Dodd's Goal: Core Services Provided Cost Effectively

Incumbent Westborough Selectman Timothy Dodd says he wants to “provide core services in as cost effective a way as possible.”

Dodd says there are “our goals that I want to focus on” that are tied to that aim: strategic planning and performance management; “using technology to improve communication between residents and the town”; “exploring different service delivery models, such as regionalization of certain services”; and forming an innovation council.

Two three-year seats on the board of selectmen are on the March 5 annual town ballot. Dodd, fellow incumbent Leigh Emery and Ruggles Street resident Stephen Faris are the candidates.

“I believe this is a very critical juncture in our time,” says Dodd, who seeks his third term.

“I believe that I’ve brought a lot of new ideas to the board. I’ve been working on some different projects with my colleagues, and I want to be able to see them through.”

Dodd says that during his first two terms, he led efforts to get an e-mail policy for selectmen; for Westborough to become the “first town in the state to have a tax work off program for veterans”; and helped create Westborough’s bike and pedestrian committee.

He says he is “constantly looking for ideas from other communities and my colleagues across the state.”

“We’re in a new fiscal reality. And as a result, we need to look at doing things in creative and innovative ways,” says Dodd, the local government program manager in the Commonwealth’s Executive Office for Administration and Finance.

“In my position, I manage about $7 million in grant funds for cities and towns helping them to do the same sort of thing that we’ve just been talking about.”

Dodd supports forming an innovation council for the town.

“The general idea is to get together in a room a group of residents and town officials and board and committee members to talk about the different services the town performs,” he says.

“Are there ways that different departments can share services? Are there ways that technology can enhance the way that they’re done? Are there areas of repetition?”

Dodd says that “streamlining how we do customer service” would help Westborough draw business.

“We have very dedicated and great town departments. It’s just a matter of encouraging them and streamlining the process, too,” he says.

“A couple of years ago at town meeting, funds were approved to do an online permitting system. A lot of towns are exploring that.”