hi my name is alexandra reuben i'm a mother wife neighbor small business consultant and the resident for greater boston for over twenty years i am running for town select woman in april fifth belmont election and today i want to introduce myself and share with you my reasons for running this campaign we moved to belmont from somerville after over twenty years there and we really fell in love with belmont's great school small town feel proximity to boston and informed and educated residen from youngest to they all this to who really formed this great community on our first year we participated with many of you and joe was part build which showed just how this community can come together however there are the belmont roads that everybody complains about and the constant conversations about more cuts to schools in any evidence that yet another committee recommendation put on the shelf and always taxes increases in taxes and tapestries we got belmont center three point four million reconstruction project in then within a heartbeat had to go for an override which showed really poor planning by town government though i voted for the override last year because i fear that the education of all the children bellman including my daughter would be harmed by more cuts made to our school system i was dismayed when i learned that the fiscal issues facing the town and the override only temporarily address the address them i decided to run when i learned that others in belmont felt the same way about the lack of transparency regarding these decisions that i made around town it is apparent that belmont is more often than not in reactive mode there is an emergency and we try to solve it by throwing money at it instead of actually anticipating the problems and proactively planning to address them whether it's the recommendation recommended rezoning design and planning around the few commercial areas like cushing square or the net neutral revenue recommendations from two thousand and ten vision plan none of these seem to be implemented as a citizen i am frustrated by the lack of foresight by our government as a select woman i believe i can help ensure that we actually act on the vision plan instead of reacting to yet another emergency that coming our way i am running for town select woman to represent your concerns and to voice your opinions and to start discussions about topics that otherwise  being ignored i believe we can solve our problems without discussing them it's not possible and i want to make sure that we have a win win outcome for our issues that we can unite the residents not divide them my consulting is focused on helping small businesses stop take a step back a value at their current state of operations and to begin to envision the next stage of progress and that's a very practical approach and try to optimize and set up processes to make it a success for the business i have an m b a and more than seventeen years experience working for small companies also nonprofit organizations like harvard business school or american student assistance or large corporations new york life sell in yes i specialize in creating strategic vision business planning optimize optimization of processes which would be followed by faced implementations all of which would be impossible without collaborating in building successful teams so i really feel that these business skills are transferable to the town of belmont in a critically needed here to move out of town to the twenty first century and i see my absence of the political experience actually as an advantage since it lets me see the town's problems from a different point of view in bringing different perspective to the table all of you young and old several generation belmonte annoyed just the ones that moved to the town deserve the town that meets your expectations and i know from my a long time and somervell in seen the transformation of that city that when isabel it is for all the complexities can be efficient inclusive transparent and can run pretty well i'm a wife and a mother and honestly i could have not had imagined the passion i have for this great town before i moved here or my willingness to run this campaign it was not an easy decision for me to run but with my family support and because right now my part time business allows the time needed for the select more men work i have decided to make this commitment to the town i now call home a lot more information is available about the positions and about me at alexandra for belmont dot org i am grateful for your time and consideration of your vote for me on april fifth thank you