Meet Hannah
Hannah currently serves as Vice President and Precinct 3 Councilor. She is running with a vision for the future, and a deep respect for the past.
Hannah's roots in Winthrop run incredibly deep, with the Belcher family being an active and involved family in Winthrop's history dating back to its inception in the 1600s.
Graduating from Winthrop Public Schools in 2008 before completing her undergraduate degree at Suffolk University and Masters degree at Harvard University.
Hannah pursued municipal involvement through committee work, serving on the Scholarship committee and Air, Noise, and Airport Hazards Committee, which she chaired before my election to the council in 2021.
Hannah currently chairs the Rules and Ordinance Subcommittee and is serving her fourth year on both the Finance Subcommittee and the Finance Commission. She serve on the Appointments, Committees, and Commissions Subcommittee, and has previously served on the Public Works and Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittees.
Her involvement in town governance extends beyond the Council, as she currently serves on several key committees, including the Charter Review Committee, Fire House Building Committee, Scholarship Committee, and the Affordable Housing Committee. She also serve as the Council’s liaison to the Commission on Disabilities and represent the Town of Winthrop as the public sector representative on the Board of Directors for CAPIC, Inc., a regional nonprofit that supports low-income residents.
Why Hannah is Running for Council President
It is obvious that times have been changing. Winthrop's finances are strained, much of our infrastructure is old and not in a good state of repair, many neighborhoods have been facing flooding for over 20 years, and looking ahead there will undoubtedly be additional areas of Winthrop in that position as well.
Logan Airport has grown in size and operational capacity and East Boston and Revere have grown more dense, making it increasingly difficult to leave and return to our home.
Winthrop, like many municipalities, has not always been successful in keeping pace with these growing challenges. Hannah wholeheartedly believes that the leaders of our community have always had its best interest in mind, but without foresight into the future, even the best of intentions can have negative impacts years later.
There is very little to be done about the rising cost of living - we see the impact in our daily lives as well as through the town budget. What we CAN do, however, is rethink how we keep up with the needs of our community without overburdening our residents with lofty override and debt exclusion requests that seem to come out of nowhere, despite the holes in our budget looming larger and larger each year.
Through transparency, thoughtful financial policy, and the adoption of best practices, we can make the cost of living in Winthrop more predictable even as it increases - allowing for more thoughtful planning and prediction by our residents. Hannah is committed to this mission.
Transparency and accessibility of government needs focused attention in Winthrop to ensure each and every community member’s voice is heard. This work is already underway in the process of updates to the Town Council Rules and Procedures, the Charter Review process, the previously completed updates to Winthrop’s Committee handbook, the continued use of remote participation when possible for meetings of the council and other bodies, as well as the utilization of an improved and streamlined town website. Ensuring the government is accessible to those who it represents is paramount for a healthy and engaged community.
Hannah believes that it is time for our processes in all areas of governance to be reviewed, documented, and improved upon. We now live in an age of interconnectivity, improvement, and accessibility. The value in maintaining the status quo is diminishing, and in order to bring Winthrop into a position to thrive for generations to come, we must be dogged in our pursuit of improved processes, pragmatic policy, and transparency - both financially and operationally.
During her time on the council, Hannah has pushed to accelerate and improve the quality of life, the accountability to you, the taxpayer, and to ensure that your voice is heard.
The Winthrop community has proven itself to be loving, kind, generous, understanding, and protective time and time again in the face of tragedies and celebrations alike. Most recently, the town came together to invest in its firefighters, children, and future by passing a debt exclusion allowing for the building of a new fire house as well as two overrides for our schools. Now more than ever the Town Council must be dedicated to being good stewards of taxpayer funds as well as being diligent in the flow of information from the bureaucracy of municipal government to the residents.
Town Governance should not be a 'members only' game. All should be welcome - both long time residents and new arrivals to our community. Hannah believes we have the energy, and knows we have the will. We can face the challenges in front of us as a community.
I am humbly making an ask of all of you - for your support, but also for your
Join with Hannah and help her ensure greater accountability, a stronger voice for all and real, tangible improvements that will benefit Winthrop for generations.