Larchmont Democratic Party Trustee Nomination Acceptance Speech

By Richard J. Ward

- motivation to run for Trustee
- major issues

RICHARD WARD

January 30th, 2007

It's great to be here tonight with you, with so many people who care so much about our Village.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Noel Dennis for nominating me, and Melina Vourlekis for seconding Noel's nomination. I've known Noel and Melina since I moved here, what seems a long time ago. We've raised our children here, and have shared many experiences. My family and I have taken vacations with their families.

And I want to tell you, Noel and Melina are exemplary citizens. They are people who set aside their private interests to work hard for our community, to make Larchmont a better place for us all in so many ways.

Melina has volunteered in many areas. I remember her running the Chatsworth Carnival, and organizing the Hispanic Resource Center benefit dinner.

And Noel, working with Bob Meglio and others to establish a fund for the children of those lost in the World Trade Center disaster. Noel and I coached baseball together years ago, when our kids were small and dads still pitched to them.

We've taught our children the basics, but hopefully we've also provided examples, and expectations, that they too will serve their communities throughout their lives.

I'd also like to thank all of you for coming tonight. I know you have lots of other things to do, and I appreciate your willingness to support the process we follow here in Larchmont to choose those to whom we entrust our public responsibilities.

With us tonight are ... a former Village mayor, current and former trustees, firefighters, members of committees, commissions and Boards, volunteers and activists. All of us are here because we care about our community, because we are willing to dedicate some of our time, our thought and our energy to causes and concerns that extend beyond our own narrow self-interest.

We come together at a time when unilateralism, intolerance, disrespect and chauvinism have been rejected both by the American people and here in our own Village. We, the vast majority of the American people, want to work together and to work with others who are different. We recognize that the best, most enduring decisions involve discussion, listening to others, contemplation and + at times + the courage to be decisive. I believe the decision making process needs to be open, transparent and inclusive.

And decisive. A recent article in the weekend Financial Times captured the activist spirit of how Democrats and Republicans are working together in California. It quoted Governor Schwarzeneggar as saying "Let us all come together and let us solve [our] problems. We are not waiting for our problems to get worse. We are not waiting for the federal government. We are not waiting + period." (FT, 13/14 January 2007, p. 5.)

As your Trustee, I intend to listen, to deliberate, to focus on working with the interested parties, to consider the interests of the Village residents as a whole, and to offer my perspectives. In doing that, I expect people to disagree with me, and I expect those who do to tell me. It is in this way that we will fathom the best way forward for our Village community.

I believe in engagement. It has never made sense to me to shun those with whom we disagree, to erect embargoes and sanctions, to refuse to talk. To paraphrase George Latimer, we must be prepared to disagree, not to be disagreeable.

So, why run? Over the past month or two, many people have asked me what my motivation is. To answer that, I want you to know that - in a very fundamental way - serving as your Trustee is an opportunity for me to "give back." You may wonder what it is that I want to give back.

I believe government has an important role to play in our lives. Government has made a big difference in my life. As a young person, I spent 12 years in a public school system in rural Pennsylvania. I was able to go to a local public college that was supported by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, because I obtained a National Defense Student Loan and work-study funding from the federal government.

I remember one job in particular I had. One semester I spent many afternoons in the basement of the science building cracking rocks to make samples for the geology lab classes.

Later, I was able to pursue my interests in resource economics and international trade and finance in grad school. Why? Because some people a long time ago had the foresight to establish the national land grant universities, and because I was able to win a government fellowship, and to work as a teaching assistant.

Still later, the cost of my second graduate degree at Yale was partially defrayed by the generosity of an obscure group of donors who provided a "Textile Veterans Scholarship" for me to study Public and Private Management, and by funding I received to work as a Teaching Assistant in international management.

And I appreciate that I am able to live in this wonderful village because many people over many years worked hard to make Larchmont what it is today. So, I want to give something back, but also to give something for the future, for those who will follow us here.

You know, I already have worked in government. For four years I was employed by the national government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. Not that I'm drawing any comparisons.

I worked in the Policy and Planning Division of the Department of Minerals and Energy. I sat across the table from multinational mining and oil companies. And I fought for the interests of the local people. I fought to ensure that the foreign investors trained and employed the local people, that infrastructure + the schools, airfields, power supplies, health stations and schools + was designed to benefit the people living in the region, and that projects were designed to minimize adverse impacts on the natural environment.

So, yes, I do see a role for government to play, both in improving our economy and strengthening our society. At the same time, we need to find ways to make our local government more efficient, to improve productivity while maintaining high levels of service delivery. And possibly to harness the private sector to provide some of the services the Village delivers. And we need to look again at shared services.

In fact, there are a lot of issues to be addressed. Over the next seven weeks I hope to have plenty of opportunities to address and to debate the issues before us. Let me briefly set out seven priorities I will address as your Trustee:

- improve Flint Park to accommodate a wide range of uses by all members of the community;

- work with Village and community groups to address unmet teen needs and issues;

- review the adequacy of current planning and zoning to limit urbanization pressures, and revise as necessary;

- search for ways to maintain and improve Village services while controlling expenditures;

- develop plans for rehabilitation of neglected Village infrastructure;

- foster non-profit initiatives to conduct capital campaigns to help acquire recreation space; and

- work constructively with Town, Schools, County and State to benefit Larchmont residents.

And, before I close, I'd like to take a moment to introduce my family. It is with my wife's - Debbie Pincus Ward's encouragement that I am running for Trustee. She knows how much it means to me, and how much satisfaction I get from being active in the community. And, to paraphrase what my sister-in-law said when she spoke at our wedding + and Debbie's friends will understand this, thanks for making time in your busy schedule to be here with us tonight! And, I'd like to introduce my children: Jake, who is a sophomore at Mamaroneck High School, Derek, who's in ninth grade, and Rebecca. Rebecca's in seventh grade at Hommocks.

The Village election is Tuesday, March 20th + right here in this room. I appreciate your support, and I want to take this opportunity to urge each one of you to become involved in some way in the campaign. I especially want to ask each of you to urge your friends and neighbors to come out and vote on the 20th of March for our party's fine slate of candidates. And I'd like to add my expression of support for Anne's and Jerry's candidacies.

So, thank you each and everyone for coming to the caucus tonight. I hope I have given you some idea why I am running, and why I ask you to work for my campaign + our campaign. I ask you to vote for me, and to insist your friends vote for me and our fine slate of candidates.

In closing, there is a custom I observed several years ago being practiced in Burma that I'd like to tell you about. After someone does a good turn of some sort, the person visits one of the many Buddhist temples and rings a large bell. And when others hear the bell ring, if they say out loud "well done, well done, well done" - three times + they share in the good merit ... I hope at the end of the ensuing campaign we can all get together again and say "well done!"

Thank you.