Edson Montero Seeks Worcester District 5 Council Seat In 2023

WORCESTER, MA — A snowstorm many years ago almost derailed Edson Montero's path to running for Worcester City Council this year.

Montero was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and was never interested in leaving — especially after a trip years ago to visit family in the Bronx. A snowstorm hit while he was there, and he hated it.

But changes in his personal life in the DR (and a more pleasant trip to Boston later on) led him to move to the U.S. in 2006. He landed in Marlborough, where he worked at his uncle's convenience store. While working at a Dunkin' inside a Westborough convenience store, he met his wife, who was a customer at the time.

"I said to my coworker, 'She'll be my wife,'" he said. They've been together 14 years and have three kids.

Montero came to Worcester, like so many immigrants have over the decades, because it was affordable for someone toiling in low-wage jobs. He loved Worcester, and bristled whenever he heard someone deride a city where he saw an opportunity to raise a family.

But Worcester is not perfect, Montero adds. And that's largely why he's running for the District 5 seat on city council this year. He'll face incumbent Etel Haxhiaj and candidate Jose Rivera in the Sept. 5 primary.

This is part of a series profiling the 14 candidates who will compete in the Sept. 5 Worcester city council primaries.

Since moving to Worcester in 2009, Montero has worked his way up in the food industry, now serving as the kitchen manager at the café inside the Family Health Center of Worcester. He's also a homeowner in the Webster Square area. Now that his kids are older (the opening line of his campaign literature is "I'm a proud girl dad"), he says he now has time to run for office.

While in college in DR, Montero studied social communication and journalism, and was active in the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo student federation group. He's followed national U.S. politics since arriving here, proudly saying he bet early that Barack Obama would win in 2008, and Donald Trump in 2016.

If he becomes a councilor, Montero's priorities would be making Worcester more family-friendly, which to him means making streets safer for kids to bike and walk, and attracting businesses that cater to families.

He likes the sound of the so-called "Worcester Renaissance" built around recent developments, and feels providing financial literacy education to young people will help them grab a piece of the revival. In his job at the Family Health Center, Montero has mentored younger workers, offering them jobs and guidance on fundamentals like paying taxes and spending money responsibly.

"With a collective effort and commitment, we can work toward achieving a more prosperous and equitable society," he says.

Unlike many cities in Massachusetts, Worcester city councilors don't write legislation and pass legislation like in a typical mayor-council arrangement. Councilors in Worcester either direct the city manager to propose policies and laws, or respond to items he brings them. Councilors rely almost entirely on the city manager to enact their personal initiatives, as seen this week when the manager chose not to move ahead with an initiative councilors had voted for.

Montero says he would marshal community support if he needed to get around the Worcester city manager-controlled system. He says he's built a constituency through his mentorship at work, but also as the founder of Cofradía Cultural, a group that performs Dominican carnival celebrations across the state. The group marched in the 2023 St. Patrick's Day parade for the first time.

Sitting in the café at the family health center on a recent day, Montero was sipping coffee as an episode of "Family Feud" played on a TV behind him. A woman and her baby sat at a table nearby eating breakfast as other customers filtered in, ordering food Montero and his staff had prepared.

He says if voters give him a chance, they "can be amazed" at how he'll serve them.

"People come here looking for an opportunity, a home," he said. "I found a home in Worcester."