Mayor Cohen's Weekly Press Conference

February 21, 2006

Acting Chief Budget Officer

You may know that we have undergone some personnel changes in the Executive Office recently. With the retirement of our Chief Administrative Officer, Mike Rourke, we filled his position with Sandy Pooler, the former Chief Budget Officer.

Filling the Chief Budget Officer position is a process that takes deliberation and careful consideration. We have appointed a Search Committee, the position has been advertised, and we will be accepting resumes to fill this important position until March 3 rd.

In the interim, we are extremely fortunate to have found a competent, longtime City employee willing to take on the Acting Chief Budget Officer position until the position is filled on a permanent basis.

Bob DeRubeis has worked for the City of Newton for 21 years. He has served as the Deputy Commissioner for the Parks and Recreation Department for the last six years. In that role, Bob has played an integral part in managing the Parks & Rec budget, and in implementing a new computerized method of tracking department performance and needs known as CitiStat. Bob has played the Acting Director role before, back in 1998 when he filled in as Director of the Human Resources department for a year.

A lifelong Newton resident, Bob attended Franklin Elementary, Warren Junior, and Newton High schools; before receiving his Bachelor’s Degree at UMass-Boston, Master’s in Education from B.U., and his Law Degree from the Massachusetts School of Law.

We are grateful to Bob for agreeing to take on these additional responsibilities. It is due in part to his willingness to do whatever it takes to get a job done that has led me to tap him for this important position. I know that with Bob’s help, Sandy and I will be able to present another balanced and fair budget to the Board of Aldermen for fiscal year 2007. Bob DeRubeis is a man of integrity, compassion, and intelligence who is well-suited for the Acting Chief Budget Officer position. This is an appointment that the citizens of Newton should be very happy to hear about. Bob, thank you for joining us. Please join me for a few words.

Youth Services Booklet

The City of Newton is home to many support services and opportunities for our youth. Our city’s schools, parks and recreation department, outreach counseling programs, police youth officers, and an array of non-profit agencies all work together to make our City a special place for young people to learn and grow.

Today I am pleased to announce that the City has produced a booklet entitled Youth Services in Newton. The booklet is a helpful resource that identifies and briefly describes organizations in our community that provide services to the families, children, and teens of Newton. A limited number of copies are available by calling 617-796-1280.

I want to thank the employees of the Health and Human Services Department, and the Youth Interagency Task Force, and especially Beverly Droz, the Director of Human and Volunteer Services, for your efforts to produce this important resource. I know that residents will find this centralized listing of community resources for youth to be very handy and helpful. Beverly, please come up and say a few words about the booklet.

Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund

Six months ago, our nation endured the single worst natural disaster in our modern history. The statistics of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are staggering. The devastation covered an estimated 90,000 square miles, including the flooding of 80% of the City of New Orleans; caused as much as $80 billion in damages; left 22 million tons of debris to remove; and caused 1,100 deaths with over 3,500 still missing, and nearly 650,000 homeless.

The images we saw of families stranded on rooftops, flattened homes and businesses, and the Gulf coast cities and towns in ruins spurred a national outpouring of kindness. The American Red Cross took in over $2 billion in donations for victims of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. At the local level, we’ve heard stories of Newton families who took in displaced hurricane victims, Newton residents who traveled to the Gulf Coast as volunteers to offer assistance, and countless people from our community who gave generous donations toward hurricane relief.

In conjunction with the Cambridge Savings Bank, my office started the City of Newton Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund back in September. I am proud to announce today that the Fund has generated over $1,500 and will go to a most worthy cause. In just a moment I will present a check to FOCAL, the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama. FOCAL is a non-profit organization that serves 500 centers in Alabama and Mississippi. The money will go to child-care centers so they can provide scholarships for children, and for their rebuilding and planning efforts.

This is truly a heart-warming story that our community should be proud of. I want to thank Ruth Barnett of the Cambridge Savings Bank; Tania Burger, the Communications Director for FOCAL; the staff of the Executive Office; but most importantly I want to thank the residents of Newton who opened their hearts and checkbooks to support this important fund. We have done a good deed here, and there are hundreds of children in Alabama and Mississippi who will be the beneficiaries of our generosity. I am now pleased to invite Tania Burger of FOCAL, to the podium accept this check for $1,535.22 on behalf of the citizens of Newton.

Holiday Angel Program

Last November, the residents of Newton banded together to provide holiday gifts for hundreds of children from Hattiesburg, Mississippi who endured the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The Holiday Angel program was organized by the Myrtle Baptist Church, in conjunction with the Hattiesburg Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army in Hattiesburg sent us the names, clothing size, and requested toy of 500 area children. I am very proud to say that through the generosity of our community, each and every one of those 500 children received the gift they requested. Here in the City of Newton, once again our employees displayed their generosity and compassion by furnishing 200 of the children with the toys they requested. Angela Clark from the Department of Public Works was our Holiday Angel Coordinator, and I am pleased to see that she is with us today. For all of you in the City and in the community who contributed, thank you. You made what could have been a terrible season for 500 Mississippi kids into a special one.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so without further ado, I’d like to show a brief news clip from a Hattiesburg television station.

SHOW NEWS CLIP

The Holiday Angel program would not have happened without the passion and effort of Dr. Keith Crawford of the Myrtle Baptist Church, who is with us this afternoon. Dr. Crawford was so moved by the displaced residents of the Gulf Coast region that he volunteered to drive a 24-foot rental truck filled with donated food and clothing to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. After witnessing the devastation of the region, Dr. Crawford continued his efforts to help by spearheading the Holiday Angel program.

Dr. Crawford, you have touched many lives of the residents not only in Hattiesburg, but also here in Newton, with your compassion, determination, and generosity. I want to thank you for all you’ve done to provide food, clothing, and necessities to those families in need, and also for helping us provide holiday gifts to children who would have otherwise gone without. It is a pleasure having you here today, and please come up to share your thoughts with us.

No Place for Hate Forum

The City of Newton is one of 60 Massachusetts communities participating in the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate program. Being designated a No Place for Hate community sends the message to people everywhere that the City of Newton respects diversity, and we will do what it takes to prevent and respond to hate crimes in our community.

As part of the No Place for Hate program, the City hosts at least three events during the year that promote tolerance and diversity. I am pleased to announce today that our next No Place for Hate event, entitled “Reality of School Desegregation Today,” will take place next Tuesday, February 28 th from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm at the Druker Auditorium of the Newton Free Library.

The topic of the evening asks the difficult questions: “What is it like to travel far from home each day to go to school?” and “How does it feel when most people are different from you?”

The event features a short documentary film entitled, “Far From Home,” that chronicles the experience of a student from Boston who attended school in Weston as part of the METCO program. Also included in the program is remarks from author Clara Silverstein, who will discuss her experiences as a white child who was bused to a school with an enrollment of 85% African-Americans during the court-ordered busing of children in Virginia in the 1970’s. Finally, Dr. Diane Scott-Jones, a professor of Psychology at Boston College and a member of the Newton Human Rights Committee, will moderate a discussion with the author, METCO representatives, and the audience.

I hope many of you will join us for this thought-provoking and important program. I want to congratulate the Newton Human Rights Commission for putting together this outstanding program, and I want to thank the Newton Free Library for co-sponsoring the event. It is now my pleasure to introduce Marianne Ferguson, Chair of the Newton Human Rights Commission, who spearheaded the effort to coordinate this important event. Marianne, please come up and remind people of the date and time of this important event.