Thursday, 4:30 PM
Lowell's first Latino city councilor takes job in Patrick administration
(Bill Greene/ Globe Staff)
George Ramirez, shown earlier this month in his office in Lowell, will be general counsel for the state Office of Business Development.
By Russell Contreras, Globe Staff
Lowell's first Latino city councilor, who recently announced he was not seeking reelection after only one term, said today he was resigning his seat to take a job in the Patrick administration.
George Ramirez, 43, will work as general counsel for the Massachusetts Office of Business Development, an agency that encourages job creation by trying to attract more businesses to the state. The Colombia-born attorney said he didn't want to leave his city council seat before his term ended this year, but the state job was "a great opportunity."
"I'm looking to leave to have a say on public policy on a state level," Ramirez said in a telephone interview. "My goals are the governor's goals."
His resignation is effective this Friday.
Two years ago, Ramirez made history by becoming Lowell's first Latino to win a city council seat in this diverse northern Massachusetts city, for which all council seats are elected at large. Ramirez's victory was used by some political observers to highlight the growing Latino population in the Merrimack Valley.
But some observers said Ramirez didn't do enough for Latino residents during his short term on the council, a charge Ramirez denies.
The son of a machinist and the product of Lowell's upscale Belvidere neighborhood, Ramirez arrived in Lowell as a child who knew very little English. He eventually attended the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and later Suffolk Law School. His wife, Kathy, is the daughter of former state senator Daniel Leahy, and her brother, John Leahy, is a local school committee member.
The Office of Business Development is part of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
Ramirez said he believes his new position with the state will open more doors for Latinos statewide. "I think that anybody in the Hispanic and Latino community in Massachusetts will feel more comfortable if they call the Office of Economic Development," he said. "They will be treated like everyone else."
