Baker Gets Warm Welcome in Berkshire County
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Berkshires may not have voted for Charlie Baker but that didn't stop it from giving the new governor a warm welcome on Saturday.
"We want to serve 100 percent of the commonwealth," vowed Baker as he and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito wrapped up a cross-state tour highlighting innovative efforts across Massachusetts.
"I'm from outside of Boston so I understand we need to give attention to the communities west of Boston, outside of 495 stretching all the way to the New York border," said Polito, who is from Shrewsbury. "You will have a strong voice in our administration."
Around 200 people greeted Baker and Polito at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday morning; the state's new leaders also toured Soldier On in Pittsfield to talk about affordable housing and met with about 100 local and business leaders at Berkshire Chamber of Commerce event at the Berkshire Museum.
Baker was focusing on the positive three days into his term as governor and encouraging bottom up collaboration as they visited six "Spotlights on Excellence."
"There is always going to be somebody who will tell you you're wrong. ... I've heard plenty of that," he said, referring to his work in government and health care. "But if you spend time traveling around this state, you get great stories telling you what's right."
One of those spotlights is Mass MoCA, an initiative Baker was intimately involved in developing more than 15 years ago as secretary of finance and administration under former governors Weld and Celucci. He recalled the discussions on transforming the sprawling Sprague Electric complex were often heated (museum Executive Director Joseph Thompson described them as "gnarly") but he became convinced that once the museum diversified its offerings, it would succeed.
"You were right," he said, pointing to former North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, who had aggressively lobbied for the museum and, last year, backed Baker's campaign. (He also thanked Barrett for his "generation of service" to the city and Thompson for his dedication to making the museum a success.)
It's the type of public/private, creatively thinking projects like the museum, ones that don't easily fit into a box, that Baker hopes to encourage during his term.
"We want to talk about what we've learned and what others have learned and different experiences and circumstances, and apply it over and over again so everybody gets a taste of what Massachusetts is all about."
That sent him to Blackstone Valley Tech in Upton, Robert Frost Middle School in Lawrence, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston, Worcester Polytech Institute's Gateway Park along with Soldier On and Mass MoCA.
"I had a long and significant and, in the end, very positive experience with this particular project. ... It was well worth the investment for the commonwealth to make," he said, referring to Mass MoCA. "I think the big issue going forward is we have to be able to demonstrate to people ... when we say we're interested in good ideas, good projects that work from one end of Massachusetts to the other, that's got to play out in the way we make decisions and how we perform."
So far, the new political team said the response has been positive during their visits. "We're the new kids on the block," said Baker. He and Polito noted about 1,000 people had attended a secondary inauguration near Polito's hometown.
Polito said she will work with the state's mayor and administrators in bringing their concerns to Beacon Hill and both plan to continue discovering the state's under-the-radar initiatives and ventures.
"I don't think you can be successful in public life if you spend all day in an office," said Baker. "You don't get a sense of what's on people's minds if you're not out there talking to them."
The governor is filling out his cabinet with appointments focused on ability, not party affiliation.
"We want people who have the ability to see past the problem and get into the conversation of what is going to change the dynamic here and create a different trajectory," he said, later adding, "I think at this point, its half Republican, half Democrat and a few independents.
"We haven't asked anybody what their party affiliation was, we just want to talk to them about their skill set."
Baker had brought along his new Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash, a Democrat and former Chelsea city manager, and Secretary of Veterans Services Francisco Urena, a former Marine and who had been Boston's commissioner of veterans services for nearly four years.
Thompson marveled somewhat Baker's laidback jeans and sweater appearance, a far cry from the suit-wearing finance secretary he'd first met. But he remembered a photo on Baker's desk at the time of him on a beach tossing an infant high up in the air.
"I thought underneath that buttoned-up pinstripe guy is somebody who's just a little bit crazy."
Tags: Charlie Baker, governor, mass moca,
