WESTFIELD – Mary O’Connell is campaigning on a platform of “integrity and commitment” she said has been demonstrated over the past 10 years during her tenure as the Ward 4 City Council member.
O’Connell said that her focus on the City Council is representing the interests of the Ward 4 constituents.
“I spend a great deal of time advocating for those who reach out to city officials for assistance in resolving issues,” O’Connell said. “Many residents have infrastructure concerns, pot holes, paving, curbing, tax assessment questions and questions regarding zoning and licensing.”
“Business owners have questions concerning city contracts and want information on upcoming projects and how to apply for those opportunities as they are presented,” O’Connell said.
“I have become adept at dispensing sound advice,” O’Connell said, “and at telling my constituents how to get help from the city and who to contact to get help. I have learned what works and what doesn’t work, who in city government will actually provide held to solve a constituent’s problem.”
O’Connell, during her five-term tenure, has worked on many ordinance changes, including the creation of the CORE District for the downtown and a revision of the Water Resource Protection Overlay District.
O’Connell said she also led the opposition on the City Council to reducing the authority of the city’s Flood Commission which is charged with overseeing the safety and protection of the city’s system of dams and levees.
O’Connell also assisted the commission by pushing for the vote to change the original ordinance establishing the commission as a seven-member board and reducing that membership to a five-member board, action taken at the request of the commission to ensure it would have a quorum, an issue for the board because of vacant seats on the board.
O’Connell also cites her opposition to the proposed Russell Biomass facility.
“I worked tirelessly to stop the Russell Biomass from creating a project that would have seen hundreds of trucks trip daily through Ward 4,” O’Connell said. “I spend hours in proceedings arguing against this project, upstream and upwind of Westfield, a project which would have created major health concerns for our residents.”
O’Connell said a primary concerns during her time on the City Council is validating candidates for boards and commissions, as well as for full-time city posts and that the function of the council should be to “assure the city is staffing boards and commissions with the best possible candidates.”
A major function of all City Council members is setting priorities for allocation of tax revenue. O’Connell, who views herself as a fiscal conservative, said she is concerned with “over-the-top expense proposals that are often presented to the City Council.”
“While at first, some of these proposals seen attractive and justified, I have come to understand that when the City Council makes a hasty decision to fund, it can have long-term negative consequences,” O’Connell said. “There should be cautious examination of these proposals with an eye toward their long-term impact on city finances.”
O’Connell, who holds a political science BA from Colgate University and an MA in urban planning from Boston University, supports a number of projects she feels benefit the city, such as the Columbia Greenway rail trail and the associated multi-use trail system, but also opposes widening Western Avenue to include bicycle lanes.
“I’m opposed to the removal of trees along this major route that an expansion (of the pavement to accommodate bicycle lanes) would require,” O’Connell said.
“On the other hand, I do support upgrading of the stormwater system and sidewalk repair along Western Avenue which I believe is necessary and affordable,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell has co-founded two businesses in the city which are both still operating. O’Connell, with her brother Bill Lawry, founded Lawry Freight System, an international logistics corporation providing trucking and warehousing services and which has employed hundreds of people and paid property taxes to the city since it was founded in 1979.
O’Connell also co-founded BlueLine Shredding which was acquired several years ago by INFO-SHRED and is still providing services to clients in the greater Westfield area.
