Thursday, 4:30 PM
More than 7,000 attended Patrick community meetings
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
After 76 meetings across the Commonwealth attended by 7,180 people, groups gathering input for Governor-elect Deval Patrick submitted 15 separate reports today to the new administration with suggestions on everything from ways to revamp the state website to guarding the Quabbin Reservoir from a terrorist attack.
The reports also include some 5,300 suggestions that people submitted online through Patrick's transition website. The outreach over the last few weeks was part of an effort to continue what Patrick aides described as a renewed sense of civic engagement aroused during his campaign.
"We are attempting to harvest the wisdom of the grass roots," said John Walsh, Patrick's transition manager. "The number of people who participated is the thing that gets me excited."
Next week, the leaders of the 15 different discussion groups will meet with Patrick and Lieutenant Governor-elect Timothy P. Murray to present their findings. The administration also plans to post the online submissions, summaries of the draft reports, and testimony from the meetings on its transition website by Wednesday.
"We are going to release them all -- The good, the bad, and the ugly," said Walsh, adding that full final reports would be released in January.
The community groups were divided into 15 categories, which included public safety, human services, health care, and the environment. Online, people could submit a suggestion to a specific group or offer a general comment.
While aides said they had not had the opportunity to assess all the input, the transition team did provide a dozen online comments as a small sample of the feedback. The suggestions given to The Globe only identified the senders by first name and hometown.
Norma from Framingham, for example, wanted to encourage the administration to reach out to citizens though public access television, writing: "Local cable TV is a powerful tool, which can be used effectively to provide information directly to the public and increase interest and participation in the process."
Brian from Stockbridge worked in the hospitality industry and wanted to see more resources dedicated to promoting Massachusetts as a tourist destination. A practicing psychiatrist, Patricia from West Newton suggested that officials work to combat the stigma that accompanies mental illness.
Jeanne from Chelmsford begged the new administration to "please find a way to restore our education system" that she said had been decimated by budget cuts. For Laura from Cambridge, the big issue was what she described as a sharp increase in breast cancer in Massachusetts in the past 40 years because of the increase of toxins.
The goal was not to create policies for the new administration, but to solicit fresh ideas and involve people in the process, Walsh said. To do that, the transition team tried to include different points of view. As an example, Walsh pointed to Susan Nickerson, the executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which opposed Patrick's support of a wind farm off the island.
Nickerson said she had attended four of the energy and environment meetings and found that there were indeed varying perspectives over a wide range of issues.
"The whole intent of the series of the listening sessions was to gather input across the state," said Nickerson, who did vote for Patrick despite his support of the wind farm. "I think it was a very eclectic experience."
