I have lived in Belmont for twenty-eight years, and for nearly every one of them Will Brownsberger has been in office — Selectman, Representative, Senator. I have had a long time to form an opinion.
Mine was formed on the Tri-community Stormwater Working Group. Will chaired the Arlington–Belmont–Cambridge stormwater flooding effort; I served on it as a civil engineer. It is hydrology, drainage capacity, and the unhappy fact that water does not respect town lines. Three municipalities, three sets of engineers, three sets of politics.
Will learned it. Not the talking points — the substance. He asked the right questions, and when he did not understand something he said so, and went away and read until he did. I have spent 40 years explaining technical problems to public officials. Most nod politely and leave the room having understood nothing. He has brought that same discipline to property taxation, criminal justice, and transportation.
A campaign season is full of large promises, and promises are free. What is not free is the focused devotion to master a problem before speaking about it, and to tell a constituent no — with reasons — when no is the honest answer. Will has done both with me, more than once.
He is president pro tempore of the senate, and that standing matters now. Belmont’s finances will not be repaired at Town Meeting alone: Chapter 70, the special education circuit breaker, local aid — the formulas that squeeze this town hardest are written on Beacon Hill. Nor will the transportation investment this town needs be funded without a senator whose calls MassDOT and the MBTA return. Will has spent decades earning that standing. A newcomer would need more than a decade to rebuild it, and Belmont cannot afford the wait.
Please join me in voting for Will Brownsberger on September 1.
James J. Decoulos, Bow Road
