Candidate for Ward 5 City Councilor: Kim Vandiver
By Ellen Putnam
Photo From Kim Vandiver
Kim Vandiver is running for a second term as Ward 5’s representative on the City Council because, she said, “I want to continue what I’ve been doing: providing detailed oversight; pushing for specific improvements where there are opportunities to do so; connecting Ward 5 residents to information and resources; and satisfying my own curiosity about how everything in city government works and fits together.”
Vandiver describes her career experience as “a jungle gym rather than a ladder” - branching out in different, related directions rather than traveling along a single, straight line.
“My background is pretty broad,” she said, “and it spans work on operational improvement, data engineering, and team facilitation. All together, it’s really helpful for the work I do on the City Council. I’ve frequently been in roles that require being the glue between different teams and understanding different communication styles and preferences - and that fits well into working with other councilors and with constituents.”
At the center of Vandiver’s approach to public service is “the idea of mind and heart,” she said. “People aren’t convinced by data alone, but using only feelings and anecdotes isn’t a good way to get to the right outcome. You have to pair, hand-in-hand, a view of the data and personal connections and stories. And that’s how I try to approach my work on the City Council and with constituents.”
Vandiver is the chair of the City Council’s Boards and Commissions Committee, which is in charge of approving appointments recommended by the mayor to the city’s two dozen volunteer boards and commissions.
“Melrose’s greatest strength is our people,” Vandiver reflected. “We have a lot of good people in leadership positions, and I’m always amazed by the incredible amount of work that people do on boards and commissions, mostly unpaid, across the city. And especially when you include nonprofits like The Bridge, there are a vast number of really knowledgeable, hardworking, thoughtful people who contribute to Melrose.”
“The downside,” she went on, “is that, while we have a lot of very engaged residents, a lot of the time we see the same people stepping up over and over, and we need to broaden that. I’ve been trying to raise awareness and engagement in Ward 5 - I’ve been sponsoring local art and local artists, and whenever I get the chance, I’ve been talking up the openings we have on our boards and commissions. I would like to see a broader group of residents, especially from Ward 5, represented.”
“Our biggest challenge as a city is the budget,” Vandiver said. “It’s just math: our costs are going up faster than 2.5%, and that means that every year, we either need to cut services or raise taxes. Growth and development can help some, but not enough to solve the problem. Our cost challenges are real, and there isn’t a lot of extra room to maneuver left in the budget.”
“The decisions we’re making at this point are ultimately going to make things more expensive and unpredictable in the long-run,” she went on. “We’re seeing city vehicles not getting proper maintenance, and at some point, they’re going to have a surprise catastrophic issue. The Sustainability Manager position, which used to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money, is currently unfunded. The budget situation is forcing us into short-term decision-making. In the day-to-day, people aren’t seeing the impact - we may only notice it five or ten years down the line, when all of these things have been deferred for so long, and suddenly we have to deal with the consequences. I want to try to avoid that, if we can.”
Photo From Kim Vandiver
As for the three override questions that will be on the ballot in November, “I support the highest amount, personally,” Vandiver said.
“I do think we’ve been hearing a lot of people advocating for all ‘yes’ or all ‘no’, and I certainly understand why,” she went on. “But, especially if someone is feeling that either position is hard to fully commit to, I think it’s really valuable to look at the cost calculator, and to look at what positions and city services would be included at each override level.”
“If someone wants to support just the lowest or just the middle amount,” Vandiver continued, “they’re still voting for a better Melrose, to better fund the city, and I personally appreciate that. We have three options for a reason - the mayor and the City Council went with the three options in order to give people a choice. While I think we do need the top level, I would encourage people to not feel boxed in to all ‘yes’ or all ‘no’.”
“It’s hard for people to decide to spend more money, especially in the current economic climate, and I do understand that,” she reflected, “but people need to recognize that this is a moment where we can choose to spend money that’s going to have a good return on investment, or we can choose more short-term thinking that may have these negative long-term impacts.”
While Vandiver fully supports the override, she also feels strongly about supporting those who may struggle to afford it.
“There are a number of things that the mayor and the City Council have done to provide better safety nets for people who may struggle with the override,” she said. “Deferred Tax Payment, for example, is an underutilized program - people tend to be pretty wary of it, but it’s actually a program that’s very thoughtfully designed by Massachusetts and implemented by Melrose. I would love to help more people understand the details of the program. There are guardrails in place that ensure that people using this program continue to maintain significant equity while also benefitting from deferred taxes.”
“Communication is huge,” Vandiver emphasized. “There are ways that people can get tax relief, and the people who need to know aren’t always aware. There are people who I’ve run into recently in Ward 5 who believe that their property taxes going up means that they will be squeezed out, but they’re not always aware of the programs that could help ease their burdens.”
“Structurally, there are reasons why it’s a challenge,” she went on. “Receiving communication often requires people to opt in to mailing lists - from their city councilors, from the city, and so on. Opting in to these can help, and outreach from councilors and from the city outreach can be valuable - but there’s a big opportunity here to make sure that people are kept informed.”
Vandiver (left) with Mayor Jen Grigoraitis and City Councilor Maya Jamaleddine at the Ward 5 Slice of the City event
Photo From Kim Vandiver
While Vandiver sees herself as responsible for representing all of Ward 5’s residents, she notes that her ward has “a lot of young families. I’m uniquely positioned on the Council,” she added, “because I currently have the youngest children.” Vandiver has a three-year-old and an almost-one-year-old.
“I hear about things in the WhatsApp and Facebook groups aimed at people with babies and toddlers,” she said, “and I’m able to help the city government be responsive and make changes before things become bigger issues. I want to continue to work on being proactive in supporting families with young children in Melrose.”
Vandiver’s approach to legislating is “thorough. I do the homework,” she said, “I read everything provided, I ask questions. During City Council meetings, I believe in asking questions for transparency for constituents as well as to find out new information for myself. I’m definitely among the top three councilors in terms of how many questions I ask during Council meetings.”
“I also keep in mind what’s going to serve the community best,” she added, “especially the members of the community who need the most support.”
Vandiver noted that, while the City Council most often votes unanimously to approve whatever has been put forward, “that’s often appropriate because we’re providing oversight to something that the mayor’s administration has already thought through.”
At the same time, she shared, “In the early stages of the decision to build the new police station at the Beebe School site, a number of site neighbors were feeling frustrated by where things were headed, and they felt there wasn’t enough transparency about the project. So at that point, I felt it was appropriate to ‘Postpone to a date certain’. This is an infrequently used motion that can let the Council hold an item in committee in order to give the administration time to get more information for members of the public. And when the city had provided the transparency that people had asked for - it’s all up on the Public Safety Buildings Project website now - I felt comfortable voting to move things forward. In that case, I did my homework about the procedural options that were available and I used them.”
In addition to her two young children, Vandiver has “a cuddly senior cat who we pamper.” (They recently built her a ‘catio.’) Vandiver and her family are avid bike enthusiasts: she once “biked home from school” - all the way from Cambridge, Massachusetts to her mom’s house in Wisconsin.