Meeting Times & Location: Friday weekly in room 222 City Hall. (If a holiday falls on a Friday, the meeting would take place on the next Friday).

Location: Newton City Hall, 1000 Commonwealth Avenue,

Times: 9:00 am                 Meetings are open to the public

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Contact Working Group

Dog Licensing and Permits

Off Leash Area Criteria

Off Leash Ordinance

Off Leash Area Working Group Taskforce Agendas & MInutes

Robert J. DeRubeis

Robert J. DeRubeis has been a member of the Parks & Recreation Department for the past 23 years, the last nine years as the Deputy Commissioner.   He has been working on the implementation of off leash sites for the past year, most recently sitting as a member of the Dog Off Leash Advisory Committee.  Mr. DeRubeis is currently serving as the Interim Commissioner of the Parks & Recreation Department and holds a B.S. from UMass/Boston, an Ed.M from Boston University and a J.D. from the Massachusetts School of Law. 

Amy Koel

Amy Koel holds a doctorate in developmental psychology from Cornell University. Since 1999 she has been working with adults, children and families - and their companion dogs - providing both basic training and treatment of canine behavioral issues. Since its inception in 2002, she has been a consultant for the “Pawprints” therapy dog visitation program at Children’s Hospital Boston, and responsible for evaluating the dog-handler pairs who visit patients and families. She is particularly interested in promoting responsible dog ownership and training, and in improving the relationships of people to their dogs. She was a citizen member of the Special Task Force which was established by the Board Of Aldermen in 2005 to study whether and, if so, how to permit off-leash areas in Newton. She has been chair of the Dogs Off-Leash Advisory Committee since it was formed in December, 2007.

Carol Schein

Carol Schein has B.S. in Environmental Design from Syracuse University and a Certificate in Landscape Design from Radcliffe College. She is a landscape designer for the Parks and Recreation Department, responsible for the review and coordination of proposed and planned improvements to the City’s parks and traffic islands.  Her role in the group is to ensure that any off-leash area is an appropriate fit for the public space and its users.

Susan Albright

Susan Albright, BA, Tufts University, studied for MUP in Urban Planning at NYU. She is the Director for Educational Technology at Tufts University School of Medicine leading a group in writing health sciences schools educational software used in the US, Africa, and India. She served on the School Committee as both Vice Chair and Chair and now serves on the Board of Aldermen on the Land Use and Public Facilities Committees and as chair of Committee on Community Preservation.  Ms. Albright chaired the off-leash dog task force on behalf of the Board of Aldermen listening to Newton residents and learning how off-leash dogs are being dealt with across the US.  This task force proposed the ordinance now in effect.  She serves on the DOLAC as the aldermanic representative.

Candace Havens

For the last two of her 16 years in Newton, Candace has worked as the City’s Chief Planner, serving the City’s Land Use Committee and overseeing the work of the current/long-range planning staff.  She has worked in both the public and private sectors as a city planner, mediator, and assistant city manager and holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from the University of California in Sociology/Urban Studies.  She is currently serving as the Acting Planning Director and is interested in helping create public spaces all residents can enjoy.

Lee McIntyre

Lee McIntyre has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and he writes philosophy for the general public. He is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and a part-time lecturer in bioethics at Simmons College. He owns three dogs: Homer (a golden retriever), Juno and Hector (both German shepherds). He got interested in the question of animal welfare as a result of his philosophical work (and love for dogs)

Officer Ralph Torres

Ann Dorfman

Ann Dorfman has been working to establish safe and legal off-leash recreational areas (OLRAs) since her dog Gandy became a member of her family fourteen years ago. Ann is also working with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to help make state parks more welcoming to people that own dogs. Ann says that her efforts are not to create more off-leash areas for dogs, as most people know, off-leash dogs can be found in almost any park at almost any time. Her efforts are to develop a healthy and effective system that ensures that people and places that do not want to be around off-leash dogs can do so, while simultaneously providing a sufficient number of conveniently located places where residents can legally take their dogs off-leash.