Our Candidate Questionnaire

Move Lowell Forward PAC Questionnaire

The citizens of any town or city must understand where it stands and what the future holds. The citizens of Lowell, collectively, via our vote in November, will define what we want our city to be, and then work to achieve it. An essential component of that process is our City Council, the body that represents our goals and has the power to carry them through. Therefore, we must not only develop our own vision for the City, but also obtain insight into how our City Councilors will represent us to carry out the difficult tasks that will lie ahead of us. The Move Lowell Forward PAC hopes to stimulate the discussion by stating the goals of our vision for Lowell and solicit responses from the candidates for City Council.

Purpose of Move Lowell Forward PAC:

We are a non-partisan citizens' group of Lowell residents who support professional city management, good government with fair access for all, well-planned economic development, and efficient use of taxpayer dollars. We want to provide information and awareness to increase voter turnout, and endorse candidates for local office through a process of evaluation on the issues, supporting good and fair government.

 

Our Vision for Lowell:

We would like to have:

  • A Professionally Managed City Government

  • Renewed Economic Growth to Stabilize City Finances

  • Opportunities Provided by Local Jobs

  • Effective Public Services

  • A High Quality of Life

  • A Strong Educational System

  • Affordable Standard of Living

  • Safe, Clean Neighborhoods

  • Efficient Transportation

  • Accessible Commercial Enterprises

Policy Questions for Prospective City Councilors:

 

  1. Professionalism in City Government

    1. What do you feel qualifies one as a professional city manager?

    2. Do you believe the city manager should have a contract?

    3. Do you believe the City Manager should be able to hire and fire his own staff without interference from the City Council?

 

  1. City Finances

    1. What ideas do you have to improve efficiency to contain cost growth in City operations?

    2. What should be our City Tax Policy—including options regarding the current City policy of restricting tax base growth to 2.5% of prior base plus new growth, adding the 0.75% meals tax to the 6.25% sales tax, increasing fees or adjusting the ratio of Commercial/Industrial to Residential tax?

    3. What roles do you see UML and MCC playing in the Economic Development of Lowell?

 

  1. Effective Public Services

    1. What are the essential public services?

    2. What are your suggestions for improving Public services?

 

  1. Educational System

    1. What role does public education play in moving Lowell forward and positioning it for the next ten and twenty years?

    2. How would you adjust school funding to reflect school population trends and other demographic considerations and also our school ratings?

 

  1. Opportunities Provided by Good Jobs

    1. What directions should the City go to attract new enterprises to meet the needs of our citizens and grow our tax base?

    2. What would you propose to do to maximize the economic benefit of the Renewal Communities designation?

    3. What do you think are the key economic benefits of the Hamilton Canal Project, and what stands in the way?

 

  1. High Quality of Life

    1. How important are “public events” to the People of Lowell and to our destination city based economy.

    2. How do you think the City should address the issues of the Arena and Ballpark and support other attractions, such as the Memorial Auditorium?

 

  1. Affordable Housing

    1. How should the City be involved in ensuring affordable housing for its residents?

    2. What would you recommend to incentivize good property maintenance, both by individual home owners and by landlords?

 

  1. Safe, Clean Neighborhoods

    1. How would you engage the citizens or enhance codes/enforcement to improve neighborhood character?

    2. Lowell has pursued the “Broken Windows” philosophy. Do you think it is effective or not and why do you think that?

 

  1. Efficient Transportation

    1. What are your priorities with regard to private vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles?

    2. What can be done to ease commuting for those not going to Boston or other Mass Transit hubs.

 

  1. There are many other issues of interest to the voters, including:

    1. Do you support a charter change to reset the local preliminary election from a threshold of 19 candidates to around 24 candidates or to eliminate it entirely?

    2. What is the proper mix of new retail businesses to meet the needs of the neighborhoods individually and the City as a while?

 

  1. Do you have any other issues you would like to discuss?

 

 

Latest PAC News

MLF Releases Set of Considerations for City Manager Contract

Move Lowell Forward PAC has released a document entitled Considerations for a City Manager Contract for the City Of Lowell, MA (download PDF here). The document is a set of ideas based around the PAC's stated mission, on ways a City Manager contact might incorporate goals and measurements in the evaluations that could help determine a performance-based contract with the City Manager.

Read story »

Related News

MassHousing Aids Hamilton Project

Hamilton Canal project awarded MassHousing grant to support the rehab and conversion of the Appleton Mills into affordable housing.

Read story »

Interested in more information?

You can email us using the form below.

Your email*:
Your Name*:
Subject:
Join our email list

Your message: