By Michael Slind
Boston GLOBE, March 19, 2006
Development and how to manage it. Budgets and how to balance them. Those issues highlight the campaigns now getting underway for two open seats on Brookline's Board of Selectmen. The race includes an incumbent selectman, a longtime community leader, a Boston University law professor, a political organizer, and two others.
''There's a lot of unfinished business, and I want to be a part of it," said Robert L. Allen, chairman of the board, who recently decided to run for a third term. He noted his role in creating the Brookline Comprehensive Plan for 2005-2015, and said he wants to help implement that plan in a way that promotes ''the continued fiscal integrity of the town."
''I'm very concerned that we continue to have the quality of life that people come to this town for," said Betsy DeWitt, a 22-year Town Meeting member who retired this year as executive director of the Brookline Community Foundation. Her priority as selectwoman, she said, would be to build consensus around the best way to deal with ''enormous pressure from developers."
''There's a perception in town that the town government has gone into [certain projects] as if there's a fait accompli. . . . I think that's the definition of elitism," said Julius B. Levine, a former Town Meeting member who has taught law at BU since 1969. The founding director of the Brookline Neighborhood Alliance, Levine suggested that too often selectmen have given residents' concerns ''short shrift." He also emphasized his interest in protecting the town against public health hazards.
''The broad theme of my campaign is inclusiveness and increasing transparency," said Jesse Mermell, a Town Meeting member and a 2002 graduate of Boston College who has directed statewide political organizations. As her top campaign issues, Mermell listed ''maintaining fiscal stability" and ''making sure neighbors and neighborhoods are involved early on" in any major development project.
Two others, Susan F. Allen (no relation to Robert Allen) and Andrew Ghobrial, submitted papers to run by the filing deadline, which was March 14. Neither was available for comment.
Those six candidates will be on the ballot when Brookliners vote in a townwide election on May 2. The top two vote recipients will join -- or in Allen's case, rejoin -- the town's five-member executive board. Each selectman serves a three-year term.
For several candidates, fund-raising has already begun in earnest. Allen disclosed that he has ''a pretty good war chest right now," with about $17,000 in hand for his reelection run. DeWitt, who has a kickoff event planned for next week, said she is just starting to solicit contributions. Mermell, who kicked off her campaign this month, has raised money but wouldn't say how much. Levine said his decision on whether to raise money was ''still under consideration."
Allen grew up near Brookline Village and now operates a law practice in that district. His father was on the town police force. ''I come from a blue-collar background, and frankly, we're losing a lot of that. Economic diversity is just as important as any other type of diversity," he said. Rising property taxes are one reason why few Brookline police officers can afford to live in the town, he said.
Allen therefore favors development. ''If you have no growth, then you have a stagnant community," he said. In response to those who worry about threats to neighborhood integrity, he points to the Comprehensive Plan. That document, he said, ''is both a sword and a shield. It gives you a way to fight bad development."
DeWitt, too, sees finding a balanced approach to growth as the town's main challenge today. ''Brookline needs to be as sophisticated about development as any developer is," she said. DeWitt acknowledges that among some residents, ''there's a great feeling of disaffection" about the town's handling of some high-profile projects.
How would she counter that trend? ''I have a long history of relationships with people all across the political spectrum," said DeWitt, who has served with groups ranging from the Lincoln School Parent Teacher Organization to the town Advisory Committee. ''I believe in a big tent."
Levine appears to be following loosely in the political footsteps of Selectman Michael S. Sher, whose decision not to run again this year leaves an open seat on the board. On at least two occasions in recent months, Sher suggested that the board was failing to hold town staff accountable for alleged mismanagement. Levine, citing his experience as an assistant district attorney of Norfolk County, said, ''I would be very thoroughgoing as a selectman to investigate any wrongdoing."
Asked about his number-one issue, Levine said that he would work to protect the town against public health hazards, including the spread of avian flu and the possibility of contamination from the Level 4 biolab that is being built in the South End. Levine noted that many Brookline residents will likely work in that facility. ''We've got to be very vigilant about those Level 4 pathogens," he said.
For her part, Mermell said keeping the town's fiscal situation in order is her top priority. ''Having balanced the budget of two statewide nonprofit organizations certainly speaks to the budget demands of being a selectman," she said. Mermell serves as executive director of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus and was previously the head of Massachusetts Democratic Future.
Another priority for Mermell, as for the others, involves managing growth.
''There will be development, and there should be development," she said. ''But that development needs to be suitable for the town aesthetically, in terms of density."
© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
