Mary Hartman has accomplished much during her first term on the Select Board. Serving as chair for the past year, she acted quickly to appoint an MCI Concord Advisory Board to work with the State of Massachusetts to ensure that Concord’s interests were well represented and thoughtfully advocated during the process of closing the prison. She understands the need for cooperation between the interests of the town and the powers of the state and brought together mindful, experienced people to serve in that capacity.
Her collaborative nature has been instrumental in bringing together members of town boards and committees to work out budget priorities in joint, public meetings. This benefits the public, who can attend and participate by listening, commenting, and questioning the different interests that each committee represents. Her commitment to a transparent, productive approach to solving these differences is exactly what Concord needs as we are challenged to keep property taxes down while still providing the level of service and infrastructure that Concord expects.
In her continuing commitment to fiscal responsibility, Mary worked with town staff and the Select Board to enact a policy to negotiate with tax-exempt organizations to pay a portion of that lost revenue to the town for use of municipal resources — a welcome and needed relief from the tax burden to homeowners.
Mary’s dedication and patience to open collaboration between citizens, their representatives, and town staff is what Concord needs in order to manage the challenges we will face in the coming years. Her goal in addressing issues is to arrive at the best solution for the citizens of Concord. She truly represents all of Concord, not just certain interests or her own agenda. Please join me in supporting Mary’s commitment to fairness and openness by electing her for a second term.
Andrea Solomon
Ash Street
