FITCHBURG – Sam Squailia looks right at home in her new office at City Hall.
The lifelong city resident has wasted no time following being sworn into office on Jan. 2 as the 46th mayor of Fitchburg. Although she’s no stranger to politics having been on City Council for several years, Squailia is getting to know the staff at City Hall and department heads across the city in different way and is determined to improve a variety of things around Fitchburg.
“We’re working on the backlog of responsibilities and fixing some problems from small to figuring out solutions for the big,” she said on Thursday of what’s she’s been focusing on in the week and a half since officially coming on board. “Some of the choices are bad. Some are nuclear. There’s a lot of decision-making to be made in the city.”
Squailia is determined when it comes to the top three issues that she plans to tackle during her first year in office, the first being “to improve upon communication, accessibility, and transparency with the Mayor’s Office.”
“That was the major theme of the campaign,” she said, adding that one of the first things she did after taking office was to reach out public safety, school district administrators, and the DPW. She started a group chat with them and reported that “everyone is very responsive.”
They have been in constant communication, especially during the recent storm that dumped over 15 inches of snow on the city. She said they will keep in touch about weather and other topics, and she even did a ride-along with one of the DPW crew members when he plowed last weekend.
The second issue is the ongoing roads saga. Squailia said “pavement management and road assets” are at the forefront of what she is thinking about these days – and that they are coming up with short- and long-term plans to improve roads across the city.
“We can’t fix every road right away, but we can fill all the potholes and there are ways to make the roads last longer,” she said. “Budget is a problem but what we can do is take the money we do get and don’t waste it. We’re working on that.”
She said they “got an extra chunk” from the millionaire’s tax, which was passed by voters in November, to the tune of $500k or so that is to be used for infrastructure. Squailia said that while they may have $2 million in the budget to put towards roads this year, “in reality we need $5-8 million. We’ll use what we have in the most efficient way possible.”
She said StreetScan recently accessed all the roads in the city and that they will be getting a pavement condition index, known as PMI, from them. The Wakefield-based company helps local government secure road repair budget and prioritize maintenance projects by supporting a data-driven way to assess the condition of its street network and right-of-way assets.
“We will have access to the data and can play with algorithm as far as which road treatments we need to do where and when,” Squailia said of one of the ways they will work to make the roads last longer before needing to be completely repaved.
She said they are coming up with five-, 10-, 15-, 20-, and 30-year plans on top of a short-term plan for roads repair, paving, and maintenance.
“It’s like being in debt,” Squailia said. “Short- and long-term strategies instead of just a narrow view.”
They will also have a comprehensive engineering analysis done, which will help them map out “the efficient way to spend our limited paving dollars.
The third issue is “addressing the efficiencies and shortages in dispatch for our public safety,” something she has been doing research on as far as what is working best for other similar size cities in the region.
Those top three are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the laundry list of city matters that Squailia and her team are tackling one by one. It’s a good thing she has help then, including Chief of Staff Alexander Vera and Deputy Chief of Staff Myles Phillips-Wilcox.
Vera popped into her office and asked the mayor if she’d like anything to eat from The Pauper’s Pantry, a Main Street restaurant near City Hall. Squailia handed him some cash and told him to surprise her with a salad of some sort.
When asked how things have been going for him so far in his new job, Vera said “it’s exhilarating and it’s a blessing and it’s a challenge.”
Not even two weeks in, Vera said he is focusing on “the aspect of getting to know the day to day of the Mayor’s Office” – and that he is enjoying being in a position to help people.
“But it’s also a challenge because we can’t help everyone,” Vera said.
He named housing and transportation as some of the worst problems in the city, a common ailment in the state.
“Those challenges get us thinking,” Vera said, adding that going forward they will be looking into organizations and resources that can help with solutions.
He said he has enjoyed getting to know everyone in the building and disclosed that people have told him how much they enjoy seeing his and Squailia’s “smiling faces” in the morning.
Vera said that when he got the call from the mayor in November offering him the chief of staff position, he quit his job immediately.
“That was a vital moment to get everything prepared for the inauguration,” he said, adding that they met every week in preparation. “I also wanted to show her I am willing to do whatever it takes to help her succeed in this role.”
When asked why she chose Vera as her right-hand man she quipped that “he’s the only one that asked.” They both chuckled as they continued to banter with each other.
“I also joke with him a lot and he doesn’t mind,” Squailia smiled.
She said they are looking to fill several positions around the city including council on aging director, a new director for the Fitchburg Municipal Airport as Interim Airport Manager Peter Kettle is looking to retire, building commissioner, and treasurer/collector, among others.
Squailia has been in contact with the school committee, which includes two new members, the new principal at Fitchburg High School John Braga, and new Fitchburg Public Schools Superintendent Jon Thompson.
“There’s a lot of new energy,” she said. “I’m listening to the department heads about we can improve the processes that we have here.”
Every day since she started as mayor has been “jam-packed all day” and she admits that she gets “less sleep now” as her days are busy and then she checks and responds to emails and messages from home at night. She drops her 13-year-old daughter off at school in the morning and then hits the ground running.
But despite the chaos, she’s happy to be where she is and enjoys talking to and connecting with people. So much so that she expanded the Mayor’s Office hours and requested that the doors to City Hall not be automatically locked at 4:30 p.m. because she wants to offer people more.
“I have an open-door policy,” she said. “It’s fantastic. Everyone is so excited, and everyone wants a slice of my time.”
When asked if she will continue her work in engineering, her last job, she said not at this time.
“I can’t possibly do it all.”
Squailia talked about being “a Twin Cities baby,” having been born at Leominster hospital because there was a strike at Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg, and how she graduated from the trade school at Leominster High School after studying drafting there.
She attended the New England Institute of Technology and then Boston Architectural College. Squailia said her experience in engineering and building things and business will “come in handy” as a busy mayor who doesn’t have a choice but to multitask.
When asked if some of the voters and people who were very outspoken against her during the campaign now support her, she said most of them “have come around.”
“I think the majority of people are passionate about the political process and value and appreciate the voting process,” Squailia said. “And the majority of the advocates of the other candidates are supportive of the voters’ choice and city.”
It’s clear that Squailia is deeply entrenched in her hometown and has been for ages – and is deeply committed to improving it with the help of her team, department heads, and residents.
“We’re all working towards the same common goal of improving Fitchburg for all.”
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