City Elections 2013: Paul Shea for Ward 3 Alderman

If you've spent any time in and around the city over the past few years, then you likely are acquainted with Paul Shea, organizer of the wildly popular "Fancy Fridays" formalwear fundraising events, and more recently, founding member of the Gate City Community Garden initiative.

Now, Shea has announced he's planning a run for Ward 3 Alderman, a seat opening up now that incumbant Ward 3 Alderman Diane Sheehan has announced her intention to run for Alderman-At-Large in the November city election.

"It's not something I had thought about doing for this election cycle, but I had spoken with Diane about it, and she was encouraging, so I took some time to think about it. After talking with my wife, who's also been encouraging, and my mom, I decided now was a good time, and that I might as well take the plunge," Shea said.

Admittedly, it's not quite his first plunge into politics – he has run twice successfully in the past – earning a place as his grade school class representative, and as student body president back in eighth grade.

"But no, I've not run for a public office before," said Shea, 29, a registered nurse whose work involves health history testing and memory assessment. He's been a homeowner in Nashua since 2009, living for a year before that with his mom, to save up for the house, and for a year before that, at Clocktower Place.

His recent involvement with the non-profit Gate City Community Garden project was a chance to literally roll up his sleeves and dig in to the heart of what makes Nashua a great place to live. For Shea, it always comes back to the sense of community he has found here.

"I grew up in Pelham, went to school at Bishop Guertin and Rivier University, and while I always thought of Pelham as a charming community, there was not too much going on there. When I moved to Nashua, I found an active community, an active night life, folks in my age group that were new and exciting, and I decided I wanted to live in a nice, small city where I could have that certain degree of peace. We're not Boston or New York, but as a city, that sense of community here is very real. We have that bustling, active, easily accessible culture," Shea said. 

His approach to representing Ward 3 will begin with listening. 

"I won't have an agenda in mind. I do want to be sure to be open to the suggestions and problems of my constituents. As I campaign and go door-to-door I will be finding out more about what's important to the people in the neighborhood," Shea said.

"Ward 3 is on the upswing, and I feel like if we continue to support the parks in the neighborhood, continue to support the physical quality of the neighborhood and continue to foster community here, things will continue on that trend.  I think Diane's done a good job in a lot of those areas, and legislatively there are a lot of things we could focus on, but I can't really comment on a specific piece of legislation I'd bring forward 8-10 months from now. First I'd like to get feedback and be available to hear what concerns other residents," Shea said.

One area important to Shea is transparency within city government, and fostering more open communication between residents and elected officials. 

"Even before I was considering running for Ward 3 I had this feeling like the city website would do well to have a forum for people to provide input and discuss issues of importance. That's something that still hasn't come about, so one day I decided to take it upon myself to set up a group of Facebook, a Civic Sounding Board page. We've got just about 250 folks that are on there, and fortunately it's garnered the attention of some aldermen, including Dan Moriarty, Diane Sheehan, also Suzanne Vail, one of our state reps, and Sandra Ziehm, who serves on the school board," Shea said. 

"It's nice to see people discussing in a civilized way things that are going on in the city and that there are some elected officials who are paying attention. It's one thing to write a letter to your alderman and get an individual response, but when everyone's having this open dialogue, it provides an opportunity for input and for building on each other's experience," Shea said.

How to contact Paul Shea: paulwshea@gmail.com or by phone, 603-508-0687.