Hefter in Town Meeting

Jesse Hefter

2022-2024 Town Meeting Member, Precinct 14

Resident on Chestnut Hill Avenue since 1989, Brookline resident since 1984

May 3, 2022 - WE DID IT!

With the support of friends, neighbors, and the incredible Brookline By Design organization, I was thrilled to win a Town Meeting Member seat for a 3-year term (2022-2024). I look forward to serving my neighbors, precinct, and the Town in Town Meeting. My goal is to listen to issues, search for collaborative solutions, and move forward together.

Critical issues in our precinct and/or the Town and how would I address them?

Land use planning: Brookline continues to grow and develop and that is good. Concurrently, we need to upgrade our land-use regulations to enable improved decision-making and transparency. I want to ensure that we balance needs for affordable housing and quality-of-life with climate change awareness and our Town's historic assets. As we continue to progress with infrastructure improvements on our big three thoroughfares (Washington, Beacon, and Boylston Streets), we must allow for neighborhood-level consensus, concern for commercial viability, and a focus on livability and sustainability.
Pedestrian lighting: As a member of the Select Board's Committee on Pedestrian Street Lighting, it is evident that, for both pedestrians and bicyclists, we need to provide better after-dark lighting to increase safety and improve livability. The approaches that Brookline has taken in Coolidge Corner, Brookline Village, and Washington Square is inconsistent and, from an energy perspective, inefficient. I believe that the Town ought to embed pedestrian and bicyclist lighting into our Complete Streets policy so that, as street redevelopment occurs, informed and technologically advanced sidewalk-level lighting is implemented. Along with addressing our uneven sidewalks and rough-surfaced streets, we need to take action to provide residents across the age spectrum on foot and bike with safe and well-lit thoroughfares in the areas of most need.
Education: Our future is literally in our children and grandchildren. We must continue to provide the very best educational experiences from preschool through high school to the younger members of our community. Brookline's educational system is among the very best anywhere and is one of the greatest appeals our Town has to potential new residents. Alongside academic endeavors, we should continue to find better ways to leverage our educational and athletic facilities to benefit all ages of our community.

Town activities

Street Safety
- 6/21/2023 - Appointed to 1-year term to the Pedestrian Advisory Committee
- 6/13/2023 - Provided Public Comment to Transportation Board for traffic calming measures on Chestnut Hill Avenue proximal to Boylston St.
- 5/22/2023 - Interview for opening on Pedestrian Advisory Committee
- 6/28/2022 - Provided letter to Transportation Board regarding reason for installation of No Right Turn signs on Harvard St onto Longwood Ave.
- 5/16/2022 - Provided letter of support to Transportation Board for needed crosswalk and associated traffic safety demarcations at the entrance/exit of Warren Field on Eliot St.
845 Boylston Project
- 12/5/2022 - Attended and provided public comment on issues with current project as-sized
- 11/14/2022 - Attended hearing on environmental and engineering issues
- 5/17/2022 - Made public comment on the negative issues with this project in the neighborhood
- 3/17/2022 - Attended initial hearing
Town Meetings
- 11/19/2023 - Newsletter with Highlights of Fall 2023 Town Meeting
- 11/16/2023 - Session 3 of Fall Special Town Meeting (Video presentation on PFAS - Scroll timer to the 3:18 mark)
- 11/15/2023 - Session 2 of Fall Special Town Meeting
- 11/14/2023 - Session 1 of Fall Special Town Meeting
- 6/7/2023 - Session 6 of Spring Town Meeting
- 6/6/2023 - Session 5 of Spring Town Meeting
- 6/1/2023 - Session 4 of Spring Town Meeting
- 5/31/2023 - Session 3 of Spring Town Meeting
- 5/24/2023 - Session 2 of Spring Town Meeting
- 5/23/2023 - Session 1 of Spring Town Meeting
- 1/12/2023 - Newsletter with Highlights of Winter 2023 Town Meeting
- 1/10/2023 - Session 1 of Special Town Meeting
- 12/21/2022 - Newsletter with Highlights of Fall 2022 Town Meeting
- 12/8/2022 - Session 7 of (Fall) Special Town Meeting
- 12/6/2022 - Session 6 of (Fall) Special Town Meeting
- 12/1/2022 - Session 5 of (Fall) Special Town Meeting
- 11/29/2022 - Session 4 of (Fall) Special Town Meeting
- 11/17/2022 - Session 3 of (Fall) Special Town Meeting
- 11/16/2022 - Session 2 of (Fall) Special Town Meeting
- 11/15/2022 - Session 1 of (Fall) Special Town Meeting
- 11/13/2022 - Authored Amendment to Warrant Article 9 (Snow and Ice Removal) that proposes a simple solution for Orthodox Jews to comply with the Town Bylaw when a snowstorm ends just before the Shabbat or during Shabbat; cosubmitted with Lisa Shatz (Precinct 11) - Collaboration with Susan Granoff
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- 7/7/2022 - Elected Precinct 14 delegate to Town Meeting Member Association
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- 6/2/2022 - Session 5 of Spring Town Meeting
- 6/1/2022 - Session 4 of Spring Town Meeting
- 5/31/2022 - Session 3 of Spring Town Meeting
- 5/25/2022 - Session 2 of Spring Town Meeting
- 5/24/2022 - Session 1 of Spring Town Meeting
Voting Record
- Winter Meeting 2023
- Spring Meeting 2022
Town Committees
- 11/16/2023 - Presented Summary of State House Bill 2197 to Town Meeting as part of WA17
- 10/12/2023 - Met with Advisory Committee Subcommittee on Public Health and Safety to present WA17 (with A. Jonas)
- 8/30/2023 - Assisted in development and completion of Warrant Article 17 for Fall Special Town Meeting 2023 entitled: Resolution regarding fluorinated hydrocarbons otherwise known as "PFAS"
- 5/16/2023 - Submitted Committee Report to Moderator (Published in Spring Town Meeting Supplement)
- 9/1/2022 - Moderator's PFAS Committee

Community Volunteer Activities

Select Board Committee on Pedestrian-Friendly Street Lighting: Based on Warrant Article 22 of the May 2019 Town Meeting, worked from 2019-2022 to develop a set of recommendations to the Town on implementing pedestrian (and bicycle)-friendly street lighting so that it serves
1. all commercial areas, including routes within and between those areas
2. important routes for walking as a means of transportation
3. densely developed residential areas that surround commercial areas
4. routes to important destinations outside these areas
5. approaches to public transportation
Final Report submitted to the Town in August 2021.
Greater Boston Eruv Corporation: Serve as the volunteer president the Greater Boston Eruv Corporation, a 501(c)3 organization, that has served the Brookline and surrounding area since 1993. Spent 8 years in the design, permitting, fundraising, and permitting stages. Have expanded the Eruv border over the years as the community grows.
Synagogue Council of Massachusetts Adult educator for the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts. For over 15 years, I have led a weekly, inclusive and collaborative class in Talmud.
Local Food Pantry: Twice each month, I provide "muscle power" to assist a local, non-profit Kosher Food Pantry in unloading food deliveries that then find their way to families facing food challenges in the greater Boston area.
Jewish Family and Children's Services: Deliver food packages/complete meals to senior citizen shut-ins in the Brookline and Brighton area before the New Year and Passover. Interested in volunteering?
BrookOnline - Pothole Discovery and Repair: Using the Town BrookOnline app to inform DPW about potholes on our precinct streets and obstructions/hazards on our local sidewalks. From Middlesex Road at one end of our precinct to Ackers Ave on the other side, I regularly enter pothole requests to the Town as I find them while driving or walking. As a result, many of our streets have been repaired over the last 3 months. Thanks to DPW for their efforts in performing the repairs!

A little about me

Have lived in Brookline since 1984, am a homeowner, taxpayer, and grandparent of 2 Heath School students (Go Hawks!). I enjoy working collaboratively on complex tasks, utilizing data and metrics to inform decisions, building consensus with stakeholders, and sticking with projects to their conclusion
Married to a "townie", 3 children (2 live in Brookline), 11 grandchildren
Retired from Verizon Corporation as an Associate Fellow in 2018 after a 36-year career spanning materials science, operations research, software and logistics planning, and data mining and analysis (holder of 5 U.S. Patents)
Earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 1984, spent 3 years as a Research Chemist for Shell Development Company
In my "spare" time, I enjoy woodworking, tennis, sailing, biking, radio-control modeling, and skiing

"Pound the Pavement Project"

I had the pleasure and adventure of canvassing across our precinct to introduce myself. Here are the streets I personally visited: