Shop Talk: Q&A with Joe O'Brien, City of Worcester
Photo/Christina H. Davis
Joe O'Brien, Mayor, City of Worcester.
Visit the mayor’s office at Worcester City Hall and it’s obvious that Joe O’Brien has hit the ground running. Boxes ring the office where attempts to unpack have clearly been interrupted by more pressing matters. O’Brien was sworn in as mayor Jan. 4 after beating out incumbent Konstantina Lukes in the November election. And now he faces the tough task of being a part-time elected leader helping to run a city that has more than its fair share of challenges. Here, O’Brien discusses his top priorities as he looks ahead into 2010.
As you hit the ground running, what’s been at the top of your priority list?
The first thing was education and schools. We had to do this Race to the Top memorandum of understanding, which would make us eligible for federal funding. That took a lion’s share of my first week. The second piece that we’re going to be tackling over the next couple of weeks is putting together the names for a working group on job growth and retention. That’s pretty critical for me. One of the pledges I made is to put together this group to look at tax classification, look at what other incentives we need to provide and look at how we’re organized on the economic development side.
If there are business people that are interested in getting involved with that group, what should they do?
They should call this office. Obviously we won’t be able to put everyone on the committee, but we’ll try to be as transparent as possible with these meetings and make information accessible. I assume we’ll have a couple of public forums where we’ll take input from people. There will be a preference given to folks that own a business and live here. Why’s that important? Because if you’re going to make a decision about tax classification, it helps if you also see the issue not only as a business owner but also as a property owner.
With the dual tax rate, there’s a sense from business people in the city that it’s never going to change. What do you say to that?
I can’t promise that it’s going to change. That’s why I think this committee is going to be about more than one issue. There were a whole host of things that I heard from business leaders when I was out in the community — things that we can do differently, do better. We need to look at the whole broad array of what are we doing to attract businesses and help businesses grow besides the tax rate, which is going to be part of the discussion… I hope that we come out with a list of action items that this committee is going to ask the council to consider and maybe there might be some items for a state delegation as well.
WEB ONLY: What does your education background - degrees in urban studies and public administration -- give you in this position?
I think the academic background gives me a framework to start to think about things... to analyze things. There are some tools I learned about in school to analyze data. I think my experience at Harvard also gave me some opportunity to see best practices in other communities and the value of best practices. I would say that smart mayors recognize that they don't actually come up with a whole lot of unique new ideas. Instead smart mayors go out and look at other communities that successfully approach problems and adapt those ideas to their own community. I don't kid myself to think that I'm the smartest guy in the room, but I'm smart enough to know that someone else has probably faced that problem.
What do you see as the mayor’s role?
I have great respect for the city manager. He does a great job and he runs the day-to-day operations of the city when it comes to economic development. I do think it’s the job of the mayor to convene people and bring people together as this working group will, to kind of bring new ideas to the table. The other job of the mayor is to partner with the manager to advocate for the region. And the third part is a really important part, which is the role as legislative and policy advocate. The city manager can’t go to the State House on every issue. He’s pretty busy running the city. So I think part of the role of the mayor is to go to the State House.
Are there any particular state issues that you see as being very critical?
I think on the short-term for some budget relief, certainly some of these things that impact the city’s overall financial health. One is the pension extension. We’ve been fairly good stewards of our pension fund and we’re asking to extend some of those pension payments on the short term. Then there’s a whole package of stuff under the Gateway Cities Initiative that includes economic development tools and incentives that would be unique to these gateway cities [like Worcester].
WEB ONLY: Do you know where that stands?
It hasn't advanced very far. The problem is that we have a unique set of circumstances as Gateway Cities and the general response of the legislature is that if they pass a set of incentive, they want every town and city to be able to enjoy those. We have advantages and disadvantages as an older industrial city and therefore we're going need some unique tools. We do have a bit of a disincentive when we're competing with more suburban sites.
So when you go home after what I imagine is a long day, what makes you go, “Okay, I’m glad I took this job”?
I am energized and enthusiastic because there has been a nonstop stream of people that have come into this office who have said we’ve got a great city, and that they have some great ideas on ways they can help.
Watch as Mayor Joe O'Brien talks about the four things he'd like to see improved when his two year term as mayor comes up in 2012:
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