STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — With less than seven weeks left in office, Gov. Deval Patrick has signed an executive order that he says will help develop parks and open spaces in urban neighborhoods across Massachusetts where green areas have typically been in short supply.
The outgoing Democratic said the order would require that those open space goals are taken into consideration in executive branch decisions in all areas of state government.
Patrick signed the order Tuesday, even as Republican Gov.-elect Charlie Baker prepares to take office in January.
Patrick said the order is part of his administration’s ongoing commitment to environmental justice in urban neighborhoods and older, financially strapped municipalities known as Gateway Cities.
“Today we reaffirm our commitment to providing the whole commonwealth with better quality of life through parks, open space and sound environmental policy,” Patrick said in a statement. “This order will ensure these principles are integrated into decision making across state government.”
It will be up to Baker to decide whether to let the executive order stand — or to rescind or make changes to it — once he is sworn in.
Jim Conroy, Baker’s transition chief of staff, said the incoming governor is committed to building on the state’s environment record.
“The governor-elect will work with his cabinet to conduct a top to bottom review of state government and determine which policies will or will not keep Massachusetts a leader in environmental reform,” Conroy said in a statement.
During his campaign, Baker reached out to voters in cities and urban neighborhoods traditionally considered Democratic strongholds. He’s made an effort to return to those neighborhoods in the weeks following his election as governor.
The executive order is also an attempt by Patrick to burnish and help seal his environmental legacy as governor.
The administration says it’s already invested $10.3 million in capital funding to build new playgrounds or spray parks — or renovate existing ones — in each of the state’s 54 cities.
That’s part of a larger legacy that includes several key environmental bills Patrick signed during his first term in office, including laws designed to increase the number of jobs in the renewable energy sector and to help the state begin to wean itself off fossil fuels and better manage its ocean resources.
Patrick also has overseen the expansion of wind and solar energy in Massachusetts.
The executive order focuses on parks in part as a social justice issue.
It would require the creation of an advisory council to advise the governor and the secretary of energy and environmental affairs on environmental justice concerns.
It also would require the Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs to update its 2002 environmental justice policy within 60 days and require all secretariats who report to the governor to appoint an “environmental justice coordinator” within 30 days.
The secretariats would be required to post their updated environmental justice strategies within six months — long after Patrick has turned over the keys to the governor’s office to Baker.
“Governor Patrick’s dedication to ensuring open space in urban areas is unprecedented,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Maeve Vallely Bartlett. “At EEA, we have worked to implement that vision with targeted investments in Gateway Cities and urban neighborhoods across Massachusetts.”
The Executive Order requires the following actions:
The establishment of a Governor’s Advisory Council to advise the Governor and Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary on Environmental Justice Issues.
EEA is required to update its 2002 Environmental Justice Policy within 60 days
Each Secretariat is required to appoint a Secretariat Environmental Justice Coordinator within 30 days. The Coordinator shall review Secretariat programs to determine which programs implicate Environmental Justice issues.
Secretariats are required to post their Environmental Justice strategies online within 180 days.
The Director of Environmental Justice is required to periodically convene the Secretariat Coordinators to meet as the Interagency Environmental Justice Coordinating Group.
EEA Secretary Bartlett appointed a Director of Environmental Justice, Michelle Reid, as part of Governor Patrick’s Women in the Workforce Initiative in September.
Environmental justice in many states is focused on improving the process or ability of residents and workers to participate in decision-making without guaranteeing that such input will result in practical changes on the ground,” said Staci Rubin, Senior Attorney at ACE. “This executive order requires the state to focus enforcement and funding efforts for environmental benefits in environmental justice communities.”
EEA has helped protect more than 125,000 acres of land and built or renovated more than 200 parks since 2007, including projects in 310 communities and 50 cities. The land conserved and parks created are within a 10 minute walk of 1.5 million residents – about 25 percent of the state’s residents. In the Commonwealth’s 26 Gateway Cities, new conservation land and parks are within a 10 minute walk of more than 500,000 residents – about 33 percent of all Gateway City residents.
The Patrick Administration has invested $10.3 million in capital funding to construct a new playground or spray park, or renovate an existing one, in each of the Commonwealth’s 54 cities. Through the new Our Common Backyards program, each of these cities is receiving up to $200,000 in state funding to support these projects.
