In the age of electronics and the internet, the City of Boston Elections Department keeps it low key. Yesterday morning at City Hall, fourteen names were tossed into a gold metal tumbler and then pulled out, one by one, to determine the ballot order in three City Council preliminary races this September.

In Dorchester’s District 3, seven candidates are running to replace retiring City Councillor Maureen Feeney. The ballot drawing put Marydith Tuitt, State House aide to Rep. Gloria Fox (D-Roxbury), first, followed by: Marty Hogan, an information technology consultant; Stephanie Everett, an aide to state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz; local realtor and civic activist Craig Galvin; fellow realtor and civic activist John O’Toole; former Nantucket selectman Doug Bennett; and longtime political activist and City Hall employee Frank Baker.

The seven will face off in a Sept. 27 preliminary. Feeney is retiring after 17 years on the 13-member council.

Two incumbents whose districts include part of Dorchester are facing challenges. The drawing determined the ballot order for the races in District 2, which is primarily based in South Boston, and District 7, based in Roxbury.

In District 2, the order will be as follows: Robert Ferrara, a local coach and community activist; former Josiah Quincy School principal Suzanne Lee; and incumbent City Councillor Bill Linehan.

In District 7, where Tito Jackson replaced former City Councillor Chuck Turner in a special election in March, the order will be: perennial candidate Althea Garrison; Jackson; Sheneal Parker, a member of the Fenway Community Development Corporation’s board of directors; and frequent candidate Roy Owens.

The preliminary election for those two seats is also on Sept. 27. The final election is on Nov. 8.

Endorsement Corner: Bakerpicks up pressmen’s union
District 3 candidate Frank Baker racked up another endorsement, picking up support from Boston Newspaper Printing Pressmen’s Union Local No. 3. Baker, a former shop steward in the city’s printing department, has been on an endorsement tear, grabbing endorsements from local state representatives and a local electrical union.

Via its Twitter feed, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus announced its own endorsements in the upcoming municipal elections: Suzanne Lee, one of two candidates challenging incumbent City Councillor Bill Linehan (South Boston); Sheneal Parker, one of three candidates running against incumbent City Councillor Tito Jackson (Dorchester) and Ayanna Pressley, who is running for reelection to one of the City Council’s four at-large seats.

Lee is a former principal at the Josiah Quincy School. Parker is a former Boston Public Schools teacher and serves on the Fenway Community Development Corporation’s board of directors.

Three vacant properties up for grabs for urban agriculture
The city’s Department of Neighborhood Development has released a request for proposals in a pilot urban farming project. Three city-owned parcels in Dorchester are available: 23-29 Tucker Street, 131 Glenway Street, and 18-24 Standish Street.

According to Mayor Thomas Menino’s office, each property’s lease will be roughly $125 to $200 per year for five years. The administration has been pushing the pilot project as a way to directly bring fresher, healthier food into the local community.

“Urban farming is a great way to encourage small scale agricultural entrepreneurism in our city,” Menino said in a statement. “It has the capacity to bring fresh fruits and vegetables into neighborhoods and corner stores while teaching Boston families and youth about where their food comes from.”

Aug. 15 is the deadline for the proposals. The RFP is available for download at the Department of Neighborhood Development’s website and (cityofboston.gov/dnd) a conference for bidders is set for July 25 at 5 p.m. at 26 Court St.

By Gintautas Dumcius
Jun. 30, 2011

Frank Baker’s grandfather worked for the controversial James Michael Curley. His father ran for state representative in 1968. And Baker has worked on the campaigns of U.S. Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) and state Rep. Martin Walsh (D-Dorchester).

So it’s not a surprise that he is among the District 3 candidates who are the most consistent voters in Boston elections since 2000. The Reporter reviewed records from the Boston Elections Department, finding that Baker has voted in 28 elections over that time.

John O’Toole, former president of the Cedar Grove Civic Association, is close behind Baker, with 26 elections, as is Craig Galvin, a small business owner from St. Mark’s Parish, who has voted in 25 elections.

“We knew the way you got paid attention to is by voting,” Baker said of his family. “I can’t ask you to vote if I’m not voting myself. It’s our No. 1 right.”

Almost all the candidates have voted in every election since 2008, including the municipal elections in 2009 and the special election to replace the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 2010.

Numbers don’t tell the whole story, of course, since some candidates lived in different parts of the district and dealt with different election cycles. For example, most of the candidates live in state Rep. Walsh’s district, and therefore could not have voted in the March 2005 special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Thomas Finneran, the House speaker who stepped down while he was under the scrutiny of a grand jury looking into his role in the state’s redistricting process. Marydith Tuitt, an aide to state Rep. Gloria Fox (D-Roxbury), was the only one among the seven who voted in that election.

But overall, Stephanie Everett, a top aide to state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Jamaica Plain) who wants to lure disaffected voters back to the ballot box, has a spotty voting record, having hit 15 elections while missing the presidential primary in 2004 and several local elections. Everett said she grew up in a family that didn’t prioritize voting. She also noted that she was in college during several of the elections, as well as a single mother.

Voting is now a “big family event,” she says, and she goes with her husband William and they take their children. Everett has eight children in the blended family: he had three and she had two before they married, and they have three children in their marriage.

Everett said she did not realize how important voting was until she started working for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), a regional planning agency, in 2006. She was unable to vote in the Nov. 2010 election, she said, because her father had passed away and she was in Georgia planning his funeral services.

She also did not vote in the 2007 City Council At-Large elections. “In 2007 I did not vote because I, like many people in our district, did not have the opportunity because of family, work, and education responsibilities,” Everett wrote in a follow-up email. “I was in my final year at Suffolk Law School and working full-time at MAPC. Unfortunately, my work and education obligations did not allow for me on that day to vote.”

Part of the reason she is running for the public office now, she said, is that she hopes to re-engage disaffected voters in a process that affects “everyday things from having pot holes filled to ensuring our children have the best education.”

Tuitt, who has voted in 19 elections since 2000, said the likely reason for missed elections was her travels to see family in the Carolinas. Between 2005 and 2007, she was frequently commuting back and forth to see her son, who was attending school in South Carolina, she said. She could not explain Boston Elections Department records showing that she missed the September primary in 2008.

Martin Hogan, a South Boston native who works in the field of information technology, voted in 21 elections, and disputes records showing that he missed state primaries in 2006 and 2008. Hogan, who ran for City Council At-Large in 2005 and 2007, added that he often traveled for work.

Doug Bennett, a former Nantucket selectman, has voted 10 times in Boston since 2008. Before that, he voted in 30 elections, many of them local “town meetings” under Nantucket’s form of local government. With the exception of voting as a Democrat in the March 2004 presidential primary, he has voted as a Republican. He could not explain the 2004 vote when asked about it, adding that local elections are nonpartisan.

Galvin missed the state primary in Sept. 2004, the January 2002 special state primary which picked then-state Rep. Jack Hart to replace Lynch in the Senate, and the September 2000 state primary. Galvin said he was surprised and disappointed that he missed the votes and promised to “do better.”

O’Toole also missed the January 2002 primary and the September 2000 state primary.

The preliminary election for the District 3 race this year is set for Sept. 27. The top two finishers in the preliminary vote will face off on Nov. 8.

Quote of Note: Bennett will ‘haunt’ constituents

District 3 candidate Bennett has become known for his aggressive campaigning, dropping literature on doorsteps and holding one-man standouts on the corner of Ashmont and Adams. Asked at the forum put together by the St. Mark’s Area Civic Association what voters could expect from his first term, Bennett intimated that he’d continue an aggressive approach, and stress constituent services as his main focus.

He also took some veiled shots at some of the incumbents, saying he would not push to punish Arizona for its anti-immigration law, ban smoking in parks, or hold public hearings on mixed alcoholic drinks. All were proposed by several of the at-large candidates. Instead, he would “come into your house,” Bennett said, causing some startled looks in the audience. “If your sidewalk is cracked and you need it fixed, you call me,” he said, adding that constituents will feel like he will “haunt” their homes.

As the audience laughter died down, fellow candidate Tuitt took the microphone for her turn and said, “It’s hard following behind Doug.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Check out updates to Boston’s political scene at The Lit Drop, located at dotnews.com/litdrop. Follow us on Twitter @LitDrop and @gintautasd.

Questioned by Luis Jimenez, the president of the St. Mark’s Area Civic Association, on whether they supported celebrating the two holidays – Evacuation Day on March 17 and Bunker Hill Day on June 17 – or favored efforts to deny them holiday status in order to save city funds, Savin Hill’s Frank Baker and Codman Hill’s Marydith Tuitt said they backed public employees receiving the two days off. John O’Toole, former head of the Cedar Grove Civic Association, and Stephanie Everett, a top aide to state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, called for a cost analysis on officially noting the historic days that some call “hack holidays.”

Under collective bargaining agreements, union employees are allowed to take the days off, and if they work those days they receive a “floating holiday.” City and Suffolk County offices are often open but lightly staffed on those two days.

Baker said residents should celebrate Evacuation Day, which coincides with St. Patrick’s Day and the annual parade and breakfast in South Boston. The holiday commemorates the day British forces, who were under siege, left Boston during the Revolutionary War. June 17 is the date of the Battle of Bunker Hill between the Patriots and the British.

“I think it’s a significant day,” Baker said of Evacuation Day. As for Bunker Hill Day, he said, lawmakers can get rid of that one. “That’s Charlestown, right?” he quipped, drawing laughs.

Tuitt, chief of staff to state Rep. Gloria Fox (D-Roxbury), said the holidays were a “touchy subject” on Beacon Hill, since other counties did not receive the same holidays. “America should celebrate Evacuation Day,” she said, drawing applause. “Without that day we might not be here in America. We might still be a British colony.”

The candidates also offered up ways to shore up city finances, such as increasing payments in lieu of the taxes (PILOT) entities like hospitals, nonprofits, and universities make. Baker said he supports churches and nonprofits receiving the tax exemptions. But, he added, “I can see UMass from my house and I wonder what UMass is doing for my household…I think it’s a discussion worth having.”

O’Toole suggested looking at lifting the tax exemption on commercial and residential properties owned by universities, and on land owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan International Airport.

Martin Hogan, a South Boston native who works in information technology, said councillors should look at the city budget “line by line” and make it more accessible online. And he would have the city cut back on the $80 million spent on school transportation costs.

Craig Galvin, a civic activist and local realtor, said city employees should be asked about ways to save money. “The city employees in this city did not cause the economic downturn nor should they pay for it,” he said.

Candidates were also questioned about what they would do about storefront signage along Dorchester Ave. and owners whose properties have fallen into disrepair.

Doug Bennett, a former Nantucket selectman and past City Council At-Large candidate, said he would encourage entrepreneurs to open more restaurants on the thoroughfare.

O’Toole said small businesses deal with a “daunting” process for permitting and zoning. The key is involving the city’s Main Streets program and the Department of Neighborhood Development, he said.

Tuitt called for engaging property owners who aren’t local residents. “A lot of times, too, I notice a lot of our property owners don’t reside in Dorchester,” she said. They don’t feel vested in our community.”

A past beneficiary of city programs as an owner of a restaurant, Baker said a city councillor should walk novice businesses and landlords through City Hall’s process. “I think the job as city councillor is to reach out to these businesses and landlords to connect people to the city services,” he said.

Hogan said the city could hold “webinars,” or web seminars, online, so business owners don’t feel like they’re heading into a “blind alley alone.”

The seven candidates, most of them running for office for the first time, were also given the chance to introduce themselves to the crowd in opening statements.

Galvin, who lives around the corner from St. Mark’s Church, grew up in Dorchester and bought his first house at age 23. “While people were leaving we made the choice to stay here and we’re proud of that,” he said, describing himself as a details-oriented leader who knows the neighborhoods of Dorchester.
Hogan, who moved to Dorchester six years ago, said he persuaded his mother to move in as well.
Bennett, who pledged to serve two-to-three terms on the council, said he brings a “grasp of municipal government” because he once served as a Nantucket selectman.

In an early stumble, Bennett said he was the only candidate to serve in the military. Tuitt, who spoke right after him, said she had served 14 years in the Navy. “I want to be your voice on the issues,” she told the crowd.

O’Toole, who said he was baptized in the church upstairs, and Baker, one of thirteen children, highlighted their civic work and lengthy resumes working for the city.
During the forum, Feeney’s involvement and frequent attendance at civic association meetings and community events was also noted, with several candidates, like O’Toole and Baker, pointing out that the longtime councillor set a “high bar.”

“Simple answer: yes,” Hogan said. “And I hope I’ll be able to do just as much, if not more.”
“I don’t think anybody’s going to say ‘No, I’m not going to come to the meetings,” Everett said, adding that she will come to the meetings either in person or have a staffer attend them.

The preliminary balloting will be on Sept. 27. The top two finishers will face off on Nov. 8.

“Ms. Mary” was born on the Island of Montserrat to Henrietta and Michael Tuitt. In the mid 1970’s Mary and her three brothers came to America to join their parents, Mary is the only girl with five brothers. An Alumni of the Boston Public school System she graduated from {Boston Technical High School} in 1985 and entered the United States Navy.
Mary is a proud mother of two children; a daughter Mya and a son Maliek, who are also proud alumni of the Boston Public Schools system with both graduating from Boston Community Leadership Academy. Mya is presently attending Urban College in Boston and works as an Early Education teacher. Maliek is also attending col- lege and plans to major in computer engineering and to minor in a foreign language. Mary is also a foster mother to Muffin, a high school classmate of her daughter. Her foster daughter was pregnant during this hard time in her young life and she needed a home for herself and her child. Mary opened her home to Muffin until she was ready to be on her own with her new born son.

Mary served fourteen (14) years as a Navy Aviation Machinists Mate, first on active duty and then in the active-reserves. Her military career took her from Orlando, Florida, to San Diego, Cali- fornia, to South Weymouth, MA, to Rota, Spain and other Reserves stations. In 1991 she returned to Boston and became a student of East Coast Aero Technical School (Nationally Approved Training College).
Mary serves as Chief of Staff for State Representative Gloria L. Fox; she has worked as Constituent Services Coordinator for a Boston City Councillor, providing support to the underserved communities of Boston, and has worked on various political campaigns. Over the years Mary has always been involved and vested in her community. Served as a volunteer with Boston Public schools, with various com- munity youth groups, and with her church St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Columbia Road in Dorchester.

Mary started her own business doing Special Events in 1987 her company designs and débuts weddings and events which involved degrees of planning, floral designing, church & hall decorating, procurement and assisting her clients in making their dreams a reality.
A life-long believer of “giving back to the community”, a brief sampling of Mary’s community activism includes her involvement with:

A Justice of the Peace for Suffolk county
Notary Public for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
MA Commission on the Status of Women
Associate member of VFW post 1018
Member of American Legion Post 16
Board of Trustees for We Are Educators with A Touch of Class (WEATOC)
Governing Board for Boston Community Leadership Academy – a pilot high school (BCLA)
Family Advisory Council (FAC) for Boston Community Leadership Academy
Development Officer for Fair Foods Incorporated—FFI
Public Relations Officer for the Montserrat Progressive Society of Boston (MPS)
Member of the Codman Hill Neighborhood Civic Association
Host and Producer of an IRadio, VIBE 105.3FM talk show: ―Positive Impact

And there is more to come with your help and support.
Mary would like to continue ―Giving back to the Community as your Boston City Councillor.

Mary uses her many skills to enrich, enhance and empower her Community