Mike Zullas announces candidacy for re-election to Milton Select Board

Dear Milton Neighbor,

I have been honored to work on your behalf as a member of the Select Board.  We have accomplished much to provide for Milton’s present while preparing for its future.  But there is unfinished business.  Given the legal and financial challenges that we will face in the coming months and years, I am seeking reelection.

My wife Marianne and I live on Fairbanks Road in Precinct 3 with our daughters Melina, who attends Milton High School, and Alyssa, who attends Pierce Middle School. I am a graduate of Williams College and Vanderbilt Law School.

I have been a lawyer for nearly 35 years.  I am currently Managing Partner of Casner & Edwards, LLP, a 53-lawyer, 88-employee law firm in Boston.  I have served in different roles as a lawyer: a public corruption prosecutor; a general counsel for companies; a litigator; and a corporate lawyer.

I have served in Town government for the past 14 years as a Town Meeting Member and a member of the Warrant Committee, the School Committee (including as Chair), and the Select Board, which I currently Chair.  I also served as President of the Milton Library Foundation.

My goals have always been and will always be to find consensus to solve our residents’ problems and to act in Town’s best interests.  During the past six years, I have had the opportunity to work together with our neighbors on the following initiatives:

• Maintaining Milton’s strong finances and its AAA rating (the highest) from the Wall Street rating agencies;
• Improving our parks, playgrounds, and open spaces through the Community Preservation Act;
• Designing a new school to address our overcrowding issues;
• Building a new fire station and securing the land for the next one;
• Designing a new Town broadband system to connect public safety and our schools;
• Building a new animal shelter;
• Allocating nearly $400,000 in ARPA funds to help Milton’s businesses;
• Restarting the Youth Task Force;
• Creating the Climate Action Planning Committee; and
• Working with neighbors install speed bumps on Governors Road and traffic monitoring on Grafton Ave., Plymouth Ave., Garden St., State St., and Huntington Rd.

There is much still to do, particularly in light of the new legal and financial challenges we face in connection with the MBTA Communities Act.  As the only lawyer on the Select Board, I have worked to protect the Town and to act on the will of the voters by finding a top-notch legal team to present the Town’s positions and by trying to prevent the withdrawal of state funding.

We live in one of the best towns in the country. We’ll keep that distinction as long as we continue to build consensus and work together as one community.  That is my pledge to you if I have your vote to serve another term.

Sincerely,

Mike Zullas