Contract signing with Mayor Wilson and SMEA Unit D

By Christa Lee

Mayor Jake Wilson’s 100th day in office is soon to arrive since his inauguration on January 2 of this year. His main accomplishment–building his team.

“We will be completing our team in the Mayor’s Office basically right on day one hundred, where we’ll be filling the final piece of the puzzle,” said Mayor Wilson. “The executive administrative assistant who’s gonna do a lot of my scheduling.”

Wilson emphasized the importance of building the kind of team that he can trust, finding the right internal processes to get the work done, and creating a culture of recognition in a “Somerville service award that we award to city staff who just go above and beyond for the people.” The mayor’s main goal in the first year is to complete a citywide restructuring that “allows us to go accomplish all our policy rules,” including changes in staffing.

Somerville’s arts community is recovering from Executive Director Greg Jenkins’s departure from the Somerville Arts Council on March 6. “I have so much respect for Greg Jenkins and everything that Greg did for this community – over two and a half decades of really elevating the arts community here,” said the mayor. When asked about the new direction he wants to take the arts, he said, “We’re creating a new cabinet-level position. That’ll be the Executive Director of Culture and Community. We want culture and community at the table in those cabinet meetings when we’re making those big decisions.” The mayor’s team is currently “finalizing that job description,” which has received input from the Arts Council Board and awaits input from Arts Council staff.

In a press release, he states his intention to “move full steam ahead supporting innovative initiatives like Nibble [Kitchen], SomArt performance programming at the Hive, and the Intercambio language and cultural exchange.” Nibble Kitchen holds an entrepreneurship program that teaches and mentors future restaurant owners. SomArt space at the Hive is a new dance and performance arts space. And when asked about Intercambio, Mayor Wilson stated it’s a way to “bring our city together as one city as opposed to having a city that’s divided by language, by culture.” The hope is that investing in these programs will continue to support the lively arts community in Somerville.

Wilson is also actively working to help the people experiencing homelessness in the Davis Square area with “community partners like the Somerville Homeless Coalition” and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in “pursuing a housing first approach to this.” “Housing first approach” is in reference to The Chelsea Hub, a process based on Saskatchewan’s HUB model, which reaches out to those at high risk of harm occurring soon using preventative measures in collaboration with mental health services, addiction services, elderly and youth services, and housing supports, to name a few.

“We are being clear that there is behavior that is encouraged and accepted, and then there’s behavior that is not allowed,” said the mayor. “And making sure that we hold people accountable. And that’s everyone.”

Mayor Jake Wilson is available for office hours on Thursdays and takes requests for meetings to hear what you have to say about anything from utility bills to policy discussions. To sign up and voice your concerns, you can go to https://www.somervillema.gov/mayor.