Town of Braintree Massachusetts: Mayor

Inaugural Address

A Better Tomorrow
January 2, 2008

With a deep awareness of the responsibility that you have entrusted in me and an appreciation of our past and a commitment to create a better tomorrow, I take this oath of office with gratitude and affection for this town we call home.

Our town’s history is replete with excellence in a variety of endeavors from politics to industry to athletics .Whether it is in the White House or West Point, a science lab or the Summer Olympics, sons and daughters of Braintree have gone forward to excel and to change the world. And today I confidently proclaim that Braintree, our town, is once again poised for greatness. I pledge we will strive everyday to meet the high standards that our history has set and provide the people of Braintree with the quality of government they deserve.

I have been blessed in my life to grow up in a family environment that encouraged the awareness of others; to earn the A for effort and to contribute towards the greater good.

As a boy, I delivered newspapers in my neighborhood, attended Ross Elementary School and at 3:30 on a busy afternoon I would weave my Stingray bicycle between the cars of idling traffic along Hayward Street as the Fore River Shipyard shift let go for the afternoon.

I was a boy who played at Adams Park and bought a tonic at the East Braintree Fire Station. I played Little League at Watson Park and if I got real adventurous – during my Junior High days – I would peddle my ten speed bike to the Highlands to meet up with friends who lived across town.

I graduated from this High School just over 30 years ago – class of ’77 – and it was here in this building, in these classrooms and on the adjacent playing fields that I was prepared for life. It was here that I first developed an interest in government. A spark was lit at that time, and with the encouragement of my family – I studied hard to understand the workings of government and to better understand human nature-to understand people. For in the final analysis the purpose of government is to serve the people and no form of government can succeed without the investment and support and the energy and effort of people.

The people of Braintree provide our town’s soul and its substance. And like so many other communities throughout this state and across our land, the people of Braintree work hard every day to provide for their families, a task that has not grown any easier in recent years. Yet, despite the challenges they face, the people of Braintree find some reason to believe. They give time and energy to their children, their churches, their charities and their town.

It is the community of Braintree both past and present that I speak to and about today. It is important to acknowledge that we are the beneficiaries of a multitude of sacrifices made by our predecessors. They have set for us not only an example of excellence but have also demonstrated the importance of commitment, of perseverance. John Quincy Adams, a great son of Braintree stated that “patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” The patience and perseverance of our predecessors have brought us this far. They have provided us with this opportunity to excel. We must now be inspired by their words and work. If we honor our past by doing our own hard work, we too can achieve magic and make our present-day difficulties and obstacles vanish.

H.L. Mencken once said, “there is usually a simple answer to a complex problem and it is usually wrong.”

The issues we face are complex and Menken’s words are appropriate today. There are no simple answers – no easy solutions to the challenge that we confront in changing the operations of Braintree’s government and transforming our town to be properly equipped for an unknown, yet exciting future.

More than anything else, I feel the need to underline the historic opportunity that we have been given to usher in a new era in the governance of our town. For too many years, our government structure – despite the good work of many – has not allowed us to be efficient financially nor as effective on the delivery side that we can be.

With our new structure, which commences today, we can do better in the operations of our government and we will.

Our townspeople have placed their trust in us and have a level of expectation that our performance, on their behalf, will improve. We shall not disappoint them.

Further, although improvements we are to embark upon must be implemented in a deliberate fashion, there exists, properly so, a sense of urgency to get about the task of reforming, reorganizing, and reworking our government, in a manner and a time frame that recognizes the importance of thinking creatively, strategically, and decisively towards the betterment of Braintree.

In short, we need to get about the task of reshaping our government into a technologically driven, management focused, performance enhanced model. And we will.

All that we hope to accomplish – improving our already high-performing schools, fixing our crumbling infrastructure, roads and public buildings, beautifying our town to create a standard of quality and the promotion of civic pride, upgrading our parks and recreational facilities, focusing upon the delivery of town services-from the vital public safety responsibilities of the police and fire departments to the daily removal of trash ,and the many other functions of town governments – our efforts to improve upon these activities will not be fully complete in six months, a year or perhaps two years from now – but let us begin now so that today’s effort will create a better tomorrow for Braintree.

There is a story told of a gardener who worked in the White House. One day he was asked by President Kennedy to plant a tree on the White House lawn.
The gardener replied, “Mr. President, if I plant a tree at that site it will take years to grow and bloom and you won’t see the beauty of it for some time.”
“In that case,” the president replied, “plant the tree this afternoon.”

So let us begin our planting, with the confidence that our efforts will yield beauty for years to come. Let us mark our new beginning – our new era for Braintree – with a pledge to do better every day – to persevere regardless of the obstacles placed before us-and let us invite all our town’s people whether you have lived in Braintree for 2 months, 20 years, or a lifetime, to join in our new government as we shape a new beginning – and a better tomorrow for Braintree. Thank you.