NEW BEDFORD — Mayor Jon Mitchell has taken the oath of office for a sixth time, noting the progress the city has made since he took the job in 2012 and assuring continued effort to boost housing stock, establish the city as the East Coast’s top maritime economy and encourage residents to do their part in making the city “all it can be.”
In a ceremony at Keith Middle School on Monday night, Mitchell, who has held the position for more consecutive years than any mayor in the city’s history, took the oath of office for his second four-year term from Gov. Maura Healey.
The City Council’s 11 members — including two newly elected councilors — joined Mitchell onstage and were sworn in by City Clerk Dennis Farias. Council members later met at City Hall, unanimously electing Councilor at-Large Naomi R.A. Carney as their new president, succeeding Councilor at-Large Linda Morad.
Morad delivered brief remarks at Keith Middle School calling for an end to the “degrading and demeaning discourse that we’ve witnessed” in recent years in local affairs. She urged local officials to set the tone of their deliberations apart from the rancor that characterizes national politics, calling on office holders to put aside “personal agendas” as they pursue public business.
Mitchell, 54, who won four two-year terms before he was elected to his first four-year stint in 2019, spoke for about 20 minutes, revisiting a number of the points that he made in his State of the City address last spring. He evoked his last inauguration in January 2020, when the first signs of the pandemic to come were emerging in Asia, and the city’s effort to keep working in the face of a mounting public health crisis.
“And the results speak for themselves,” Mitchell said. “Today New Bedford has near-record-low unemployment, safer neighborhoods, more stable finances, new parks and walkways, a population back over 100,000, and a stronger and growing reputation beyond its borders.”
Mitchell noted the advent of an offshore wind industry staging area in the Port of New Bedford, a signature achievement of his administration supported by nearly $1 billion in port infrastructure investment on his watch.
The speech was not heavy with numbers, but Mitchell mentioned a few other key statistics: a 30% drop in city crime in 10 years, and nearly 250 new housing units now in some stage of development as part of an effort to ease a shortage of affordable housing. Without mentioning a number, Mitchell said he would continue to press for more spending to improve local roads, sustaining an effort marked by a $3 million allocation for road improvements last year.
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That was one of three main policy proposals in the speech. Without providing detail, Mitchell said he would advocate for tougher penalties for absentee landlords who neglect their properties and contribute to blighted neighborhoods.
“There aren’t many of them,” Mitchell said, “but they are all too willing to pay minor fines as a cost of doing business, rather than managing their properties as they would their own homes, which is not too much to ask.”
Mitchell also said he would move to lift the residency requirement for non-union management city employees, which has made it difficult for New Bedford to hire specialized municipal officials in a competitive labor market.
City spokesman Jonathan Darling said Tuesday that the mayor would soon deliver a request to the council for the change, which would apply to about 150 positions, including department heads and other specialists. Those jobs are held by some 210 people, although it is not clear how many, if any, do not live in the city. Darling said the proposed change would also include eliminating a 10% salary penalty for employees in that group who do not live in the city and have worked for the city for less than 10 years.
It’s a course change for the mayor, but necessary in the face of today’s job market, Mitchell said.
“As much as I’ve long supported the residency requirement as a way of encouraging the hiring of city residents, it has become unworkable,” Mitchell said. “Most cities have abolished their residency requirements, and it’s time now for New Bedford to do it, too.”
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.
Strange… Non-union members only?
The residency requirement goes back to the horse and buggy days! The thinking then was, you must live in the city to support it. The thinking now is, we need competent people to do competent work! It’s telling that the city cannot simply hire qualified people like businesses do. They need control and intimidation, which tells us what they are looking for.