GREENFIELD — Listening to a friend deliver a keynote at a leadership conference Saturday, Town Councilor Penny Ricketts began to see a list of things she needed to do to improve upon her work in town.
There were issues covered like how to bring more diversity to political committees and nonprofit boards and making sure representation is fair and in some form proportional to the population. There were issues like the ability for representatives to be accessible to their constituents. And there was one issue in particular presented by Holyoke City Councilor Jossie Valentin that especially resonated with Ricketts about civility in politics.
“When we look at power struggles and power structures and making sure that civility is there, it’s really easy to just disagree with someone and then insult them and keep moving,” Valentin said at Greenfield Community College Saturday afternoon. “But what happens when later on you realize you just burned a bridge that you need to cross six months from now?”
Ricketts was reminded of the “Safe City” ordinance and its lasting effect on the dynamic of the Greenfield Town Council, after it was voted down 6-4 before hundreds of residents and months of public discourse.
“The ‘Safe City’ discussion fractured us as a council and I just hope that it’s mended enough so that we can continue to do all of the hard work we need to do,” Ricketts said, reflecting on Valentin’s speech at the regional leadership conference hosted by GCC.
At the Leaders OnBoard: Fall Board Conference, by Leadership Pioneer Valley, Valentin told a story about when she came onto Holyoke’s council as the first openly lesbian representative, advocating for the rights of minorities, like her fellow Puerto Ricans.
She knew she might bump heads with the older councilors, who had been serving for at least a decade in the Paper City. She wanted to bump up the city’s sales tax, something that had already been in place in surrounding cities but was halted previously by business owners. She saw the revenue as a way to help pay for potholes and other key concerns of her constituents.
“When it comes to money, there’s a common denominator,” Valentin said. “We don’t have to agree about social justice and issues like that, but let’s look at the numbers.”
It was an example that Valentin pointed to as a way to work with fellow councilors, or more generally, fellow people on a decision-making board.
She noted that sometimes her constituents, some of whom voted for her but also voted for President Donald Trump, would get upset by her activism, but then she’d remind them of what she did do for them.
“I always try to bring it back to, ‘Remember, even if we can’t get along about these political ideas,’ I will say, ‘When you called me about the pothole in front of your house, I took care of it within three days,’” Valentin said. “I always bring it back to that I gave you a result and don’t forget I gave you that result, because you’re being blinded by how upset you are that I said ‘Black Lives Matter’ somewhere. It’s that constant of, we’ve worked together before.”
Valentin takes pride in listening to her constituents and trying to make sure that they are fully represented before the city on issues from social justice to paved streets and clean sidewalks.
Ricketts, who is running for re-election as an at-large town councilor, said a point of pride for is her constant interaction with her constituents. She said she was told by others not to respond to everyone, but that’s something that Valentin said, for better or worse, is a defining characteristic and something both women see as invaluable as an elected official.
“That what it takes. That’s what you’re really signing up for,” Ricketts said. “That’s the job — not once a month on Wednesday to show up for that televised show.”
Another point that translated from Holyoke to Greenfield was ensuring there is proper representation of the minority community. Valentin said she tries to give middle school and high school students a way to include their thoughts.
“We have a unique opportunity here, an opportunity to see that we’re talking about diversity in a way that’s significant and not let’s just check all the boxes,” she said.
Ricketts said she too struggles with this in town.
“I’m sitting here today and what was there, one other person of color today? There’s always one, maybe, everywhere I go, usually it’s none,” Ricketts said, in a room full of local and regional leaders from town councilors to heads of nonprofits. “It’s so sad because Greenfield, this county, is so big and there are people of color. There are people who speak different languages. We have people who sit on the disability committee and they don’t go any further than that committee. That’s it. Why don’t they run for council or something else?”
She continued, “I don’t know why it’s that way, but we really don’t sell ourselves enough that we’re looking for other members.”
Ricketts added that now she feels like “it’s my job” to promote diversity in representation in Greenfield.
“Listening to Jossie speak today, I feel like every time somebody comes before me with a problem and they want to talk about something, I should be saying, ‘Well, go here, talk to them. But you know what, you should talk about getting on that board or you should talk about getting on this particular committee,’ ” Ricketts said.
You can reach Joshua Solomon:
413-772-0261, ext. 264
jsolomon@recorder.com