Campaign Announcement Speech to become Mayor of Holyoke

Massachusetts

Michael Thomas Siciliano

Thursday June 29th 2017

(Expression of Thanks and Acknowledgments)

Now at the age of 45 I have lived half of my life in eastern

Massachusetts where I grew up on the North Shore of Boston and half
my life here in Western MA as I moved to Amherst at the age of 23 to
attend the University of Massachusetts. For 17 years I have call this
city my home the most family friendly city that I have ever known.

I am humbled by the many blessings that I have received in this

faithful community.

I stand here today to honor my parents and grandparents from Boston,

my children from Holyoke and my friends and family from
Massachusetts.

I stand here today by the memorial of J.F.K. to honor the true public
servants of Massachusetts, my public school education, the public
school children of Holyoke and the teachers, guidance councilors and
support staff that serve them.

I stand here today in opposition to all perpetrators of exploitation

including the many careless landlords of our city, the short sited and
self-serving politicians from across our state and greedy bottom line
corporatists from sea to shinny sea.

I stand here today to announce that I am a candidate to become Mayor

of Holyoke Massachusetts.

Holyoke is a bright, vibrant reflection of many cultural heritages, the

true Spirit of America the essence of Massachusetts. I believe the
people of our city deserve the best public service, the best public
safety and the best public schools. This is a hard working and faithful
city and thats what we deserve.

While despair runs its course for so many I am blessed with hope.

United we stand and divided we fall. What I believe, my campaign

slogan states it all.

Unity - Community - Excellence.

I have no political party association and I will bring unity to all aspects
of city government and civic leadership. We must work better together
to improve our City.

I have genuine love and respect for our community and intend to lead
in the effort to develop more neighborhood associations that are
stronger organizations to better develop and maintain our community.

My primary focus as Mayor of Holyoke Massachusetts will be to

improve public service,
Improve public safety and most importantly and closest to my heart, to
improve the public schools for the children of our city.

I believe we can do it.

With Unity we will build stronger Community with Excellence as the

result.

My top priorities as Mayor are as follow:

1) I intend to hire a budget director for the City of Holyoke by
consolidating existing positions in city government, with an
expertise in finance to monitor and improve the value of our cities
financial resources. The taxpayers of our city deserve a more
prudent and focused stewardship of tax dollars.

2) I intend to develop a Department of Energy Conservation directed

by a well experienced energy auditor to monitor and reduce energy
costs for our city.
3) I Intend to support well established local businesses with better
public service and less government control. I think we need fairer
regulation of business.

4) I intend to co-create and develop greater home ownership in our

city and will assist with the development of stronger more effective
tenant associations.

5) I intend to take a leading roll in the innovation and improvement

of Dean Technical High School one of our cities most important
resources. Dean Tech has the potential to provide very good
opportunities for our cities youth in the trades of Machining, HVACR
Mechanical Construction and Urban Agriculture.

6) I intend to provide civic leadership toward the development of

what will become The Holyoke Resource Exchange. An
independent not for profit enterprise that will encompass a
permanent disaster relief fund and a food bank for our city.

7) I will restore funding for the Holyoke Fire Department and

commence the initiative to develop H.F.D. into a more community
based service provider.

8) My top priority as Mayor and closest to my heart is the

improvement of the Holyoke Public Schools. I believe our City needs
a new middle school for 6th, 7th and 8th graders to alleviate the
pressure on our elementary schools, to allow for and provide the
space for innovation and improvement. All of our public schools
need a new investment in infrastructure and more resources focused
on maintenance and repair. This is what our public school children
and teachers need and what the tax payers of Holyoke deserve a
much better return on our investment.