Candidate for City Council At Large: Elizabeth Kowal
By Ellen Putnam
Photo From Elizabeth Kowal
Elizabeth Kowal is running for City Council At Large because, she said, “I love Melrose and I want to be part of its future, and I want to help it grow and develop and continue to be the fabulous place that it is today.”
“I have always had public service in my blood,” she went on, “it’s a family tradition, and it has been something I’ve always been drawn to. I have a unique skillset that lends itself to this type of work, and I think there are gaps that currently exist, which I have personally experienced, that I could help fill. I have been lucky enough to be involved with the city through my volunteer work on the Public Safety Facilities Advisory Committee and the Human Rights Commission, and I believe that there’s more that I can do for the city.”
Kowal became involved with the Public Safety Facilities Advisory Committee as a direct abutter to the Beebe School, which is slated to become the site of the new police station. Kowal is one of the leaders of a group of neighborhood advocates who were concerned about the lack of resident input in the planning process for the project.
Kowal is a lawyer by training, and through that, she said, “I honed my advocacy and listening skills, and I think that is core to being a city councilor - listening and then advocating.” She is currently an executive at a global human resources company. “I solve problems for a living,” she added, “and I want to continue to bring the work that I do professionally into the city where we live.”
“One of the things that I take great pride in,” she went on, “and I’ve learned to do over the years is to straddle that line between what a business - or a city - needs in the short-term and what the future looks like, without losing sight of what makes them so special - the people. It’s not always easy to do, and most people tend to err on one side or the other, but I would say that my ‘superpower’ is my ability to look at the big picture but not forget who needs to get us to the big picture. And I feel that is missing right now in Melrose - from my personal experience, a lot of decisions get made without thinking about the impact or fully hearing and listening to the people it will impact. And Melrose is small enough that we should be able to have that discourse.”
“I really believe in my core that the government works for the people,” Kowal said. “I don’t just say that - I practice it. Anybody who works for me will tell that you I work for them. The ‘voice of the people’ isn’t just a phrase - I believe that it really has to mean something in this democracy we live in.”
Kowal’s work on the Human Rights Commission, in particular, stems from her belief that “either we all have rights or none of us do - there cannot be an in-between. We need people who will stand up and speak for the people, and I know that I can do that.”
“What is really special about Melrose is our community,” Kowal went on. “There’s a vibrancy to our community that makes it a really nice place to live, raise kids, and retire in, and I think that a lot of people feel this way. My neighbors aren’t just neighbors - we’re really a pack, a community, and we really like each other. And I have seen the way people step up and step in to help and volunteer. People are just constantly turning out to do stuff.”
“One of the things that attracted me to Melrose is our diversity,” she continued, “and I don’t want us to lose that. I don’t just mean in terms of race or national origin - I also mean diversity in terms of socioeconomic status and age. I love that I moved to a town that still had a lot of ‘the old guard’ but also has new people moving in. So far, we’ve been able to hold on to that, and I do think that’s one of the things that makes Melrose special and different and keeps people here.”
Photo From Elizabeth Kowal
“The budget question is hard,” Kowal went on. “Our financial challenges are real - this crisis isn’t made up, the mayor isn’t trying to squeeze money out of people just because. Anybody who has kids in the schools or talks to someone who does or even reads reports about how they’re staffed knows that we’re not in a normal state right now. And something has to be done, because we will start to lose people. People won’t want to come here, and if we can’t pay a competitive wage to our teachers, firefighters, and police officers, they’re not going to want to work here.”
“The money is going to be what it’s going to be,” she continued. “We need a minimum amount to function as a city - to pay our employees and provide services - and that is what it is. What’s missing is a less political explanation of how we got here, why we need an override, what you should expect, and what will follow in two to five years. In terms of our financials, we can’t do much to change what city needs to run itself.”
“Where I can make a difference is being an advocate - listening to people’s concerns, and helping them to better understand what we need to do, why we need to do it, and what the impact on them will be. I’m really sympathetic to folks who are worried about being taxed out, and I fully understand why they feel that way, but I think we have to look further down the road. If we want Melrose to grow and thrive, then we don’t have a choice at this point but to put more money into the bank account.”
Kowal supports a “Yes” vote on all three override questions. “I have zero reluctance about what that money is going towards,” she said, “I am a firm believer to the core that schools are what bring people into a town, and if we want Melrose to continue to grow and develop, then we have got to do better by our kids, by our teachers, by our administrators. And we need to pay our public employees. Right now, we have parks where we can’t throw our trash away, we didn’t have parklets this year, and there are other services that are missing, and things that are not being done because we don’t have the budget to staff those positions. We are barebones right now. These are necessary positions - they’re not fluff. Substantively, I believe one hundred percent in what the override is going towards.”
But Kowal wants to see an override paired with additional oversight of the city’s finances. “And that,” she said,” is at the heart of why I’m running for City Council.”
Based on her experience with the public safety buildings project, Kowal said, “I am concerned that there will not be enough questions asked on the City Council, enough advocacy, and enough listening to residents.”
“From what I've experienced through the police station project,” she went on, “there were not a lot of questions being asked or a lot of follow-up and follow-through - and that’s what I would bring to the table. I don’t want to lose sight of where the money is going when it impacts peoples’ taxes, and I feel that there has been some of that in the past - not maliciously, and I don’t believe anyone is trying to hide anything. But I do think that when it is impacting the residents of the city, there has to be an extra layer of vigilance, and I don’t think we have that right now.”
Specifically, Kowal sees a gap in communication. “From what I’ve been involved in,” she said, “the information is not flowing down to people, and it leaves people with a sense of things happening to them instead of being a part of it. And I think that it’s the city councilor’s job to forge that communication pathway.”
“We hear a lot about development,” Kowal continued. “Melrose is in a tough spot because it does seem like there’s a lot of big buildings going up, and some of that we have to allow because of state law - and we need more taxpayer money coming in, that’s clear. But development is also going to put a lot of pressure on our schools and infrastructure. There has to be a more thoughtful way of dealing with development, and there needs to be more of an effort to have more businesses coming in as opposed to just residential only.”
“But it all comes back to our financials,” she went on, “because until we get that straight, it’s hard to think about any other issues. People talk about the roads and potholes - I hear about that a lot. We need to fix our schools, hire a new superintendent, hire a middle school principal - but that all costs money.”
“If we can get our financial situation straightened out,” she said, “there are a lot of areas we could open to at that point. Our parks need to be fixed. On the Human Rights Commission, our budget was taken away this year - there’s so much that we could do in terms of bringing in speakers, having sit-down conversations, having people talk and get to know each other, hear from each other, learn from each other, but we can’t do that because we don’t have a budget.”
Photo From Elizabeth Kowal
If she were elected to the City Council, Kowal’s approach to legislating would be: “You’ve got to hear from people,” she said. “I’m a curious person, and I’m not afraid to ask questions. I would talk to the mayor, and whoever else I need to speak with, and then I would put it out to the community to ask for feedback, and listen to other people’s perspectives. I will obviously have my own perspective, but if my philosophy is that I am a public servant, then I can’t do that without hearing from people.”
“Once I’ve heard from enough people,” she went on, “then it’s not about how I want to vote - it’s really about what i’m hearing. That’s what being a public servant is. Then, it’s about being accountable to the folks who voted me into this position, and communicating how I voted, how the City Council voted and why, what the impact on them will be, and if people are unhappy about it, they can come talk to me.”
Kowal disagreed with the City Council’s recent vote to authorize the city to borrow the entire amount of the public safety debt exclusion at once. “This project is going until 2030,” she said, “and I had advocated with our ward councilor to turn the money over in smaller pieces so the city would have to keep coming back to the City Council and defending why it needed that money - but since they turned it over in one big chunk, the city will never have to appear before the Council again and justify their expenditures unless they go over. There will be no more checks and balances with the City Council, who in theory holds the purse strings. I think there has to be accountability for what’s going on - it’s a large sum of money that taxpayers are shouldering.”
Kowal also disagreed with how city government, including the City Council, went about the process of selecting the Beebe School as the site for the new police station, turning over the building, and designing the new police station. “The result would have ended up the same,” Kowal said, “and I’m OK with that, but I don’t believe there was enough due diligence, enough questions asked, or enough advocacy with the neighborhood. There was zero curiosity from any of them about how the neighbors felt and what we were thinking, and that’s wrong wrong way to handle it. I don’t think it was the wrong decision - I fully support it - but the way it was handled and the lack of communication made the neighbors feel that this was being done to us.”
“With all credit to the mayor,” Kowal added, “she heard us and tried to correct what I think was a misstep in not letting the neighborhood know what was going on until it was at our back door. But I think both our ward councilor and the councilors at large should have been more involved in the process and helped advocate for the neighborhood.”
“I think that part of the role of the City Council is to think about this kind of thing,” Kowal said, “and part of the councilor at large position in particular. I have no problem standing up for everybody, whether they’re in my neighborhood or not. And I’m big on follow-through: if I say I’m going to do something to help, then you can be sure there will be follow up to that.”
Kowal can often be seen out working in her garden and walking her two dogs around the neighborhood or in the Fells. She’s also a big Boston sports fan and can often be found in Molly’s Bookstore - she reads well over 100 books every year. “I love Melrose,” she said, “it really is a great place to live, and we’re all so lucky that we can live here.”
