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I write concerning the article about Mayor Mitchell’s travel. I am a co-founder and ardent supporter of The New Bedford Light. I was the mayor of New Bedford from 1986-1992. I think this story is some of the worst reporting and editing I have ever seen.
It starts with the faulty and unsubstantiated assumption that travel is bad and builds a hatchet job around that baseless assumption. My political opponents used to accuse me of traveling too much. I responded that my job was to solve New Bedford’s problems and seek out opportunities and to learn the answers to the problems, the resources to solve the problems, the people to help us, the examples to learn from, the companies to attract, all of those things existed outside the city’s boundaries. You cannot do the job of mayor by sitting inside its boundaries. You have to travel.
Like Mayor Mitchell, I was very active in the U.S. Conference of Mayors because you could learn cutting edge ideas from what other cities are doing to solve problems in New Bedford. Like Mayor Mitchell, I went to Jerusalem because we have a sizable Jewish population and Teddy Kollek was the best mayor in the world. I wanted to learn from him. Like Mayor Mitchell, I went to our sister cities because I wanted to learn what I could of the immigrant experience: what it is like to leave the familiar to seek the American dream in New Bedford.
If you look at the hundreds of millions of dollars that are transforming the port of New Bedford, you see the results of the relationships built over time by Mayor Mitchell’s travels. You have reported on the plans to transform all of our aging schools and to build hundreds of housing units. You have also reported on the city’s investment in the arts and how it impacts our economy, and must realize that is the result of a vision born of mayoral leadership that continually learns from others and takes the best ideas to apply to our city. It is also the result of relationships made over time by many nights spent away from family as you go from office to office with plans and tables and briefs explaining what the City of New Bedford needs.
People who don’t travel for a living think it’s a junket. I’ve spent far too much time in hotel rooms, taxi cabs, airports, and other people’s offices. It is a grind. And all the time you miss your family and dinner with your kids. But you do it for your city or the work that is your mission.
New Bedford Light, teach us about what this incredibly intricate city of New Bedford is. You are way better than this.
John K. Bullard was a three-term mayor of New Bedford, head of the first federal office of sustainability at NOAA, then served as regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries in the Northeast. He is president of the New Bedford Ocean Cluster and is also a co-founder of The New Bedford Light.
Editor’s note: The New Bedford Light’s newsroom is scrupulously independent. Only the editors decide what to cover and what to publish. Founders, funders and board members have no influence over editorial content.
I couldn’t agree with John Bullard more. There is a need for relationship building and clearly this activity has benefited New Bedford.
Combine that fact with the mere pennies this expense amounts to and you can’t come away from reading this story and concluding it is a terrible article and totally unnecessary, from its standpoint.
Further, it is lauable to have Councilor Morad weigh in on such a tiny budget expenditure.
Let us never forget why New Bedford is aleays in a struggle. Mayors come a nd go, but a large number of Councilors have been there decades and have done nothing except disrupt and hold New Bedford back.
Perhaos next the reporter will do a story on the waste of the city councilors budget expenses.
Do better…
The lack of transparency from the mayor’s office didn’t help. Provide the info and be done with it. But they didn’t because the culture of the ST – that everything is a scandal is alive and well at NB light. So we’re left with an adversarial relationship between the press and politicians, with both sides looking foolish, and the public worse off for it.
When the only opposite point of view in the article was Linda Morad, the most small-minded person in city government, it told me everything I needed to now. A rare miss by the Light.
Is this the same John Bullard who as Mayor, during his re-election campaign, was snookered regarding the location of the proposed sewage treatment plant by opponent Rosemary Tierney? Very naive for a professional politician! The rose colored glasses he had on then must be the same he has on now. The current state of New Bedford has the same problems now that it had when he was in office, plus a few new ones! Droughts, sewage issues, deteriorating residential streets, the forever bridge, unskilled labor force, less municipal police and fire protection, the schools, unfunded pensions, health care, etc.etc.etc.. A Mayor most certainly should attend the National Conference of Mayor’s, but not all do. Why? Maybe they’re budget conscious. The international jaunts are another thing. Come on! If you really wanted to learn, go to Japan, China, South Korea or Germany, the advanced industrial giants. Israel and Portugal are merely pandering junkets with maybe a lower airfare!
Real Simple, the majority of taxpayers would not object to the Mayor traveling if it benefited the city and brought economic growth. But for over 10 years as Mayor our taxes have gone up and John Mitchell continues to grow and expand the city budget with new positions, new departments, along with non profits, state ran projects that do not contribute to our tax base. Go back and look, do the research, the Taxpayers of New Bedford deserve better.