ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Pictured is Jaime Figueroa, 28. He is running for City Council.
By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — Jaime Figueroa wants to bring the spirit of community service into City Hall.
“City government is losing touch with our community,” he said. “We are too focused on economic development and too focused on where the marijuana clinics should go. As a result, people are feeling the brunt of it. I want better communication between city government and residents.”
At 28, the Suffolk University student said he is qualified to be an at-large city councilor because he is a caring community activist and citizen public servant who has dedicated the past five years to bettering Lynn.
“I serve on the Lynn Community Action board where we just celebrated Martin Luther King Day with more than 300 volunteers,” he said. “We distributed 35 duffle bags full of toiletries, towels and sheets for the Plummer Home and assembled gift bags for 1,000 veterans that were distributed to the Lynn Shelter Association.”
The Ward 7 resident moved to Lynn in 2003, attended Classical High School and graduated North Shore Community College where he studied business administration. He is a senior at Suffolk, studying business marketing, and an intern at the legal department at the Boston Planning & Development Agency. Figueroa’s priority, he said, is to fix the city budget which has faced a deficit.
“The main thing is to prioritize school funding, that’s one area of the budget that should never be touched,” he said. “Schools should always be fully funded, that and public safety. We must fully fund ESL and our schools so teachers have the resources to properly teach our children.”
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In addition, Figueroa said he wants to bring back community liaisons to the police department as a way to improve relations between Latinos and the police.
Figueroa did not know how much these initiatives will cost taxpayers, but said they could be paid for by grants.
“Police are not the enemy; they are friends,” he said. “In the Latino community, where sometimes they are afraid of law enforcement, we need to start that conversation.”
Figueroa said they can make improvements on paying for schools without raising taxes. Rather, he said the money should come from increased tax revenues as new restaurants come to the downtown.
Figueroa said he plans to vote against $75 million in taxpayer funding for two new schools next spring because he is opposed to the controversial site of the 652-student school that would be built near Breeds Pond Reservoir off Parkland Avenue.
“The city needs to go back to the drawing board to come up with a better location that everyone can support,” he said.
The incumbent at-large councilors include Daniel Cahill, Brian LaPierre, Hong Net and Buzzy Barton. It’s unclear whether Cahill, who won a seat in the Legislature last year, will seek re-election. He said a decision will be made in March.
Figueroa has raised $700 to finance the campaign and said he needs $30,000 to win.
“I can do it,” he said.
Nomination papers will be available starting March 20.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
