Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon is the new president of the MMA, and Natick Selectman Josh Ostroff is the new vice president.
The MMA board endorsed Scanlon and Ostroff as officers for 2010 following the association’s Annual Business Meeting in Boston on Jan. 23.
Scanlon, who succeeds Franklin Town Administrator Jeff Nutting as MMA president, is serving his eighth two-year term as Beverly’s mayor, following a career in the private sector. The city’s bond rating has been raised many times during his tenure, which is the longest in Beverly history.
He received the Theodore Mann Award for Regional Leadership in 2008 and has served as chair of the North Shore Coalition of Mayors and Town Managers.
Scanlon said his priorities include legislation that would allow cities and towns to make changes to employee health care plans outside of collective bargaining – a change that could save communities millions of dollars.
Rules governing coverage for part-time employees may also be worth reviewing, he said. Because municipal employees qualify for health insurance if they work 20 hours per week, in some instances the cost of benefits for a position can exceed its salary.
Scanlon lauded Gov. Deval Patrick’s announcement that his budget proposal would level-fund local aid, but, he added, “It seems like every year this is the hardest budget we’ve ever faced. And I think that’s certainly going to be true this year.”
As MMA president, Scanlon said he will seek to be “an effective conduit for people’s ideas.” He said he will aim, through meetings and phone calls, to discern what MMA members regard as most important, “and find a cohesive way to convey those ideas to the executive branch and to the Legislature.”
Ostroff has been a Natick selectman since 2006 and became a member of the MMA Board the following year. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the MetroWest Growth Management Committee, a subgroup of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.
As a selectman, Ostroff has worked on issues such as strategic planning, economic development, recruitment, transportation, public safety, and personnel evaluation. He is a co-owner of the consulting firm Virtual Media Resources and has co-authored articles on public health and public policy.
