Candidate Profile: Katjana Ballantyne, Somerville Mayor

SOMERVILLE, MA — Katjana Ballantyne is running for mayor of Somerville in the Nov. 2 municipal election. Ballantyne, who represents Ward 7 on the city council, faces a challenger in her colleague, Councilor At-Large Will Mbah. There will also be a citywide election for councilor at-large, as well as elections for city council and school committee in certain wards.

Somerville Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles this week.

Ballantyne has served on the city council for close to eight years. She has more than three decades of experience in business, non-profits and government.

Are you running for office in Somerville? Contact Alex Newman at alex.newman@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate profile and submitting campaign announcements to Somerville Patch.

Age (as of Election Day)

58

Position Sought

Mayor

Party Affiliation

Democrat

Family

Family of five, married with two children, and 90 year old father. Three have volunteered for the campaign; it’s a great honor to have their support.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

Only me.

Education

MBA, Suffolk University, 1998
BA, St. Michael’s College (VT) 1984

Occupation

Ward 7 City Councilor, City of Somerville, 7 yrs, 10 months

Prior: Executive Director

32 years of professional experience in business, nonprofit and government.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

Ward 7 City Councilor

Campaign website

katjana.org

Why are you seeking elective office?

At this time of unprecedented challenges; affordability, housing, climate change, COVID recovery and much more – Somerville is about to have its first new mayor in 18 years. My eight years’ service as a city councilor, my two terms as council president, my background as a community activist and non-profit executive, and my international business experience, have given me the skills and experience needed to serve as an inclusive and effective leader for our community.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

We face many conditions today, that require prompt, decisive and sustained action. As I go door to door across the city, residents tell me that affordability, climate change, and pandemic recovery are all urgent. And there is one factor that is common to all these issues, and to public safety, education, transportation, economic development and governmental transparency as well. That common factor is the need to provide better social, racial and gender equity in Somerville life. We need and deserve a government that is more inclusive, and allocates its resources in ways that reach our most vulnerable populations – groups that, often face the greatest hurdles to participation.

Still, if you ask me to identify only one key issue and how I plan to address it, I guess I would have to cite the need for a COVID recovery plan that enhances services, protections and investments designed to create food security, housing stability, restart education for students and their families to recover lost years. We need a recovery plan that uses federal funds more assertively to create housing stability to help renters and landlords. The Office of Housing Stability that I helped create as a city councilor – is one means to provide resources right away. I’ve published my COVID-19 Recovery Plan online, which includes plans for food security and housing stability, education restart and small business stimulus.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I have thirty years of experience in international business, start-up companies, nonprofits, and local government. I’ve served seven years on the City Council and was twice elected City Council President. My tri-sector experience in business, non-profit community organizations, and city government uniquely qualifies me to understand and bring all stakeholders together to solve complex problems. My experience in business and local government has taught me to value inclusive leadership, which creates buy-in, shared purpose, enthusiasm, and better results. That’s what we need right now, a mayor with my track record of creating teamwork and getting results.

My past experience has also taught me the value of setting practical measurable goals. I’ve taken strong positions on affordable housing and transportation, on combating climate change, and on reducing systemic racism. And I also have experience in making progress on these issues by developing the agenda for progress and change with buy-in from the entire community.

That’s why I have already held inclusive issues forums on the key challenges we face as a city and why I have provided detailed policy plans at my website, katjana.org. Running a city requires an attention to detail; a willingness to engage with people outside your comfort zone; to build coalitions around specific policy goals; to go beyond slogans and hot-button issues to do the hard, nuanced work of governing, day in and day out. These are the skills and the values that set me apart.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

The current mayor is not running for reelection, so I am not directly challenging an incumbent. Today, however, Somerville faces real challenges concerning affordability and housing costs, as well as the pace and nature of future development. We face tough questions how best to foster engagement and inclusion for our most vulnerable populations – the residents who aren’t always able to attend public meetings but who are most burdened by issues of public safety, public health, environmental justice and economic exclusion. Those are the challenges of the future – and my track record of accomplishments shows that I am best qualified to address them.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

Every city had challenges in the early stages of the ongoing pandemic because we were navigating so much uncertainty, and because there was contradictory information coming from the scientific community and different levels of government. In Somerville the administration didn’t publish information on goal metrics and contingency plans. The mayor’s office didn’t share parameters like what number of cases would mean we would shut down? What steps would be taken as we got close to the tipping points to shut-down? Families and small businesses couldn’t plan without information. That is why I submitted numerous board orders requesting the the administration publish these projections.

At this stage we are transitioning to recovery and we must find the approaches which keep everyone safe and allow our communities to get back on track, our businesses to safely stay open, and our kids not to fall through the cracks. I proposed that the city publish a bulletin board to make city time lines known so that residents and business could plan accordingly. I wrote the order to create a Guaranteed Income Program trial to provide additional aid to residents for food and housing security, and I sponsored the State of Emergency for Women resolution that focuses resources and outreach on single-parent lead households. As mayor, I’ll keep working for all of these goals and more to recover.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

My vision for our city defines my campaign and this vision will define my administration. I can clearly see Somerville’s potential as an inclusive, equitable city where we can all thrive together, with no exceptions. Affordability, climate change and many kinds of inequity, are the most pressing challenges facing Somerville right now. For Somerville to truly thrive, we need immediate pandemic relief and recovery, and we need to work together for long term, affordable living costs, for good jobs, and we need to keep working to create every kind of equity. Additionally, we need to rebuild neglected infrastructure to finally solve our flooding and rodent problem. I’m committed to building a connected network of safe, accessible complete streets that serve all Somerville users as a priority, and I’m committed to better, more affordable transportation.

My record of accomplishments on these issues will make a foundation upon which to keep building positive progress. To create long term affordability we need more affordable housing and stability. We need to implement the goals of the Somerville Green New Deal, that I wrote and sponsored, to create a healthy urban ecosystem and environmental equity. We should go beyond to lead the region and country in creating a carbon-negative future with innovative new jobs and equity, as I call for in my Climate Change Combat Plan. I have always made inclusion a priority, and as mayor, I’ll work for inclusion and permanent safety and equity for vulnerable communities; economic, education, environmental, racial and social equity.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I served as a volunteer, board member, and Board President of Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) for ten years working successfully for over a decade to develop affordable housing. I served as Executive Director and CEO of Girls’ LEAP Boston, providing violence prevention programs serving urban girls and women of color. I was the author and sole sponsor of the 2019 Somerville Green New Deal Resolution, our visionary plan to create a sustainable, affordable, carbon-neutral Somerville.

I co-authored the Green New Deal for Massachusetts Now, adopted by the State Democratic Party.

I advocated with the Mystic View Task Force and the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP), to win the Green Line Extension and bring a new Orange Line MBTA stop to Assembly Square. I served four terms on the Somerville City Council, and was twice elected its president.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Respond within 48 hours to everyone. This has been a guiding practice as constituents have reached out to me on city council.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I have shown that I am able to advance a progressive agenda because I know how to include members of the community who might not otherwise be heard, and because I know what the city can and cannot do on its own.

Most voters in Somerville have a deep understanding that mayors can’t simply snap their fingers and make the T free or re-establish rent control or make Somerville a carbon-negative community. The real question is how to do move toward the goals of affordable housing, access to affordable transit, and a citywide embrace of emissions reduction and cleaner air. It’s not enough to declare the carbon neutral goal; we also have to do the work. That’s why I have published detailed proposals that describe not only where we want to go but also how to get there – both on our own and in partnership with state and federal government.