What Etel Haxhiaj Learned In First Worcester Council Term, And Why She's Back In 2023

WORCESTER, MA — Last Monday evening, as drizzle fell from the sky, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj was taking a photo with her phone of a row of rain-soaked tree branches hanging low over an Englewood Avenue sidewalk.

She uploaded the photo to the city's new 311 app, setting in motion a process that will likely lead to a city crew coming out to remove the obstruction.

"This is a really exciting tool to access local government," she said of 311, a service spearheaded by City Manager Eric Batista in 2022 that she's a big fan of — even promoting it in campaign literature this year.

This is the world Haxhiaj lives in as the district councilor: small moments aimed at making life in Worcester a little easier. At a recent candidate forum, incumbent District 3 Councilor George Russell described being a district councilor as "a customer service rep that never gets to go home."

This is part of a series profiling the 14 candidates who will compete in the Sept. 5 Worcester city council preliminary elections. Patch has reached out to every candidate in each preliminary race seeking interviews.

This is largely the same place Haxhiaj was in two years ago while campaigning at the treacherous end of Pleasant Street for the District 5 council seat, knocking on doors and listening to voters. Haxhiaj is back in 2023 to keep her seat, facing two challengers in the Sept. 5 primary: Cofradía Cultural founder Edson Montero and Jose Rivera, a former boxer who’s emerged as Haxhiaj's main antagonist.

Her decision to run for a second term comes after an active first term. Haxhiaj began her term in 2022 seeking an eviction moratorium during a COVID-19 surge on behalf of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team. The measure failed to move forward, a "really rude awakening" in how the council works, she said.

While legislative victories have been tough, Haxhiaj has been central to big local issues, from the new inclusionary zoning ordinance to the accursed Big D site and the Blessed Sacrament shelter response. But her most significant challenges have happened outside City Hall.

Haxhiaj was a new councilor in 2022 when Candice Asare-Yeboah, 5, died after a driver hit her along Stafford Street. Haxhiaj organized a community safety review of the road. Worcester's Department of Transportation and Mobility is now preparing to make safety upgrades. Haxhiaj keeps a yellow stroller in her front yard, partly a memorial to Asare-Yeboah, and a way to promote the Vision Zero movement.

Haxhiaj faced a disaster seven months into her first term when an overloaded roof collapsed at a Mill Street apartment building. About 100 residents were left homeless, followed shortly by the building’s owner going to court to force the tenants to remove their possessions from the condemned structure. Haxhiaj helped arrange temporary housing in local hotels — and helped keep funding in place for those rooms for months — and accompanied the tenants to court. In the aftermath, she sought a new fund to support residents confronting similar situations. The fund is just getting started.

“People are so exposed and vulnerable when a disaster like that strikes,” she said.

Haxhiaj shows off Community Fluency, a computer program she bought in November to track requests from and contacts with district residents. The software shows the 240-odd constituent engagements she's had over the past nine months, although she estimates the figure is double since January 2022.

That 311 ticket Haxhiaj filed happened during a walk to the home of Sue Swanson and Ed McKeon, leaders of the Columbus Park neighborhood association. Their home abuts the new Coes Reservoir boardwalk, an amenity Swanson and McKeon love, and credit Haxhiaj with improving.

After opening in 2022, litter became a problem along the boardwalk. Haxhiaj helped McKeon and Swanson negotiate with the city to get a barrel in the middle of the boardwalk. Before her election in 2021, Haxhiaj and Swanson took part in an effort to keep a gate between the Worcester Housing Authority's Lakeside Apartments and Coes Park open, a long-running concern for Lakeside residents.

"Etel has a really effective, collaborative, civil way of engaging that really does get results," Swanson said.

Five days after that drizzly Monday night, Haxhiaj was in a different place. Instead of low tree branches, she was trying to figure out what to do about a 17-year-old girl who had become the focus of an attack centered around Haxhiaj's campaign.

The girl, who was an honoree at the Worcester Latino Dollars for Scholars event Friday, donated $40 to Haxhiaj's campaign. Wayne Griffin, who served in the 1990s as the District 5 councilor, published a Facebook post saying the girl was the daughter of the man charged in the 2016 killing of Auburn police officer Ronald Tarantino. Griffin accused Haxhiaj of accepting "blood money" from the family of a cop killer and implored voters to support and donate to candidate Jose Rivera.

The girl's name was shared on the antagonistic Seven Hills Political Exchange Facebook group and the Worcester Police IBPO Facebook page, which has been at the center of previous local political controversies. Worcester police Sgt. Anthony Petrone posted the girl’s address in a comment on the post; Petrone is also an administrator of the IBPO Facebook page.

But it turns out the 17-year-old isn't related to Tarantino's killer — they only share the same last name. The posts referencing the girl were deleted. Rivera told Worcester Sucks Griffin and Petrone "don't represent me," but stopped short of an outright condemnation of the incident. Rivera released a longer statement about the incident Monday on social media.

“Let me be perfectly clear. As a mother, a woman, and elected official I am horrified by this behavior. To harass a minor and a constituent for supporting me, is shameful, unacceptable and crossing the line,” Haxhiaj wrote in a tweet Friday.

This is the flip side of Haxhiaj’s supporters in District 5: online venom from Griffin and other residents who hate initiatives like the eviction moratorium, the Blessed Sacrament shelter and a recent moratorium on homeless camp sweeps Haxhiaj brought to council through a petition by Maydee Morales, an at-large council candidate and Worcester social services worker.

In 2021, Haxhiaj said she ran for her seat for her two young sons, wanting to set an example about service, sacrifice and work. They’ve heard about the political attacks on their mother, leading to frank discussions at home about safety. She admits "mom guilt" for spending so much time council affairs with children at home, but thinks there’s value for them in watching her work.

On Saturday morning, she and her two sons campaigned together in District 5 on foot.

"I'm hoping they can learn to help people," she said. "That's the biggest gift I can give them."

More in this 2023 election series:

• Edson Montero Seeks Worcester District 5 Council Seat In 2023
• Ted Kostas Among 5 Candidates Seeking Worcester District 4 Seat
• Maureen Schwab Eyes Worcester District 4 Council Seat In 2023
• Jenny Pacillo Seeks Open District 1 Worcester Council Seat In 2023
• Dave Peterson Seeks Chance At Worcester District 1 Council Seat
• Rob Bilotta Runs For Worcester District 2 Council As Fresh Face