Dionne Takes On Role Leading Belmont’s Select Board

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Photo: Elizabeth Dionne, new chair of the Belmont Select Board

You’ll never have to ask Elizabeth Dionne her position on an issue. The Select Board’s new leader will tell you exactly where she stands, and sometimes she acknowledges, it done standing on someone’s toes.

During her 15 months on the board, colleagues, town officials, and committee heads have been on the receiving end of one of Dionne’s frank assessments on how they are performing their job (or lack thereof) or if they appear to be impeding forward progress in what she believes is Belmont’s future.

“What I ran [for the Select Board in 2023] I was trying to put the town on a secure financial footing so that we can provide excellent services and world class schools. And that’s going to be uncomfortable, because it’s going to require some major change,” she said.

While eager to express her opinion, Dionne isn’t seeking to initiate a dust-up.

“I don’t love making people uncomfortable. I’m uncomfortable when I make others uncomfortable,” she said Monday. “That’s not fun, but sometimes it’s just the right thing to do.”

Since July 1, Dionne has been the third woman to chair Belmont’s three-member elected executive board, following Ann Taubes Warner (1994) and Ann Marie Mahoney (2004).

“I have really big shoes to fill,” said Dionne. “Ann Paulson [who served from 1986-1992] and Ann Marie Mahoney are both remarkable women and leaders, and I’ve learned a lot from both of them.”

Dionne’s ascendency to the top rung of town governance—which is preordained as board members rotate into the post during their second year—presents the opportunity to highlight an agenda that heavily focuses on reconfiguring the town’s fiscal base.

“Finances, finances, finances … that’s the foundation on which everything else rests,” she said. And while the town administration has effected meaningful efficiencies through policy changes including those recommended in the Collins Report, “at a certain point you need more bodies. We need more asphalt. We need more concrete.”

Those changes included revamping the zoning bylaws to promote a “friendlier” environment for businesses and developers by promoting commercial investment and attracting retail to Belmont’s business centers.

“We can’t say ‘no’ to new business and ‘no’ to new taxes and have good schools. You’d have two or three, but not all three. So if we want to try to moderate the rate of tax increases, we’ve have to have commercial and business development because everybody wants good schools. Nobody wants to say, ‘oh let’s have poor schools that we keep our taxes low.’ That’s not where Belmont is.”

To achieve this overriding goal, Dionne is committing to a far-reaching strategic approach. She accepts that for many years, the select board and town officials had to be reactive due to the pandemic, various overrides, and continual budget cuts. But past excuses are now seen as self-imposed barriers to the required change.

“I’m really tired of being reactionary and really tired of constantly chasing the next override,” she said.

“I think we’re all really trying to look at a future vision and to ask questions to which we may not have the answers, but at least asking those questions will guide the decisions that we make and where we try to lead the town. And it’s always a balance. I have ideas and I want to lead on those.”

Some of those include partnering with the Planning Board to create a retail vacancy bylaw, protect open space, and develop a traffic-controlling plan. In the long term, Dionne points to rewriting bylaws to promote hotel construction and overhaul the zoning map in West Belmont.

In some areas, change has already arrived. She notes zoning bylaw reform in the past year including restaurant zoning and restaurant parking, removal of specific special permits on business improvements, and the ongoing MBTA Communities Act plan that will come before a Special Town Meeting in November.

“Change can’t simply come from the Select Board’s initiatives; it will require a commitment and agreement from all stakeholders in town,” said Dionne. One of her first initiatives as chair will be meeting with committee chairs, and “both tell them what [the board] wants to prioritize but also hear from them so that it’s a two-way communication.”

“There is no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all approach to financial challenges. It must be a multifaceted effort,” she said. She will continue to seek town committees to find solutions or write the changes, as she did utilizing the Vision 21 Implementation Committee and Economic Development Committee on the new restaurant bylaws.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m very wide but not very deep because I can’t do both. So I really try to identify people who I know are going deep into a topic who I trust to give me accurate information and have the integrity to be honest. Because if I can trust information from those sources, then I can start to strategically put the pieces together for a larger vision for the town,” she said.

During her year at the board’s helm, Dionne said she is eager for residents and business owners to see her as a listening post with their concerns or suggestions.

“What I bring to the position is maybe a certain humility in terms of a willingness to listen and learn from others, and also a certain sensitivity as to people who feel maybe left out or not heard,” Dionne said.

sugar coating her views

“I don’t love making people uncomfortable. I’m uncomfortable when I make others uncomfortable,” she said Monday. “That’s not fun, but sometimes it’s just the right thing to do.”

In a generational moment, Dionne becomes just the third woman to chair Belmont’s three member elected executive board, following Anne Warner (1994) and Ann Marie Mahoney (2004) in that post.

“I have really big shoes to fill. Ann Paulson and Ann Marie Mahoney are both remarkable women, and leaders, and I’ve learned a lot from both of them.”

Dionne’s ascendency to the top rung was preordained since board members rotate into the post during the second year of their tenure. She will direct

“What I bring to the position is maybe a certain humility in terms of a willingness to listen and learn from others, and also a certain sensitivity as to people who feel maybe left out or not heard,” Dionne said. One of her first one initiatives as chair is to start meeting with committee chairs, and both tell them what [the board] wants to prioritize but also hear from them so that it’s a two-way communication.

1:12
like that. Absolutely. That’s very important too. I will do my best to be at as many of them as I can. It’s honestly a lot of what my job is is talking to people.

Various people have have different strengths.

My strength is a strategic view. So sometimes I feel like I’m very wide but not very deep because I can’t do both. So I really try to identify people who I know are going deep into a topic who I trust to give me accurate information and have the integrity to be honest. Because if I can trust information from those sources, then I can start to strategically put the pieces together for a larger vision for the town.

1:54
If anybody has been following the Select Board, they know that you’re somebody who is willing to speak your mind and speak it very clearly and very strong. How are you going to be leading the board? Is it going to be an activist board or is it going to be more of a let’s do something board you know,

2:13
well aren’t an activist outlet do something kind of the same? How would you distinguish them?

2:18

The board has had to be reactive, the pandemic, the various overrides, having to continually cut budgets. So there have been a lot of really challenging situations. I think both when Mark Pula was still on the board when I first joined a nail with Matt Taylor, we have become a much more strategic active board. I think we’re all really trying to look at a future vision and to ask questions to which we may not have the answers, but at least asking those questions will guide the decisions that we make and where we try to lead the town. And it’s always a balance. I have ideas I want to lead on those. So

3:14
what are some of those goals?

3:16
Well, you heard them to lead it’s what I ran on.

What I ran on was trying to put the County town on a secure financial footing so that we can provide excellent services and world class schools. That’s going to be uncomfortable, because it’s going to require some change. We can’t We can’t say no to new business, and no two new taxes and have good schools. You’d have two or three but not all three. So if we want to try to moderate the rate of tax increases, we’ve got to have commercial and business development because everybody wants good schools. Nobody wants to say oh, let’s have poor schools that we keep our taxes low. That’s not where Belmont is.

you’re willing to put a red line

4:12
on commercial, right, because I promised I promised that to the voters. That’s what I said I

4:37

Moriarty Elected New Chair Of Belmont School Committee

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Photo: Meg Moriarty is the new chair of the Belmont School Committee

Just starting her second year on the Belmont School Committee, Meghan Moriarty will now be leading the six-member board after being elected unanimously the new chair at the committee’s organizational meeting held on Tuesday, April 12.

Noting that the newly-constituted committee was “starting off on a good foot” as it begun the regular meeting 10 minutes early, Moriarty thanked her colleagues for their vote of confidence in her.

“As we go forward this year, I think we all know it’s really important that we all work together and with the administration [we can] improve upon the education system,” said Moriarty. “I think too often we say [we want] to maintain the excellent education system that we have in Belmont. But I think that there are areas that we all agree on right now that need to be improved” pointing to equity issues, math scores and the mental health and social emotional

Moriarty said over the coming year the committee must prioritize its relationship with the “greater community” that elected them. She than recognized “all the hard work” her predecessor as chair, Amy Checkoway, had committed to over the past year.

Checkoway will be supporting Moriarty as the committee’s newly-elected Secretary.

The mother of two, Moriarty runs MegMor Research and Evaluation which helps organizations assess the impact of Science Technology Engineering & Math (STEM) programming. She matriculated at Brown (BA) and earned her master’s and doctorate in education (science education) from Boston University.

Checkoway Named School Committee Chair. Vice Chair? Let’s Wait On That

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Photo: A Zoom capture of Amy Checkoway

Amy Checkoway was unanimously elected chair of the Belmont School Committee at its organizational meeting a week after the Town Election. She takes over the reins of the six member board from Andrea Prestwich.

An education policy researcher for a large international consulting firm, Checkoway enters her third year on the committee having won a seat in 2019.

“I’m really committed to building and fostering really strong working relationships with all members of the committee, with our town leaders and perhaps most importantly with our community,” said the Pequossette Road resident, adding there is also a need to improve the committee’s governance structure, decision making and communications.

“I don’t think I have all the answers. I recognize what a challenging time this is, and the trust that needs to be repaired on many fronts,” she told the committee.

Newcomer Meg Moriarty was named the committee’s secretary.

A request to create the position of vice chair to the committee never got a chance to be voted as the committee decided to spend the fortnight between gatherings to allow the proposal to sit and wait.

Committee member Mike Crowley noted the need for the new post was necessary due to the avalanche of work Prestwich undertook during the height of the pandemic without a designated second in line to help manage it.

“The role of the chair in ordinary times, it can be an overwhelming amount of workload,” said Crowley. “It would be very helpful to be able to share the work that the chair currently has as their responsibility in order for this committee to be more effective,” said Crowley.

Prestwich, who led the committee for nearly the past year, said it was not just the volume of work but also the wide range of meetings – executive, negotiating, finance – that requires coverage.

While the vice chair position would be similar to the Select Board’s post, Moriarty wondered if anyone would wish to undertake the position noting that no one was eager to step into the secretary’s role – Moriarty was nominated for the role and accepted after one member deferred and the four remaining members were left quietly eyeing the others resembling a scene from the western “Deadwood.”

“That’s a very fair point,” said Checkoway.

While she acknowledges the need for the position, member Kate Bowen felt it would be helpful to have clearer guidance about the leadership roles and spreading the authority.

While Crowley pointed to an urgency to vote to add the vice chair position since the burden and volume facing the chair remains considerable, the measure was tabled as there are two new members who weren’t involved in previous dialogue, and despite having been discussed in the past, some agreed with an obscure parliamentary point that it wasn’t listed as an item in past meeting agendas.