PAWTUCKET – If there’s one thing Adam Greenman has gained a deeper appreciation for since winning the September election for Pawtucket mayor, he says, it has to be the vastness of city government and all the things it touches on a daily basis.
The volume of topics a mayor can work on any given day is enormous, Greenman maintains, and it can be easy to get bogged down in less important activities that the people don’t want.
“Prioritization has to be key,” he said.
That prioritization is part of the reason Greenman said he is trying to surround himself with transition team members of diverse skill sets and opinions, and not people who will tell him what he wants to hear. That team includes people who voted for him and those who didn’t, he said, because he needs to be a mayor for all residents.
It’s also the reason he’s planning a series of community listening sessions to hear what residents want his administration to focus on as they plan out their first 100 days. A survey will also be conducted.
“You can spend an entire day on any number of topics,” he said, which is why they need to make sure they’re prioritizing, focusing, and checking back constantly to make sure actions taken look as good in hindsight.
This Thursday, Oct. 22, Greenman will host a first community listening session at Nathanael Greene Elementary School in Fairlawn. Residents are invited to drop in any time between 6:30 and 8 p.m.
On his transition team led by Neil Steinberg, Greenman said, he wanted all parts of the city represented in people who live here. They’ll be the ones to help ensure a smooth transition in January, he said, whether it’s people with knowledge of efficiencies, human relations, housing policy, or small business.
He said his priority was also to make sure the team reflected diversity in all forms, including racial, economic, and diversity of thought. The heavy lifting has begun as of this week, he said, with the team split up into topic-based subcommittees.
Greenman, former CEO and president of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, defeated 16-year incumbent Mayor Donald Grebien in the September primary, and faces no challenger in the Nov. 3 election. He says his campaign focused on the issues residents cared about, and a lot of that meant listening to them.
Asked if he thinks his ability to speak Spanish to residents who use that as their primary language helped him to victory, Greenman said yes, it absolutely had an effect. He said he’s been working hard learning the language for several years, reaching a new level of comfort with it during a trip to Costa Rica in 2023.
Greenman said Pawtucket continues to have many important topics to get its collective head around, including local education.
Asked specifically about one of the biggest challenges going forward, the deficient Pawtucket City Hall building at 137 Roosevelt Ave., Greenman said he’s keeping an open mind and is not ready to say that the city will permanently move out of it. He said there was one study showing $92 million of renovations needed, but from what he learned, more than half of that was to seal the structure and prevent leaking that’s been happening almost since it opened nearly 100 years ago.
He said he really wants to get a second estimate to make sure that $92 million was accurate, as City Hall remains an important historic building and the centerpiece of the downtown.
“It is the Pawtucket skyline,” he said.
Not to be discounted is the accessibility of current City Hall, he added, including its proximity to bus lines and ease to get to.
“I don’t want to lose that,” he said, but he’s also a pragmatist, and they need to make sure it’s a healthy work environment that serves the city appropriately.
This is not a problem that happened overnight and is not the fault of current or recent administrations, said Greenman.
The incoming mayor said he’s making many personnel decisions this week. He said he’s asked each department for a status report memo, including everything being worked on. He said he’s having meetings with all department heads to learn about priorities and visions, and whether there’s alignment on vision.
Greenman said he made no secret during the campaign that he would seek to replace current Public Safety Director and Police Chief Tina Goncalves, saying it’s been clear to him that the approach and communication from that critically important position needs to be dramatically improved, but he said he hasn’t decided on whether he’ll keep Fire Chief John Trenteseaux.
The mayor-elect says he’s planning two public conversations on cameras, one on Flock Safety cameras, which he said the community was never able to have. He said he’s planning a full review on day one, and he wants it wrapped up within 30 to 45 days, and that review will include what safeguards are in place or desired to be in place, how information is collected, who the information is shared with, and whether the cameras should even exist in Pawtucket.
Greenman says he plans to keep traffic safety cameras in school zones and on traffic lights, maintaining that they’re addressing speeding as a safety issue. He recalls his daughter having to leave Goff Middle School well after school was out last year and walking home in the dark.
He said the city will be transparent about how much money is coming in from camera tickets and where the money is going, including earmarked funds for safety or education. There are a number of initiatives to take on related to calming traffic, he said, and it was reinforced to him during the campaign that it’s a widespread concern throughout every part of the city. The city has to address speeding, he said, and cameras are a key tool for doing it.
Greenman is encouraging residents to be part of the transition process, whether that’s helping with planning, volunteering to serve on a board or commission, or applying for an available job, among other opportunities.
The following are the remaining community meetings planned after Thursday:
• Woodlawn: Saturday, Oct. 24, 10:30 a.m. to noon at Baldwin Elementary
• Oak Hill: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Varieur Elementary
• Quality Hill: Thursday, Oct. 29, 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Jenks Middle School
• Darlington: Saturday, Oct. 31, 10:30 a.m. to noon, Fallon Memorial Elementary (children in costume are welcome)
Every session is free and family-friendly, according to Greenman’s team, offering live language interpretation and light refreshments.
