LYNN — Ward One resident, dentist, and owner of Broadway Family Dental Peter Meaney announced weeks ago that he plans to run for the position of Ward One City Councilor in the Nov. 2023 local elections.
On the front counter in the lobby of Broadway Family Dental, sit among an ocean of intricate halloween decorations, dozens of campaign pamphlets, all of which read: “Pete Meaney […] ‘working harder for Ward 1.’”
Meaney said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he has lived in Ward One since 2014, that he decided to run for City Council to provide more direct communication between members of municipal government, and their constituents. He said that after hearing complaints from his neighbors and patients, he wants to act as a conduit between the people and the government that represents them.
“ 90 percent of my patient base is right here, and a lot of it comes down to just listening to the constituents. You don’t have to have big radical ideas, especially in this city. What we’re trying to do is just, you know, answer the phone, which goes a long way,” Meaney said.
To establish that connection between government and the governed, Meaney said, he would like to see the city hire more government employees from Lynn. He said that, generally, he would like to prioritize the creation of a Lynn government comprising Lynn residents.
“One of the things the mayor did that I was against, was he allowed people to work for the city that don’t necessarily live in the city. We’re not trying to hold people hostage, but at the same time, those are direct Lynn tax dollars that should be going to people of Lynn,” he said. “There is a litany of knowledge and human capital here in the city that I think I would have. I probably would have voted against that [importing a city engineer from another town], in the sense that I want to keep people that live and work in one place.”
When asked which particular issues he plans to address in his campaign, Meaney said that the city needs to prioritize education infrastructure to accommodate the city’s significant rise in student population. He said that the first thing he would do, if elected, would be to work with the mayor’s office, to find a way to build more school space.
“We’d have to look at building new schools, how we do that is easier said than done,” Meaney said. “The schools, frankly, are just dated, and they’re overcrowded. We’ve done some stuff with labor relations as far as getting class sizes down, but you can’t get the class sizes down too much if you don’t have a place to physically put them.”
Current Ward One City Councilor Wayne Lozzi has held his position for nearly 18 years since he was first elected in 2004. He said in a brief interview Wednesday evening that, “if the timing is right,” he is considering running for re-election in 2023. Meaney said that although he does not have experience in local government, he thinks that Lynn needs a fresh set of eyes in City Hall.
“Having been in government too long, you lose track of the people and you become out of touch,” Meaney said. “Having a non-governmental background gives you a fresh perspective, I would say […] if you spend too long in one place, you become stale, and your ideas become dated. You’ve heard the expression ‘ not good enough for government work.’ I want to change that expression.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected]
