Todd Taylor has announced his candidacy for re-election as City Councilor. The following is his statement:
“People of Prattville, it has been my honor to serve as your city councilor for the last six years, and I am happy to announce my campaign for another term as your councilor. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a Chelsea business owner, a member of the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce and a two-time Past-President of the Chelsea Rotary Club. Before being elected to City Council, I served several years on the Planning Board. My wife and I are homeowners and have lived in Chelsea for 25 years where we raised our two children, with my daughter graduating from Chelsea High last year.
I hope you will consider the following reasons as to why I am asking for you to re-elect me as your councilor. First and foremost, I show up and do my job. Attendance has become a serious problem with the city council, and many councilors do not attend regular meetings or subcommittee meetings because they are too busy with their own business. Last year, I had a perfect attendance record at the city council. I also served on more subcommittees than any other councilor.
I played a vital role in rebuilding our youth sports as the Chairman of the special Youth Sports committee. I sat on the hiring committee with the City Manager, his staff and the Superintendent of Schools when we interviewed and hired Charlie Guifridda to head up this important task. Now our children don’t have to go to other communities to participate in youth sports!
I am also the Chairman of the important Ways and Means committee. In this role, I am the guardian of Chelsea’s finances by providing vital oversight of the City Manager and the city’s spending. Every financial order must come through my committee. If something doesn’t make sense with a spending project, we can find out the specifics and prevent any wasteful or inappropriate spending and fix the problem. I am the only real businessperson on the Chelsea City Council, and we simply cannot have a city council without someone who fully understands financial matters. If re-elected, I will continue to protect the long-term financial stability of our city.
Maybe the biggest issue that I have been working on, is the redevelopment of the Chelsea Housing Authority’s units in Prattville. My main task is to shepherd this development forward, so that we can not only give our residents the new modern market-rate housing our 198 CHA families deserve but also upgrade the neighborhood and increase property values in Prattville. With hundreds of additional units being built, I want to be there to make sure that the State does its part to improve and upgrade the traffic infrastructure so Prattville will not be brought to a standstill. This is an important upgrade for our neighborhood, but it will only work if the state officials do their part. I promise all of you that if the state is unable to provide what is necessary, I will do everything I can to prevent the development. Either it gets done right, or it doesn’t get done at all.
My most important job is to take care of your issues and can contact me on my cell at 617-872-3174 or send me an email at [email protected]. This is a very fragile time for Chelsea with a lot of important changes occurring. This is not the time to try out people who are untested and have absolutely no experience in city matters. Nor is it productive for city leaders to operate in an echo chamber because different points of view lead to better discussion and the vetting of ideas.
I love Chelsea, and I love representing Prattville. I am grateful for your trust and for giving me the opportunity to represent you and I humbly ask for your vote.”
Todd Taylor