Meet Waltham Council Candidate Emily Saperia

WALTHAM, MA — Local elections in Waltham are less than a month away, and Patch is determined to help residents get to know their candidates for council, mayor and school committee.

Patch has sent candidate questionnaires to each of the candidates that will appear on the ballot in a contested race for each of those three positions.

Emily Saperia, a candidate for an at-large city council position, has dedicated much of her life to nurturing plants and growing food, but now hopes to bring a fresh perspective to the council.

Get to know more about her here:

Name

Emily E. Saperia

How old will you be as of Election Day?

42 years

Does your campaign have a website? If so, include the URL here.

https://www.saperiaforwaltham....

What city or town do you live in?

Waltham, MA

What office are you seeking?

City Council At-Large

Education.

Master of Science in Food and Nutrition from Framingham State University

What is your occupation?

Micro-business owner, d/b/a Waltham Seed Garden in my second year. Farmworker going on 10 years.

Do you have a family? If so, please tell us about them.

Plant Mom to a growing family of perennials, houseplants, short-season annuals. I am grateful to have a super supportive and wonderful immediate, extended, and informally adopted human family.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Have you ever held a public office, whether appointive or elective?

No

Now we'd like to ask a few questions about your reasons for running and your general views on politics and government. First, why are you seeking this office?

Waltham needs a fresh perspective to grow into the future. Our City Council needs to be accountable to residents, and needs to work together to work towards our common goals. We need to plan better, and we need to let our residents know what's going on.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is \_\_\_, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is keeping a roof over their/their families' heads. Housing security is a huge issue, but the first thing I would do to tackle it is make sure that the current open Waltham Director of Planning job is filled expeditiously. Among other responsibilities, this role oversees the City's zoning plan, so has a huge direct impact on Waltham housing.

Once the Director of Planning position is filled, we need to budget for expanding the City Planning department. I was struck to learn recently that Watertown has multiple City Planners, while Waltham currently has none. There are over 100 Colleges and Universities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; a selection of qualified candidates can't be the holdup. Let's grow.

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

I'm an unabashed breezer. I love Waltham, but I've had the opportunity to learn about how municipalities of many sizes operate from living in West Boylston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Boston. I grew up in Worcester's late '90s punk scene embracing adopted community, celebrating differences, and denouncing hate.

I'm queer. It doesn't feel like that big of a deal to me in 2023, but representation matters. I'm neurodivergent (ADHD here!) and very open about it. I think one of the best things we can do to promote mental health is to de-stigmatize it. Mental healthcare is healthcare, period.

I have multi-year local agriculture experience in Eastern Massachusetts. I have spent over ten years working on and learning about small community farms, some of which hold leases with a municipality. We need an Agricultural Commission, we need a Right to Farm Resolution and associated Ordinance, and we need to fill that Director of Planning position so that we can make a thoughtful, productive, sustainable agriculture and forestry plan for Waltham.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

City Councillors have failed to listen to the community on multiple issues for the past ten years, including but not limited to how to preserve and use open space. Sometimes City Councillors seem to listen perfunctorily and then make decisions very different from what residents advocate for. I even hear City Councillors asking questions on Council or Committee nights that suggest they did not review the material ahead of time.

It's ok not to be an expert at every subject - no one can. But I see the bare minimum of a City Councillor At-Large's job to be taking in, digesting, and making decisions based upon a great deal of information - including, importantly, constituent feedback.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

In addition to addressing the climate emergency and farming, housing and city planning, and small businesses and transportation, we need to make sure we provide our kids with an education and associated multi-support system that matches the caliber of the new High School. We must retain and attract our great Waltham teachers and staff with fair contracts.

We need to invest in infrastructure to make it safe and possible to get around town, to work, to grocery shop, to get our kids to school and back, to visit friends or just take a walk.

We need to empower our veterans to help their communities in ways that the VA has failed them.

Everyone in Waltham is a part of our community and has something to contribute, and when someone cares enough to share a concern or idea with City Council, they should feel confident that processes are transparent and their representatives are accountable to them.

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

I created and managed Nutrition Care Plans for 130+ residents at a time as the sole Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at Kindred Braintree Neurorehabilitation. I created calorie-dense prescription tube feeds for relatively young patients suffering from Huntington's Disease, worked with Speech Language Pathology to develop an Occupational Rehabilitation garden program for a farmworker recovering from a traumatic brain injury, and advised our Medical Director and Director of Nursing on diet prescriptions for all patients.

While the City of Waltham has many more than 130 residents, I've learned how to work with a planning and decision-making team, how to work with individuals from a variety of experiences in a variety of stages in their lives, and how to pitch, plan for, and execute growth ideas.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

The best advice I ever received was a question:

'Will this matter in 10 years?'