Chaimanis said he will bring a fresh perspective to the city council, combining his acumen for finance with his entrepreneurship and management experience. (Image Courtesy of John Chaimanis)
John Chaimanis, a Newton resident and father of three, is running for the Ward 4 at-large Newton City Council seat in hopes of bringing common-sense decision-making and civil discourse to city hall.
“I believe that healthy debate is very important, and I think being able to share perspectives and ask questions in non-judgmental environments is really important,” said Chaimanis. “I’m a very pragmatic type of individual, so I really can understand all sides of the situation.”
Chaimanis, who studied finance at Villanova University, took a unique career path after graduation, which he credits as having prepared him for public service.
“When I graduated, I didn’t want to work on Wall Street,” said Chaimanis. “I became a volunteer teacher, and I taught at a school called Nativity Prep. Next year, I started a charter school with a few other people in the Dorchester area.”
After his stint in education, Chaimanis transitioned to renewable energy, where he was able to synthesize his finance education and desire to give back.
“I went to business school in about 2005 at Babson College, and I found renewable energy,” said Chaimanis. “Fifteen years ago, I started my clean energy company … at this point, we’ve built enough solar to offset the equivalent of 25,000 homes. It was an amazing nexus, for me, of finance and positive impact in the world.”
Chaimanis said he will bring a fresh perspective to the city council, combining his acumen for finance with his entrepreneurship and management experience. He also hopes to incorporate his experience with environmental sustainability.
“I’m running for city council because I have this sort of social, civic mindset,” Chaimanis said. “We’ve got a great sustainability action plan, and it should be kind of the undercurrent of the things that we do as a city, but it ultimately needs to make dollars and cents … a plan for the future of Newton with sustainability as a part of it, but not as the lead of it.”
One of the most salient issues every year is the public school system. Chaimanis believes Newton must continue to prioritize its schools, since a strong district makes the city a desirable place to live.
“I do believe, regardless of where people are in their lives, that good schools are the linchpin of a community,” said Chaimanis. “They draw in people that want a good community … it’s really beneficial to all of society.”
But to maintain a competitive district, Chaimanis stressed that the city government must continue to improve the schools. He praised Superintendent Anna Nolin’s approach, which he believes is essential to further strengthening the district.
“We do have really good schools here in Newton,” Chaimanis said. “We have, over the last few years, dropped a little bit in our rankings. I think our current superintendent has some very good plans.”
Many will recall the contentious budget negotiations between the Newton School Committee, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, and district parents and teachers earlier this year. Chaimanis aims to leverage his background in finance to better serve the district’s budget.
“Hopefully, I’ll be on the finance committee, being able to really have the depth of exposure to where we are raising money and where we are spending money so that we can make our best decisions and fully fund our schools’ budgets,” Chaimanis said.
Chaimanis believes the same principle applies to city finances as a whole, where he hopes to deliver higher-quality budget information to Newton residents, since they contribute as taxpayers.
“One of the best things we can do is to be more transparent with our budget,” said Chaimanis. “I think we could do a better job of making that accessible to our voters, who are, honestly, incredibly intelligent people in this city that want that information.”
Chaimanis also wants to see existing affordable housing preserved, so that Newton continues to be a socioeconomically diverse town. In his view, simply building new housing is unnecessary when the city can utilize what it already has.
“Newton is a very desirable place, and the demand for housing outstrips the supply,” Chaimanis said. “The key we’re talking about here is making sure we maintain availability for a variety of economic strata.”
And when large housing or other related projects are proposed, Chaimanis believes that public opinion needs to be given more attention before officials make decisions that materially affect Newton residents.
“We really need to listen to the local voices when big projects are proposed that are going to change traffic patterns and change the population of a particular area that will affect schools and all of our services,” said Chaimanis. “I think we can do a better job of that.”
Integral to Chaimanis’ platform is his desire to make Newton more friendly to small businesses.
“Supporting small businesses and encouraging small businesses is something we need to do,” said Chaimanis. “We should be attracting and recruiting good local retail businesses and commercial businesses and making the permitting process quicker because these are entrepreneurs that are spending their last dollar.”
Similarly, Newton should encourage its residents to spend more of their income within the city limits.
“We need to focus on getting people out of their homes and into Newton and spending their money in Newton because one dollar spent in Newton is multiplied in Newton, and one dollar spent outside of Newton is lost,” Chaimanis said.
With the Nov. 4 election day approaching, Chaimanis urged residents to exercise their voice.
“Voting really matters,” Chaimanis said. “Anybody and everybody that can vote should vote because it really does matter.”