Paul was raised in Attleboro. His parents are retired pharmacists and small business owners. He spent many summers and days after school working in his parents' drug stores, where from a very young age he learned the hard work, service and the challenges and rewards of small business ownership.
Crime prevention is a very important issue to every citizen.I am an advocate of evidence-based crime prevention and an expert on criminal justice.I write about crime policy issues because I care about the issue,
Our community needs someone who understands the unintended consequences of laws that are symbolic and expensive; someone who has worked in local and state government agencies that provide services to the public. I am someone who understands the games that go on with career bureaucrats and politicians and I know the nuanced questions that need to be asked of senior level government agency administrators to ensure that your tax dollars are not being wasted. Having been a gubernatorial appointee in the Deval Patrick Administration in a leadership capacity in Massachusetts' prison system, worked in the Executive Office of the nation's 5th largest jail, as a consultant to various public safety agencies, and with a master's in criminology from the University of Pennsylvania, I understand better than any other candidate, how to keep people and communities safe.
I understand the issues and what needs to be done about them.
Understanding economics requires training and objectivity. No one policy is best for all conditions. I write about economic policy issues because I care about the issues, I understand the issues and what needs to be done about them.
Our community needs someone who understands the national economy, someone who was thoroughly educated in macroeconomics and public finance, who has been invited as a guest on radio stations in New York City and Washington DC discuss the challenges associated with unemployment, debt, Social Security, and political gridlock, and has worked on job creation. We need someone who has thought about these issues and has been engaged with our community.
Mental Health advocacy, awareness and services are a key aspect of my campaign. I write about mental health issues because I care about the issues, I understand the issues and what needs to be done about them.
As mayor, I would run YOUR government for YOU. For over four years as a State Representative, I have developed a reputation as someone who cares, someone who gets it, someone who understands the plight of average people, and someone who responds to every phone call and email. Trust is the single most important factor in public service.
As your State Representative, I have earned the trust of the people by
There is NO trust when a Mayor
Public education is the great equalizer and what will keep Massachusetts competitive. Today's children are tomorrow's adults. Education is the foundation of good citizenship. Yet, many teachers are forced to use their own money to buy classroom supplies. The student to teacher ratio of often too high. Special education and IEPs are important and they strains local budgets. We are in need of new high school and the sooner we get one the better off our students will be, and we also need more teachers to fill the classrooms of the existing or new school and bring down the large class sizes we currently have.
Some of my education related accomplishments include:
In my elections for State Representative, I was recommended by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers.
I was raised by small business owners and for years, I worked in these small businesses as a youth and I still help my mother at her small business in Plainville.
It is not the role of the government to create jobs. The role of the government is to set the atmosphere and provide services, and as a result jobs are created and businesses thrive.
As Mayor, there will be several things I would do to grow our business base in Attleboro.
Some of my work As a State Representative has included:
As a State Representative my number one policy issue is finding out if our taxpayer funded programs work or not.
As your Mayor, I will establish a 'CitiStat' program. CitiStat is a progressive way to use data and statistics to run city government departments in a transparent public forum. Taxpayers will finally know how and where their tax dollars are being spent.
I don't take anything on faith and I don't assume anything. I read reports and see if the research methods were done correctly. Many times they are, many times they are not. I don't go along with a report just because there are numbers on a page. I ask penetrating questions that get to the core of public service - is the public being served or are we just going through the motions?
I come from a medical family. I grew up working in a family owned small business pharmacy. I have been witness to and worked with people who have substance abuse addictions and mental illnesses.
Since as much as 26% of citizens are afflicted with mental illness over the past year (and 45% over their lifetime), either chronic or temporary, we need someone who understands their needs and the needless and insensitive stigma they may face. Mental Health services are an important staple in Attleboro or any community. I am a strong advocate for mental health services and mental health awareness. This is an issue I am very passionate about.
Some of my work has included:
As a State Representative, I have worked with every type of person. Being Mayor is about running a city for all the PEOPLE. In alphabetical order some of these populations include:
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We are fortunate to have a well trained and professional police force and fire department. The police chief and fire chief have decades of experience in their respective fields. Anything the police chief or the fire chief have ever asked funding for, I have provided the funding for. Working with the police chief and the fire chief, ideas to improve the police and fire departments have been proposed and implemented.
During my time as mayor, I increased the police training budget from $50,000 to $100,000 and then again from $100,000 to $125,000. Before I leave my time as mayor, I plan to fund police training at $150,000, which the police chief and I think will be sufficient. Police training is what gives our police officers the tools they need to navigate unpredictable situations. Training has included but is not limited to: de-escalation tactics, implicit bias awareness, autism awareness, and duty to intervene.
Speeding and traffic related issues are two of the three most common complaints I get as mayor. As such, I funded the creation of a police traffic unit, have installed lighted crosswalks at key crossings in the city and have more on the way, installed speed radars throughout the city with more on the way, created a permanent speed hump ordinance so residents of neighborhoods can petition the city to have speed humps constructed on their residential cut through streets.
I have also stopped the practice of taking out debt to pay for police cruisers when we know we need to purchase three new cruisers each year and retire three. By budgeting for the replacement of cruisers, we no longer take out debt and pay interest on the debt.
When Coronavirus hit, I made sure that police and fire (and all departments) had the personal protective equipment they needed to stay as safe as possible. When COVID-19 wasn't covered by the contract with the police and fire unions, I added it to the contracts. I added HEPA air purifiers to all offices that have two or more people. I followed the state and federal government guidance and requirements and enforced those guidelines to keep city employees, their family and the public safer than they would have otherwise been under a less rigorous enforcement of best practices.
When the fire chief came to me in March 2019 and asked for two new fire gear extractors in the July 1 budget, I did better. I purchased one immediately, and then planned the second for the July 1 budget. The city ended up getting a grant for the second one.
When the fire chief asked me to make sure that every firefighter has two sets of turnout gear, I made sure it was in the budget each year. We are no on a rotation cycle where we budget the older set of gear replaced on a regular basis.
The parks located throughout the city have also seen revitalization during my tenure. Finberg Field, Highland Park, Lee's Pond, Poncin-Hewitt and more have all see significant improvements working with the department heads. Often times the department head will come to me with an idea to make their department better. Other times I ask department heads to come up with plans to improve different aspects of the city. They come back to me with a plan and a funding request. I take that to the city council and the council decides. So far, we have been successfully in advocating for improvements throughout the city. I encourage people to visit the many parks. Some parks and fields have recently seen improvements, some improvements are underway, and other improvements are planned for 2022.
The city only has so much money to work with and spending is a reflection of priorities. One of the things I have prioritized is better equipment for DPW, the Recreation Department and Park & Forestry. When our city employees have the right tools, they can do the job right.
One of the projects I am actively working on is building a performing arts venue at Highland Park. The funding source is identified. Plans are being drafted by a group of performing arts volunteers.
​Downtown is becoming an experience you can't get online or at the mall. Rome was not built in a day and Attleboro won't transform overnight. But the foundation has been placed and projects are underway. Several new businesses have opened in the city center. The redevelopment of old mill buildings is underway.
Attleboro is a small city but a great one. It is a place that people can work, reside and recreate. Since taking office, I have taken several steps to improve the city center and the experience for the rest of the city. The city center is a place a lot of people want to see improvements. My goal has been to increase the number of people living in the downtown by working on the redevelopment of existing land and property. This in turn will increase the amount of foot traffic needed to support new businesses that my administration is bringing to the city. Additionally, by focusing on opening businesses that are unique and provide people with a reason to come to the downtown, Attleboro's city center is making progress not seen in decades.
One of the recent projects is the redevelopment of the alleyway behind the city owned parking garage on Sanford Street. This new alleyway is being name Cuddy Court, after the Cuddy family and their adjacent business. This venue will be used to have festivals, concerts and other outdoor activities.
Some third term plans for public safety include:
The contract the city has with WM is one of the best and most affordable in the region. It’s pretty much impossible to do an apples to apples comparison from our city to any other surrounding community because the services we receive in our contract, and what we pay is different from municipality to municipality. However for the number of services we receive in Attleboro, we are paying far less than any other community in the area.
My goal with this trash contract was to provide as many services as possible and to keep the cost as low as possible in a time when trash and recycling fees are increasing everywhere in the world. There is a lot of question about the size of the blue barrels. I know some people don't like the new blue barrels. I use the blue barrel. The reason the barrel is the odd shape is is has to do with the requirement to be 35 gallons. If that inside spine that protrudes inward were eliminated, the barrel would be more than 35 gallons; we need to stay 35 gallons. If the barrel were designed to be shorter to eliminate the inner spine, the barrel would be too short to not allow the mechanical arm to pick up the barrel.
Let me explain why our contract's trash barrels are limited to 35 gallons. The city gets a $300,000 grant from the State DEP for having a contract that is 35 gallons. The grant is intended to encourage people to recycle more. That $300,000 is applied to the 14,000 rate payers. That amounts to about $21 off your rate per year. But it is not just $21 less per year we pay; if residents had a larger trash barrel they pay the $21 more plus the added cost of the added trash weight. We all pay less by using these 35 gallon barrels than if we had larger barrels. This is important because there are lot of people in Attleboro who cannot afford to pay more for trash and recycling. If the city were to decide to forego the $300,000 grant and get a larger barrel, our rate would increase well over $300 per year and there are a lot of people who just cannot afford that.
The good news is that if this contract does not fit your needs, you do not need to pay it. You can opt out of the city program and get a new contract with WM or another eligible vendor that meets your specific needs, including getting larger trash barrel. There are about 100 people out of the 14,000 homes in the city who get their own contract and use a bigger trash barrel.
​In full disclosure, the down side to opting out of the side contract is that you will lose many services (use of the compost center, paint drop off, hazmat drop off, old tire drop off, one TV per year take away, unlimited metal and electronics take away, amnesty bulk item take away three times per year, and a lot more). Also the cost for you to negotiate your own contract with WM or another eligible vendor will be much greater than what I have negotiated for you with WM. Typically when people opt of the city's contract, they pay $450-$600 per year for a larger barrel. Maybe that works for you, maybe not.
​The bottom line is that you have options.
National Grid has a maintenance plan to visit every street in the city and to prune every tree in the city hanging near powerlines at least once every five years. The city's Park & Forestry Department is not allowed to cut tree limbs that are near or over powerlines; that is why I have made sure that National Grid stays on schedule.
In 2017, the city water department contracted Tata & Howard to do an analysis and produce a report that examined our aging water infrastructure. Since then, the City has been implementing that water main replacement plan. Due to limited money we can only do limited number of miles of water mains and the disrupted roadway per year. So far we have done Steere St and two different parts of Read Street. Future plans include Bishop Street, Lindsay Street and more. We are also doing Commonwealth Avenue under the highway, Deanville Road under the highway, Franklin Street, Roy Ave under the river, the lining of Elmwood Ave, Lonsdale Ave and Park Place. To replace all of the city's waterlines all at the same time would cost about $150 million. We obviously cannot do that. So we are implementing the Tata & Howard plan one street at a time.
The City has a community garden open to residents at the intersection of Mechanic St and Hayward St by Willett Elementary School. If people would rather have a garden at home in their yard, one of the benefits of the city's rubbish program is that they may go to the city's compost center to get free clean fill to use at their home
in 2018, I revived the Substance Abuse Prevention Commission. Since then they have acted in an advisory capacity to the city. Additionally, I have worked with and supported Manet Health and Column Health to open offices in Attleboro, both of which offer drug treatment, addiction, and mental health services. City officials and I also work with assisting constituents referrals to CCBC, Manet and Column
When I became mayor in 2018 I reached out to several cable and Internet providers to see if they wanted to come to Attleboro to offer service. None have been interested in expanding a fiber optic network in the city due to the high cost low benefit return. Since 2019, I have been researching and looking at the pros and cons of municipal broadband; this would be a city owned not-for-profit enterprise. ARPA money may be used for this purpose and that is something I have been exploring. Start up costs are in the millions but not insurmountable. There is considerable concern about electromagnetic radiation from 5G so we need to proceed prudently