essential part of government because it is the delivery directly delivering the service that touches people's lives," Polito said. "And we feel strongly that people judge how things are going not so much by the headlines on the evening news or their Twitter account, it's really how they feel when they wake up every day where they are. Can they rely on that bus to get their kids to school? Are their roads and sidewalks in shape that is presentable? Are there potholes and other problems? Can they rely on their emergency services to be there? Is their community safe?"

Baker, who gave brief introductory comments at Wednesday's event, said the policy brief is "a terrific sort of view as to what it looks like when you take a concept and then brick by brick, turn it into something special."

"That's exactly what happened," Baker said. "And it wouldn't have happened without the help of a lot of people but it especially wouldn't have happened without a lieutenant governor who really wanted to make this something unique, different and sustainable."

Cerny had ties to Massachusetts state government -- and the Baker administration -- before she embarked on her research. She was previously constituent affairs director and legislative director for former Sen. Susan Fargo, and she worked from mid-2014 to mid-2015 (the end of the Patrick administration and early months of the Baker administration) as social innovation finance manager at the Executive Office of Administration and Finance. Her tenure working with Raimondo in Rhode Island included a year and a half as chief performance officer before eight months as deputy chief of staff.

A few hours ahead of the Baker and Polito event at Harvard, Democrat Maura Healey spoke to the Massachusetts Mayors' Association and promised that she and running mate Kim Driscoll are committed to "partnering with the state's local leaders to make Massachusetts more affordable and grow the economy" if elected in November to succeed Baker and Polito.

"Working together with all of you, we will make Massachusetts more affordable, increase housing supply in every region, and fix our roads, bridges and public transportation. Massachusetts' mayors should know that they will always have a partner in the Healey-Driscoll administration," Healey said.

Driscoll has been mayor of Salem since 2005 and has suggested that she would maintain a focus on local governments if she's elected lieutenant governor.

"So many of the challenges we have at the state level we can't really fully address unless there's action at the local level, whether it's housing, transportation, infrastructure, early ed, or the climate crisis," Driscoll told the News Service in June. "All of these things need and require local communities to be working in concert with state officials to achieve success."

As a mayor, Driscoll has had a close-up look at how Polito and the Baker administration handle municipal affairs, and she came away impressed.

"We've had a really strong relationship with Charlie Baker as governor," Driscoll said in July 2018, when she declined to throw her support beyond Democrat Jay Gonzalez. "He's been a municipal official. Many of the folks in his Cabinet have been. I really value some of the work that we're doing with his team."

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Leah Allen told the News Service this summer that she envisions herself spending most of her time outside of the State House connecting with residents and local leaders one-on-one. She said that she wants to prioritize school funding, especially as districts contend with pandemic learning setbacks, and would also like to see religious exemptions for vaccination remain in place.