by Tony Palomba
City Councilor At-Large
At the City Council meeting tonight, February 10 there will be a public hearing on a Citizen Petition on a Request to Call on Federal leaders to Support Nuclear Disarmament. Below is the statement I hope to make at the Council meeting.
I would like to thank the members of the Nuclear Disarmament Committee of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment for bringing this Resolution to the City Council via the Citizen Petition option as delineated in our Charter. I am honored to have worked with them for nearly two years as they collected nearly 500 signatures, held numerous public forms, appeared on WCATV, wrote and distributed brochures and handouts, arranged for a presentation on this issue to Watertown HS students, sent a letter, materials and a copy of Annie Jacobsen’s book, “Nuclear War: A Scenario,” to all City Councilors and continued to reach out to you to arrange an in-person or zoom meeting to present their case for why they hoped you would pass the Resolution. They are remarkable and dedicated folks committed to keeping the residents of
Watertown safe from the devastating effects of a nuclear exchange or an all-out nuclear war. Thank you.
I can’t do justice to the excellent statements they made this evening, but allow me to make four points. I may repeat a bit, but what I offer are the reasons why I hope you will support the Resolution.
1) Nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to the survival of our species as does climate change. But unlike climate change which is evident in drastic changes in weather patterns, nuclear weapons are out of sight and therefore out of mind. Unfortunately, that poses a challenging problem to those who are working for nuclear disarmament, but that does not make the work any less important than the work we do to lessen the effects of climate change.
2) Nuclear Disarmament is a particularly critical issue now because the final nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia ended last week on February 4 without any planned extension. Thus, there are no restrictions on the number of warheads, delivery systems, and technology advancements that either country can now develop, build or deploy. The seriousness of this has been recognized by the professors, scientists, former diplomats, military leaders, policy experts, and corporate executives at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who have moved the second hand of the doomsday clock five seconds closer to midnight from 90 seconds to 85 seconds in one year.
3) I have heard that some folks think the City Council should not entertain this Resolution because nuclear disarmament writ large, is not a local issue. While you have heard arguments from the proponents tonight why they believe it is a local issue, let me share why as a City Councilor, I feel this is a local issue and deserves the attention of the Council.
I believe that in addition to providing needed local services to residents and using taxpayers’ dollars prudently, it is one of my responsibilities to PROTECT residents of Watertown.
- When I vote for our police and fire budgets, I am voting to protect Watertown residents.
- When I support the work of our Health Department its training, alerts, vaccine programs, and more, I am voting to protect Watertown residents.
- When I support the City’s Bio Safety Committee and its efforts to regulate and monitor life science research in Watertown, I am protecting Watertown residents.
- When I vote tonight in favor of this Resolution, I am voting to protect the residents of Watertown.
One recent example of an elected body taking action to protect Watertown residents was the resolution recently passed by the Watertown School Committee which states the that our schools will protect immigrant students and families in the wake of the actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Clearly the School Committee decided that enforcement of a federal mandate, whether we agree with it or not, is a local issue.
4) Finally, and I know this was discussed earlier, but I think it is important to express my perspective. The cost of nuclear weapons is enormous. In this fiscal year alone, we will spend $87 billion to maintain our existing nuclear weapons and to continue to modernize all three legs of our nuclear arsenal. This is money that could be used to pay for education, housing, healthcare, and environmental protection for U.S. residents, including residents of Watertown. Some say that local budgets have nothing to do with the federal budget. I hold a different opinion.
How federal funds reach cities and towns is both direct and indirect but the common denominator is that the funding affects our residents – positively or negatively. Our schools receive direct federal support. The reconstruction of Mt. Auburn Street is being paid for by the federal government. While federal funds for cities and towns may be administrated by state agencies, the origin of the funds is the federal government. Indirect examples of how our residents and our annual budgets are affected by federal funding are also relevant. Based on 2024 figures 10 percent of Watertown families and individuals are recipients for SNAP. SNAP is directly funded by the federal government. Cuts in funding can directly affect certain industries, such as the life science industry. Cuts in grants for life science impact whether investment in new buildings and startups are made. These decisions affect local budgets, particularly in communities like Watertown, as what we call “new growth” decreases and a decline in available tax revenue results in less money for improvements and new programs.
Another example – federal government increases in funding for affordable housing through increases in available tax credits lessens the burden on cities and towns to fund affordable housing for their residents.
Let me conclude by mentioning that U.S. Representative McGovern from Worcester has again
introduced a Back from the Bring nuclear disarmament resolution in Congress. That
resolution is supported by his colleagues, Representatives Lynch, Pressley, and Neal. Often
Rep. McGovern emphasizes the critical role which local and state legislation that supports nuclear disarmament plays in influencing his colleagues in Congress to co-sponsor his initiative. I can’t state this with certainty, but the recent decision by Representative Clark, second in leadership in the Democratic caucus, to co-sponsor Senator Markey’s companion legislation in the Senate was in part due to local grassroots efforts.
I ask my colleagues to support this Resolution so that Watertown will join the other 21 Massachusetts cities and towns, which vary in size and forms of government, including Boston, Marshfield, Goshen, Newton, Shutesbury, Cambridge, Cummington, Worcester, Windsor, and Brookline which have passed resolutions similar to the one before you tonight. Let Watertown be part of the national movement for nuclear disarmament.