Toomey touts experience, responsiveness and approachability in bid for at-large City Council seat

This is the second in a series of profiles of the candidates for at-large seats on the City Council. The election is Nov. 7.

Candidate: Kathleen "Kate" Toomey

Age: 65

Education: Regis College

Occupation: Working on post-release integration at the Worcester County Sheriff's Office, small business owner

WORCESTER — Kathleen Toomey is a longtime elected official in Worcester, first serving on the School Committee in 1999 and elected as a councilor-at-large in 2005.

In her time as a city councilor, Toomey has consistently placed near the top for total vote getters in the at-large council race. Toomey said she would be elected for another term because she is responsive to citizen needs, does her homework, is approachable and experienced.

"I've been part of a team of people, both in the council and administration, that have worked well together to get Worcester to where we are today," Toomey said. "It's knowing that you need to work together and that you're not always going to be on the winning side."

Toomey described herself as a councilor with "common sense" willing to make change when needed and not just for the sake of change. She said the City Council is in for a tough year as it deals with a housing crisis that could be made more difficult by the influx of migrants into the state and a continuing opioid epidemic.

"I have people tell me that I have common sense and that I'm solid. I'm a solid candidate. I'm not just a one-issue person," Toomey said.

In addition, Toomey said she has been an advocate of the city adopting new technology, especially municipal aggregation, a process where municipalities can aggregate the electrical load of customers within their borders to procure competitive supply of electricity.

In addition to housing, homelessness and opioid addiction, Toomey said she wants to tackle common "bread and butter issues" like streets, sidewalks, education, planting trees and public safety. Toomey also wants to identify money for infrastructure improvements and work to recruit new businesses to the city.

Toomey is the current chair of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and has chaired committees on public works, traffic and parking, and public education.

Toomey wants to work on increasing hiring and diversity for police, fire, emergency communications and inspectional services, departments that fall under her purview as public safety chair. Toomey said there is a high number of police vacancies and potentially over 50 officers could retire over the next three years.

The city needs to ensure that the public safety departments are trained to address issues such as addiction, homelessness and mental illness, Toomey said. She has looked into whether local colleges could provide continuing education on these matters to departments.

Toomey said reduced crime statistics in Worcester is a testament to the success of the city police department.

"I think it reflects on the good work that they're doing out in the community, their visibility and presence in deterring those types of crimes," Toomey said.

Toomey said responding to calls for police reform is a "continuing work in progress," and interim Chief Paul Saucier has been doing good work listening to the community.

More: Kate Toomey campaign Facebook

Toomey would also like to see the creation of police precincts, such as in the City of Boston, where she grew up.

On housing, Toomey said she initially filed a motion last year to get the city administration to consider making it legal for residents to build accessory dwelling units for relatives.

Toomey said the city needs to work on adaptive reuse for downtown office spaces that have been rendered vacant during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to create more mixed-income housing.

"Unfortunately this stuff takes time and that's one of the problems that we've seen," Toomey said.

The City Council needs to work to ensure Worcester is a walkable city and help find the right businesses to benefit from increases in city density, Toomey said.

Toomey said she tries to be objective with setting the tax rate every year and is concerned about the impact on the values of commercial buildings.

As a longtime city councilor, Toomey said she has a good working relationship with City Manager Eric D. Batista and he is listening to the objectives of city councilors. She suggested the city have a document listing priorities for both the city administration and City Council.

She would also like City Council to ask the administration to work towards longer term goals.

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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Toomey touts experience responsiveness in bid at-large City Council