Warren cites role at agency

The post is a political appointment that can go vacant for months at a time - President Obama hasn’t appointed anyone to lead the region after nearly nine months in office. Warren served 10 months in the job.

His job at FEMA was one of at least nine that the 39-year-old has held since graduating from Boston College in 1993, in addition to his service in the US Navy Reserve. In most of those positions, he worked for the Clinton administration or for US Senator John Kerry.

With few major differences on policy issues separating Warren and his opponent in the Nov. 3 election, state Representative Ruth Balser, both are running largely on their experience and accomplishments. Today, Globe West examines Warren’s record; a story from last Sunday focusing on Balser can be found online at www.boston.com/newton.

Warren’s resume is one of a young man who made a quick rise up the politi cal ladder, often impressing his bosses, like Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and co-workers as a quick study. In the FEMA job, which he landed in 2000 at 29 years old, Warren said he was able to make significant changes despite his brief tenure, instituting a new employee performance management system.

“I’m going to have to do the same thing as mayor - in a short time, step in and bring significant change in how we measure performance,’’ he said in an interview last week.

Warren overcame a name-recognition gap to finish ahead of two aldermen in the Sept. 15 preliminary election. He has never held elected office, other than serving as class president each of his four years at Newton North High School and as student body president at Boston College.

Warren said his multiple jobs shouldn’t be taken as a sign that he is unable to commit to a project. He said it would take six to eight years to get Newton on the right track and that he intends to run for a second term if elected to a first. He said his resume gives him the breadth of experience needed to lead Newton.

“It’s an asset that will be needed,’’ Warren said. “I think that Newton needs a mayor with a wide skill set to take on the challenges that we need to, in budgeting, finance, and leadership in the city, in a time when we face uncertainty.’’

Warren said he was not responsible for budgeting at the emergency management agency, but he was responsible for making sure the region’s $20 million budget was spent correctly. He also said he raised morale for the region’s 75 employees by putting goals in place.

“When you put standards in place and people understand their jobs, they understand they’re responsible for delivering services,’’ Warren said. “People have a clear sense of the mission.’’

Ken Horak worked with Warren at the agency and is supporting his candidacy. Horak stressed that he could only provide his personal opinion, and did not speak on behalf of the agency, even declining to provide his job title. An agency website lists him as associate administrator.

Horak called Warren an effective leader and said a version of the employee work plans he put in place is still being used.

“He is a very quick study,’’ Horak said. “He was a hands-on manager. He came on board and within a month began making these changes and improvements.’’

Horak said two federal disasters - flooding in both Maine and Vermont - were declared in New England during Warren’s tenure. In those situations, authority to provide assistance lies with federal field offices that were overseen by Warren, Horak said.

After graduating from Boston College, Warren spent more than five years as a consultant before volunteering for Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. His family was no stranger to politics. Warren’s father, Joseph, was a campaign adviser for Governor Michael Dukakis and an assistant secretary of education in his administration.

Setti Warren had a four-year run with the Clinton administration, working in the White House social office, advance office, and office of cabinet affairs before heading to FEMA.

After Bill Clinton left office, Warren worked in fund-raising at Boston College for two years before leaving to work for Kerry’s presidential campaign, serving as its national trip director. After Kerry lost the 2004 election, Warren took a post in his office and eventually became deputy state director. He left that role in March to campaign for mayor full time.

“He did a very good job of finding the best ideas in the state and bringing those down to Washington,’’ said David Wade, Kerry’s chief of staff.

Kerry has endorsed Warren, praising his leadership skills and commitment to public service.

Warren has said his jobs with Clinton and Kerry explain in part why his donor list includes several dozen residents of the Washington, D.C., area. About 54 percent of Warren’s campaign donors this year were Newton residents, compared with about 77 percent of Balser’s, based on campaign finance reports filed with the city Sept. 8. But Warren’s campaign has said that another 28 percent live in Greater Boston, and many of them have ties to Newton.

Warren served on two appointed boards in Newton, the Community Preservation Committee and Economic Development Commission, leaving both boards before his term expired. Warren said he left the preservation committee because he was traveling with the Kerry campaign. He left the development commission because he took on an economic development advisory role in Kerry’s office and did not want to create a conflict of interest, he said, and because he thought the city’s administration was falling short on the issue.

“There was no vision at the top,’’ Warren said.

Jeff Sacks, who chaired the Community Preservation Committee when Warren served on it, has endorsed his campaign for mayor.

“He listens well,’’ Sacks said of Warren. “He gets ideas across clearly. I think he’s a leader.’’

Warren enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 2002 and returned from a year in Iraq last fall, but he said military rules keep him from discussing his experiences as an intelligence officer. He said Navy regulations would not allow for him to be called up again before his stint runs out in 2011.

In 2006, Warren graduated from the night program at Suffolk University Law School, but said he hasn’t taken the bar exam and has never worked as a lawyer. He said leaving for Iraq gave him little time to study for the bar, and he plans to take the exam at some point, although probably not while serving as mayor.

Warren faced a question on a recent taping of a local cable television news show about how he would approach raising taxes through a Proposition 2 1/2 override, given that he lives in a house owned by his father and doesn’t pay property taxes himself. Warren and Balser have both said they won’t call for voters to approve an override during their first year in office.

Warren told the Globe he has contributed to mortgage payments on the house, but has stopped during the campaign.

“I’m deferring my contribution until after I am able to hopefully win the election and have a job,’’ Warren said.

Globe correspondent Calvin Hennick can be reached at calvinhennick@yahoo.com