Julia Malakie

Questions and Answers

Question 1: After 40+ years of Prop 2 ½, a very limited ability to pass overrides, steep increases in expenses such as employee benefits and utilities, and a relatively small commercial tax base, Newton faces fiscal challenges not encountered by our peer communities, making it increasingly difficult to adequately fund our schools and other city services. What are your ideas for raising revenues or otherwise addressing Newton’s fiscal challenges?

Need to stem further erosion of our commercial tax base. Commercial parcels converted to residential, we won't get back, so consider long-term consequences, not just current market conditions, when voting on special permits and rezonings. Expand by-right commercial uses in our business & manufacturing zones and help match businesses with available spaces. Stretching out pension liability funding depends on uncertain Retirement Board agreement. An alternative would be bonding the debt so current students don’t bear a disproportionate burden. Solid waste costs will increase if we don't reduce weight & volume, including with organics diversion.

Question 2: What, specifically, can the City Council do to ensure that lower income residents, young families, and long-term residents looking to downsize, can afford housing in Newton?

Making Newton affordable to ‘everyone' is a false promise. Prices reflect Newton’s desirable location, amenities and reputation for good schools. As noted in RKG’s Housing Strategy, demand is such that we cannot build our way to affordability. Zoning changes like reducing allowed FAR and increasing setbacks are needed to reduce incentive for teardowns and preserve smaller houses for young families, many of whom move to Newton to have a house with a yard. High rents and condo fees have limited appeal for seniors concerned about outliving their assets. Support non-profit developments like Opus and the Armory, and stronger inclusionary zoning.

Question 3: What is Newton doing to address climate change, how effective are these efforts, and what else could/should we be doing?

Newton Power Choice, solar projects and building electrification are examples of reducing our carbon footprint. But even if we were net-zero, climate change is unavoidable, so we need to focus on resiliency, including: protect and expand existing tree canopy, public and private, to improve stormwater retention, cool ambient summer temperature, and make walking/biking more pleasant. Strengthen stormwater ordinance to require retention of 100-yr storm. Have demo permit fees include weight-based component. Provide curbside organics collection combined with alternate week trash and recycling collection. And no more artificial turf!

Question 4: Government transparency refers to the obligation of a government to proactively share information related to the management of public resources and decision-making; it’s indispensable to accountability and to an informed electorate. A recent initiative conducted by Newton’s LWV identified significant deficiencies in Newton’s local government transparency and specifically with respect to the City’s website. How do you think improved transparency could benefit our city? What improvements would you advocate for to the City website or transparency in general?

Hybrid meetings help residents stay informed. The docket tracking system is helpful but would be improved by tracking councilor voting records. Search function on newtonma.gov is ineffective and the last website overhaul resulted in previous content being lost. All documents should be text-searchable, not image PDFs. NewGov permits should be searchable by keyword, not just address. We have unlimited Zoom storage. I’ve advocated for posting links to all public meeting recordings promptly on the website; the next mayor should require. Committee reports should attribute comments and questions. I lost that vote. The next Council should revisit.