Everett City Councilor Robert Van Campen will be the city’s next mayor. He unseated six-term mayor Carlo DeMaria — who held the job for 18 years.
It is a job Van Campen has sought before: In 2013, he ran unsuccessfully against DeMaria. Van Campen, also has long experience in Everett’s government, having served multiple terms on both the now-defunct Board of Aldermen and more recently, the Everett City Council.
Here are five things to know about the man who will be Everett’s next mayor:
He thinks there’s genuine distrust in government and wants to restore it.
Van Campen says he’s focused on greater transparency and accountability at city hall. A major election issue for many in Everett had been a large bonus paid to Mayor DeMaria that the state’s inspector general found was improper. Van Campen sat on the city council as they voted to demand the return of those funds, and when the mayor refused, he joined a symbolic “no confidence” vote in the mayor.
“I want people to look at city hall in Everett and I want them to be proud. And I want them to know that decisions are being made there… that are in their best interest and that their tax dollars are being spent and that they can see where every penny is spent and that they can trust the process,” Van Campen said.
He calls school overcrowding a “crisis level” problem in Everett.
Everett has several former school properties but the city has struggled for years to settle on a plan for redevelopment of those former schools.
“My long term goal is, with respect to Everett Public Schools, is not just to address the school crowding crisis, I want to make investments in the Everett Public Schools that make them an urban model of excellence and success,” Van Campen said.
Van Campen says he favors redeveloping the former Pope John High School and Everett’s old high school as a way to relieve the overcrowding.
He sees his working style as vastly different from the current mayor.
For the past 18 years, Everett has been governed by a big personality: DeMaria is known as an affable but strong-willed mayor who surrounded himself with loyalists. Van Campen says his approach will be less “top-down.”
“I think my leadership style will be more collaborative than what we have seen recently,” he said. “I think the community decided to turn the page.. because they want to see more collaboration.”
He said while he has few details on the current negotiations, he plans to carry forward the plans DeMaria set in motion for a soccer stadium in Everett, but says he’ll ensure “the people of Everett are put first in everything done with respect to the stadium project.”
His upbringing set him on the path to public service.
Van Campen, 50, was one of five children and his family lived in a rental apartment in East Boston when he was young. His father, who was in the military, held multiple jobs at once as they struggled to save money. Eventually Van Campen said they were able to afford a house in Everett where he moved as a teen.
They “instilled in me this sort of value system that got me into public service where I could help families like my family when I was a kid, lift themselves up and live a better life,” Van Campen said.
He’s a “regular guy” with a sense of humor.
Van Campen and his wife Lisa have two teenaged children. He says he’s just a regular guy who works hard but also has a “goofy side.”
“My kids will tell you that I spent years embarrassing them with group Halloween costumes.”
And he says, his neighbors will say he makes a great eggplant parm.
