FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are Ben’s qualifications for being a Select Board member?
In addition to being a resident of Milton for over ten years, Ben has been an active member of the community, serving on Town Meeting, the Milton Foundation for Education, coaching youth soccer, volunteering at fundraising events for the Library and Farmer’s Market, and organizing a Milton adult soccer league. Ben is also an engaged and proud parent of four kids in the Milton schools and has experienced parent life at Glover, Tucker, Collicot, Pierce and MHS. Finally, as someone who has worked as a non-profit administrator for 20 years, working in environmental preservation, higher ed and health care in both Asia and the US now serving as Vice Dean at the Brown School of Public Health, he has a long track record of balancing budgets, listening to and accommodating diverse community voices, and supporting those in need.
How will Ben work for our schools?
Milton currently spends $2,000 per student less than the state average, ranking us 297th in the Commonwealth. Ben has tremendous admiration and respect for the educators and administrators at MPS, who do an amazing amount of work with these limited resources. Ben is supportive of efforts to build a new 7-8 grade school for our kids, which could eliminate overcrowding across the district and create developmentally appropriate opportunities for our kids to learn in settings that are designed for their age groups and needs. As a Select Board member, Ben will work as a tireless advocate for our kids and their fantastic educators, including looking at responsible ways to diversify our tax base to find more revenue for our schools.
How will Ben support our seniors?
Ben understands the demands and constraints our senior citizens face, with soaring property prices, reduced services, and the terrible toll that the pandemic took on our elderly. As a Select Board member, Ben will advocate for ways to support our seniors - from looking at affordable housing opportunities for seniors who want to stay in Milton while reducing their property tax bill, to finding new ways to engage seniors in the community, to simple solutions like providing free trash and composting bins to senior households.
How does Ben want to promote an open and transparent local government?
Ben recognizes the importance of the volunteer spirit to our community - everyone who chooses to serve the town, whether on Town Meeting, on an appointed committee, or to another elected office, does so at the expense of their own time and resources, and such civic engagement should be applauded. That said, there are certain inequities in how information is communicated out to the public, and we need to ensure that town citizens are informed about decisions being made that will affect them. One such example is the appointment of the Warrant Committee, an important group with a critical role to play. As a Select Board member, Ben will ask the Town Moderator to report publicly on the applications to the Warrant Committee and explain their decisions on appointments to that body.
What will Ben do about the traffic situation in Milton?
Ben believes our streets and sidewalks must be safe for our kids, seniors, and everyone in-between. In January of 2020 the Select Board received a report from the Milton Traffic Mitigation Committee, which, over the previous few years, had done a tremendous job documenting the challenges and bottlenecks facing our town. Immediately after which, of course, the pandemic started and attentions turned elsewhere. As a Select Board member, Ben will resurrect that study, recognizing that there are no quick fixes to traffic problems but rather long-term planning with town participation, with an emphasis on improving enforcement, optimizing traffic patterns, and improvements to public transit access, bike paths, and pedestrian safety.
What does Ben think about affordable and multi-family housing?
Ben understands how lucky we are to be residents of Milton - our proximity to Boston and Quincy and our lovely neighborhoods make Milton an attractive place to live. This attraction means that property values have soared over the years, and many of our seniors worry about their future in our town - their property taxes have increased and there’s nowhere for them to relocate if they wanted to sell and downsize. Similarly, the children of residents who are looking to relocate back to Milton face a dearth of places that they can afford. Growth of the town away from public transit hubs and walkable stores has also exacerbated our traffic problems. We have to recognize that market forces will continue to change our town in ways that we cannot control unless our Town decides to step in and manage the process. Ben is in favor of the citizens of Milton taking charge of the process in a smart, informed way to ensure that our town grows in ways that will accommodate our seniors, mitigate traffic congestion, and increase funding for our schools and public services.