Diversity is missing on boards

Lynn, the North Shore's most populated city, is also one of its most diverse. Nearly 20 percent of the city's 90,000 residents are Latino. Ten percent are African-American. Roughly 7 percent are Asian, according to the latest census.

Yet that diversity stops at the doors of City Hall, where the mayor and all 11 city councilors are white. So, too, are the seven members of the School Committee. A few minorities serve on appointed boards and commissions.

Up the road in Salem, the equation is similar. About 17 percent of the city's residents are people of color. All but one of the city's elected officials are white. Ditto for Everett, where about 20 percent of the residents are minorities. Next door in Malden, where roughly a third of the residents are people of color, a lone Latina serves on the School Committee.

This lack of diversity in local government is highlighted in a new study by the Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Why are there so few minorities in elected office or serving on boards and commissions? That depends on whom you ask.

"There is no long line of people looking to be appointed anywhere," Lynn Mayor Edward "Chip" Clancy Jr., 56, said about the sprinkling of minorities who serve on the nine boards and commissions reviewed in the study.

Clancy, who is white, said during his five-year tenure that he has appointed some minorities to positions that were not included in the study -- a point, he said, that would have portrayed a more representative picture of his city's government than what is indicated.

"If I could get qualified people breaking down my door, I would be very happy; and, in addition to being interested, if they are from a minority background, that would be even better," Clancy said. "But people, in general, are busy with their own lives."

Few people know that better than Lucy Corchado, a Latina and single mother of three boys who is in her second term on Salem's City Council. Corchado, 39, also works full time as assistant to the dean of students at Salem State College.

As the city's only elected person of color, Corchado said she wished more minorities would step forward. She said first-term Mayor Kimberley Driscoll has made attempts -- more so than previous administrations -- to invite diverse applicants for openings. But Driscoll's administration, she said, has missed the mark on several occasions. For instance, she has suggested advertising for openings in Spanish-language newspapers in addition to other local papers, something, she said, that has not yet happened.

"I do see a good -faith effort," Corchado said. "There could be more, honestly."

State Senator Jarrett Barrios, a Latino whose district includes Chelsea, Everett, Revere, and Saugus, has helped Latinos learn how to run for elected office through ¿Oiste?, a voting advocacy group he cofounded since joining the Legislature in 1999. Barrios, 38, also helped cofound the Commonwealth Legislative Seminar, a group that targets women and people of color for training sessions about how government works and how to become better advocates in, and for, their communities.

"Democracy works when everybody believes their input is valuable," Barrios said. "If people opt out because they feel the door is closed, we all lose."

Social worker and Hong Kong native Richard W. P. Cheng, 51, said he still believes there are a lot of closed doors in Malden, where he ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2001. He said he learned a lot about the political process, something he is still trying to teach others. But he often encounters a hesitancy among the city's Asian-Americans, who make up 14 percent of the city's population, about confronting public officials, he said. Cheng also said he has not seen much interest among the city's power brokers to improve communications.

"We have good people in the city and good people in the community, but there are not enough interactions," he said. "Everybody is working in isolated factions."

Outreach and mentoring are key to fostering more minority participation in government, said Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins Jr., 48, an African-American who grew up in predominantly white Newburyport, served on the City Council, and was elected to the Legislature, where he chaired the Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus in 1996.

"My mother and my father encouraged me," Cousins said. "They weren't elected, but both were involved in public service. My mother was president of the PTA, and my father was very involved in the union at the [Portsmouth Naval] Shipyard."

Cousins said he makes a point of speaking about his work to groups of minority children whenever he gets the chance and has made a "personal commitment" to appoint more women and minorities to office.

As officials study and debate the issue of boosting minority representation, they may want to consider the role of Everett Common Councilor Eloy Lou Sierra, a Latino who was first elected to the council 20 years ago and is the lone minority among the 26 elected officials in City Hall. Sierra, 53, said that when he first campaigned for office, many residents in the city told him he had their vote because they assumed he was Italian.

Apparently many people still do. Everett officials recently reported that there were no minorities holding elected office in the city when asked for such data for the new UMass study, said author Carol Hardy-Fanta.

Sierra, who is of Puerto Rican decent and is bilingual, said he never corrected anyone who assumed he was Italian.

"I never made it an issue," he said. "I never really talk about it. I just do my job."

Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com.

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