Chelsea City Council President Seeking Seat Vacated by Senator Barrios

[Ian David]

Chelsea City Council President Seeking Seat Vacated by Senator Barrios
by: Senator Rosie
Fri May 25, 2007 at 00:31:11 AM EDT

( - promoted by Charley on the MTA)

Hello,

I would like to introduce myself to the folks of the Blue Mass Group.

I am the President of the Chelsea City Council and I will be seeking the MA Senate seat which is being vacated by Jarrett Barrios.

I am a lifelong Chelsea resident who graduated from Chelsea High School in 1995, where I was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to attend Boston University. I completed an undergraduate degree in May 1999. I then continued at the BU Graduate School of Public Health with the Dean's Scholarship where I obtained a Masters Degree in Public Health with a focus on environmental health in January 2001.

Throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies, I worked at the Chelsea Collaborative, Inc. (formerly the Chelsea Human Services Collaborative, Inc.), a non-profit agency in Chelsea which focuses on social and environmental justice issues as well as civil rights in general. I began with the Collaborative at the age of 18 in 1995. My primary focus has been on environmental justice issues, though I have been involved in numerous immigration reform and affordable housing cases. I was recently named an Environmental Hero by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

You may have heard about Chelsea battling the siting of a diesel burning peak power plant adjacent to the City's only elementary school complex (where all children attending public school in grades 1-5 go). I led (and continue to lead) the grassroots effort to halt the power plant. The proponents of the peak power plant are the same folks proposing Cape Wind off of Nantucket Sound. So the affluent and homogenous communities of the Cape get good, clean, renewable energy while us lower-income and ethnically diverse residents of Chelsea get dirty diesel pollution. Imagine the hypocricy of the company! This battle has engaged more than 2000 residents from Chelsea, Revere, Everett and East Boston. We are celebrating the recent (May 18th) ruling of the Secretary of the Environment, Ian Bowles, who informed the proponents that he does not see the project being permittable and that should the company proceed forward, it does so at their own risk. This was a major victory for the residents of the afflicted communities. However, it's also an enormous accomplishment for environmental justice!

I worked on Jarrett's campaign, as his campaign coordinator for Chelsea back in 2002. We have been great colleagues and friends since.

This is the end of my second term on the Chelsea City Council. I won my seat (by 60%) in 2004 as a write-in candidate.

I am extremely hard-working, energetic and completely progressive. I would grately appreciate the opportunity to talk more with you all about my candidacy for the Senate seat.

Very Truly,

Roseann T. Bongiovanni
[e-mail]

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