Issues

Lexington is a vibrant community. Joe understands the important challenges and priorities our community faces. As a Member of the Select Board, he consistently collaborates with key stakeholders on the issues while staying focused on what makes Lexington a great place to live, work, and educate our children.

As we move forward, Joe’s priorities are to:

Joe asks tough questions to ensure that every penny spent by the Town is justified. From his first days on the Appropriation Committee to today, he rolls up his sleeves and works to find ways to save residents money.

Fiscal and Economic Development Policy

  • Joe helped usher in new revenue sources for the Town including:
    • more than $400,000 per year being produced by the solar panels on Lexington town facilities and schools.
    • a reduced cost of electricity for the community through the adoption of a program that lowered electricity prices for consumers by more than $2M within its first 18 months.
  • To reduce the tax burden on residents, Joe works to create a better balance between the residential and business tax base. He finds ways to be welcoming to businesses while preserving our residential neighborhoods.
  • To help those who are concerned about being priced out of town, Joe leads the effort to explore tax assistance programs allowed by the state. He put together the Residential Exemption Study Working Group and Study Committee.
  • Joe ensures Lexington stays eligible to borrow so we can use the best rates available to build our school and municipal facilities. During Joe’s time on the Select Board, Lexington has improved its financial reserves and retained the highest bond ratings — allowing us to borrow at the lowest rates.

Environmental Sustainability

Joe is a strong voice and leader to help Lexington move forward in promoting health and safety in our community’s environment. He has:

  • Collaborated with the Sustainable Lexington Committee to propose and then lead the Select Board to adopt the Sustainable Action Plan. This is a roadmap for the Town’s efforts to move forward on issues from finding energy efficiencies to protecting our residents in extreme weather patterns. This comprehensive plan calls for designing buildings that are healthier for our staff and students and are less costly to taxpayers to operate over time. The plan outlines how Lexington can be resilient and effectively adapt to a changing climate.
  • Worked to pass the Getting to NetZero Plan, which seeks to reduce the town’s total greenhouse gas emissions and move us to 100% renewable energy sources.
  • Advocated to adopt a Sustainable Building plan for new and renovated facilities.

Public Safety

Public safety is among Joe’s highest priorities. Through his advocacy, Lexington has:

  • Increased effective spending for road and sidewalk maintenance.
  • Adopted the Complete Streets policy to improve the co-existence of multiple modes of transportation and increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
  • Begun the building of a new Central Fire Station.
  • Included robust safety and accessibility features in the proposed Center Streetscape Project.

Collaboration & Community

Joe believes that we are one community and that the role of a Select Board Member is to balance competing interests and bring people together toward compromise and consensus.

  • As Board chair, Joe led the effort to bring the community together around a school building plan that has expanded the Clarke and Diamond middle schools, added capacity at Bowman, Bridge and Fiske elementary schools, and has led to the reconstruction of the Hastings elementary school.
  • Advocated for and led the community to start the new Hastings School and Lexington Children’s Place public preschool program via a successful debt exclusion.
  • Advocated for a successful debt exclusion for the Middle School Expansion Projects.
  • As Board chair, Joe commissioned the creation of an ad hoc Center Streetscape design committee when community consensus was missing, which led to a balanced proposal unanimously adopted by the Select Board.
  • As a Town Meeting Member and then Select Board Member, he led the effort to bring electronic voting to Town Meeting, providing better transparency to residents for how Town Meeting Members vote and increasing efficiency during meetings.