Garry Miller: Ward 5

Garry Miller is a candidate for the Newton city council in Ward 5. Learn more about his views from his campaign website, the Beacon’s profile, and his responses to the Beacon’s candidate survey:

How would you improve CITY FINANCES in Newton?

The city has spent far too long patching the city budget with one-time solutions. We need a longer-term solution to better match city revenues with expenses at a time of elevated inflation. That means finding savings wherever we can find it in the city budget. But for a longer-term solution, the only real options are to either ask for a Prop 2 1/2 override or work to grow and strengthen the tax base thru thoughtful development. Of these options, growth seems to me the best solution. 

This will take time, and the city’s finances may well require a boost before that happens. If so, an interim Prop 2 1/2 override is the most equitable solution. I would unequivocally oppose using fees for city services to close funding gaps.

How would you improve PUBLIC EDUCATION in Newton?

The City Council has little or no control over items like the school budget or curriculum. However, the Council can play a vital role in a few vital areas that I would support.

1. Ensuring that school facilities meet the needs of our students. Too many, such as Newton South, suffer from deficiencies like roof leaks or faulty HVAC systems that detract from learning.
2. As we learned earlier in 2025, the City Council can play a mediating and advocacy role to help calm conflicts and help find solutions when the School Committee and Mayor don’t agree.
3. The City Council plays a critical role in the city’s overall finances, which partly determines what money is available for our schools. A bigger overall pie can support a larger budget for the schools without necessarily cutting other city services.

How would you improve TRANSPORTATION and INFRASTRUCTURE in Newton?

Our roads have long been a sore spot with residents, with many roads in poor condition. While this has improved somewhat over the past few years, many side streets remain in poor condition. We must continue and extend our road repair budget to ensure side streets improve as well as main roads.

Traffic conditions on roads like Needham St are also a big issue. Here, we can work to improve traffic signaling to help somewhat, but over the longer term the only real solution is to provide alternate transportation options for residents, such as walking, biking, and public transportation. This requires separate and safer infrastructure for pedestrians and bikers and working with the MBTA to improve public transportation options like buses, the Green Line, and the commuter rail to make these usable and dependable for our citizens.

How would you improve PUBLIC SAFETY in Newton?

Newton is a very safe community overall. However, the police and fire departments are currently understaffed. I would support hiring some additional officers and firefighters to bolster these departments. In addition, road safety is an issue, particularly with some dangerous intersections which need to be improved. Finally, we must remain focused on improving safety for our pedestrians and bicyclists by building infrastructure that supports these alternate methods of getting around the city.

How would you improve PARKS and RECREATION in Newton?

The Parks and Recreation Department is chronically underfunded, leading to parks with facilities in a poor state of repair, trails that are not fully accessible, and natural areas that have become overgrown with invasive species. In addition, there aren’t enough teams to maintain and replace our street trees. I support increasing funding to ensure the parks meet the needs and expectations of our residents.

How would you improve COMMERCE and the LOCAL ECONOMY in Newton?

My father was an entrepreneur and I had a first hand glimpse at the struggles business owners face to survive and thrive even when economic conditions are good. In today’s challenging environment, we must ensure that our city becomes more welcoming to businesses – small and large. I have heard too many stories of entrepreneurs looking to start up a business in Newton and finding no welcoming hand at city hall and no guidance to help them navigate the process. I’d like to see the city develop a welcome packet to help new businesses get set up. In addition, we must always be cognizant of the costs of new requirements on our local businesses and ask the question of something is truly necessary. Many restaurants, as an example, run on very thin margins and even a seemingly small new requirement could push them over the edge.

How would you improve CLIMATE RESILIENCY and the NATURAL ENVIRONMENT in Newton?

Facing the climate crisis is a multi-faceted effort. We must not give up on reducing our emissions, but it is also true that we need to face fact that extreme weather events including droughts, extreme heat events, and floods will occur with increasing frequency. That means maintaining our water and sewer infrastructure in a state of good repair. It means maintaining and replanting our street trees and protecting our existing trees to help absorb and buffer water during rain events. And it means creating additional infrastructure such as rain gardens and other natural buffers to runoff. And in particularly vulnerable areas, such as Cheesecake Brook, we need to push forward with projects to control flooding.

How would you improve SENIOR LIFE in Newton?

The new Cooper Center will provide a wealth of new services for seniors. The experience of other communities who have built new senior centers is that they can be a real catalyst for new programming and participation. However, Newton is a large city by area and having just a single center for programming can be a hardship for seniors with mobility issues. I’d like to ensure that in addition to programming at the Cooper Center, we also maintain additional events and programs at other locations across the city.

Would you support a Proposition 2 1/2 operating override to fund schools and other city expenses?

No position. As noted above, an override will likely be necessary. However, I don’t want to commit until we see the proposals the new mayor brings to the table. In the meantime, I will work tirelessly to avoid one (as long as that does not mean cutting essential services), and if one is necessary, to make sure it is not just the first in a long line of overrides to come.

How would you make Newton a more affordable place to live, for seniors and others?

The cost of housing is the main driver of unaffordability in Newton. We must continue to build new housing of all types to ensure that seniors have appropriate and affordable housing options if they wish to downsize. Housing costs are burdensome to all our residents, and we must build housing of all kinds to address this crisis. I am particularly concerned about the impact on young families who want to start a life in Newton and cannot afford to buy or rent a home here.

This is another reason to work to hold the line on taxes as well – many people including seniors simply cannot afford to pay more in taxes given their fixed or limited incomes.

How would you attract more businesses to Newton?

Newton has become known as the “city of no” due to its burdensome processes and long timelines. Something as simple as getting signage approved for a business can take months. These ordinances and regulations are in desperate need of modernization and streamlining to reduce needless burdens on our businesses. We also need to engage in a serious conversation with the business community to understand what they find to be the most difficult parts of the city’s processes and bureaucracy to manage and work to mitigate them wherever we can.

Would you support keeping Newton’s “welcoming city” ordinance if it may mean losing millions of dollars in federal funds? The “welcoming city” ordinance, approved in 2017, prohibits local law enforcement and city officials from arresting, investigating or alerting federal authorities about someone based solely on immigration status, with some exceptions.

Yes. The “welcoming city” ordinance is important to public safety – ensuring that immigrants feel comfortable interacting with the police, and is a statement of our support for all our residents. I strongly support it against attempts at bullying the city from the federal government. However, at this time I am hopeful it will not come to that. The Administration recently removed Newton from its list of “sanctuary cities” and has suffered losses in court in other similar cases.

Would you support extending the city’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance to include more buildings?

Yes. Carbon emissions from our buildings represent about two-thirds of the city’s carbon emissions. To meet our goal of net-zero carbon emissions, we have no other choice but to extend the ordinance’s reach to smaller buildings, at least for informational purposes so property owners can be informed and make a plan to address their emissions.

Do you support keeping or repealing the city’s winter overnight parking ban?

Repealing. As an Upper Falls resident where many homeowners have small driveways that cannot fit additional cars, this is an issue that has affected me personally, as visitors are unable to stay overnight in the winter as there is nowhere for them to park even though there are plenty of empty spaces on the street.

What one big idea or initiative would you champion, once elected?

We really need to revamp our city website to make information more readily available. Far too much information is not available there or if it is, it’s only accessible via a PDF. This makes finding out what is going on in the city far too difficult for the average citizen.