Baker-Polito administration proclaims May as ‘Municipal Month’

Joined by local officials from across the state on May 3 at the State House, Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito proclaimed May as Municipal Month in the Commonwealth.
 
Baker and Polito were joined by Boston Economic Development Chief John Barros and Wilbraham Selectman Susan Bunnell for the signing of the final two Community Compact agreements, which means that all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts have now signed on to the Community Compact initiative.
 
The program was launched by the Baker-Polito administration in early 2015 to promote best practices in state and local government and to provide technical assistance to municipalities in pursuit of these strategies.
 
Through the compact initiative, Polito said, municipalities are implementing 835 best practices in areas such as financial policies, transportation planning, housing production, and municipal human resources. 
 
Three grant programs fall under the initiative: Best Practices, Efficiency and Regionalization, and Information Technology. Since its inception, the IT grant program has awarded $4 million to 134 cities and towns, and the Efficiency and Regionalization grant program has awarded $4 million to more than 220 municipalities and school districts.
 
As part of Municipal Month, the administration on May 14 announced the first 67 communities designated as Housing Choice Communities under a new program that rewards communities for producing new housing and adopting best practices to promote sustainable housing development.
 
At the May 3 event, Polito said the Community Compact program “unites us and better prepares us.” She and the governor said the personal contact the administration has had with local officials through the program makes a difference.
 
“This is a program that’s successful because it is locally driven,” Polito said. “It’s born by the people in the community and what they want to work on.
 
“We need to do more collaboration. We need to share our best practices. There’s innovation happening all around us.”
 
Local officials who spoke about the Community Compact program were Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini, Littleton Town Administrator Keith Bergman, and Andy Myers, chair of the Hilltown Collaborative, which comprises the communities of Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery and Russell.
 
MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith said the proclamation of May as Municipal Month is a recognition of the work done by all the cities and towns in Massachusetts, and he thanked the administration for investing in communities to build a strong future.
 
“Leadership requires great partnership. And that’s what we have here in Massachusetts right now with Gov. Baker, Lt. Gov. Polito, and the cabinet,” Beckwith said. “It serves as a model for the rest of the country in terms of working together – local government and state government – providing services in real ways that matter every single day.”
 
To close the event, Gov. Baker and Lt. Gov. Polito presented a Municipal Month proclamation to Beckwith and the MMA.