Meet City Council Candidate Patrick Clerkin

How many years have you lived in Medford? 

I've lived in Medford for 9 years.

Please describe your professional background and education. 

I graduated North Reading High School in 2011 and Northeastern University in 2016 with a BS in mechanical engineering. I've worked in a corporate environment as an employee and contractor. More recently my professional background has included initiating an entrepreneurial venture, handyman services, and civic involvements.

What, if any, city positions (appointed or elected) have you held, and for how long? 

I've never served in a Medford city government position but I have been working as the part-time handyman for the Council on Aging starting in late June of summer 2025. If elected I would resign this position because it would be a conflict of interest to serve in two roles paid through Medford government.

What volunteer roles have you participated in that you feel have made a difference in Medford? 

A major volunteer role I led on behalf of Medford was the attempt to build a dedicated media platform called the Medford Community Network which would serve as a hub for connecting information, groups and individuals across the city. This was a spinoff project from when I ran for Council the first time in 2023 and became aware of how dis-unified and informationally fragmented the city had become.

The 8 local volunteers who met regularly at the library between January and May 2024 laid out the network which can still be viewed at www.mcn02155.com. This incomplete effort went as far is it could go in the first round with only volunteers and no budget but it's a foundation I hope can be built on. Aside from this project I also participate in citywide cleanup days.

Why should residents vote for you? 

Residents should consider voting for me because I'm fully invested in practical solutions which address Medford's complex, intertwined issues. As a leader, my broad array of experiences has made me highly capable of organizing and adapting to all types of people, ideas and technologies. As a peer, my attitude is calm, reasonable, determined and resourceful so it tends to bring out the better qualities in others.

As a communicator I listen, seek the substance behind the bluster, and assess the needs of the audience — technical, public or managers. As an investigator I understand that Medford's issues can have many contributing factors, deeper root causes than the obvious, and solutions which contain tradeoffs.

As a candidate I've personally canvassed 7,500 homes evenly spread across all 16 precincts, demographics, generations, parties and ideologies. As your councilor I'll continue to represent the entire city, focus on local issues, weigh the possibilities and limitations of our residents' shared future, and bring independent thinking to a balanced and thriving Medford.

What do you believe are the top 3 issues currently facing the city of Medford? How do you specifically plan to address those issues?

The top three issues currently facing Medford, as I see it, are communications, budgeting and development. Addressing these three issues will remove barriers and pay dividends to the other issues such as street maintenance, the high school and the fire station headquarters. This means relying less on static plans, which can be helpful references, and more on dynamic negotiating.

I'd work to address communications through advancing proposals, publicly and in committee, which include quick links to ongoing projects on the city website homepage, coordination with local media, improved visual flow charts and maps of city processes, and physical neighborhood bulletin boards to keep residents connected.

I'd work to address budgeting through a combination of grant applications, more straightforward and continuous communication with the public about how the fundraising relates to comprehensive goals, and expedited commercial welcome packages which incentivize business growth. This also expands the tax base away from financial duct tape such as overrides.

I'd work to address residential and commercial development partly through communications with the neighborhoods – including zoning impact studies which would offset gentrification, parking, utilities, light, sound, and drainage issues – and partly through packages of financial incentives such as expedited permitting, tax increment financing, and facade improvement grants.

Transparency and communication are vital in representative government. What steps will you or have you taken to keep your constituents informed about local decisions and to explain your voting rationale?

An emphasis on reduced confusion and increased citywide communications robustness – which I define as the circulation of quality information within the city government, within the public, and between the two – is the core emphasis of my campaign. Aside from clearly explaining my rationale for every vote I intend to ensure easy on-ramps to access and participation for even the most casual resident observer.

There are a variety of system improvements I mention in my answer to the previous question which address digital and physical shortcomings in Medford's information distribution infrastructure. Making sure that the locations of the key informational hubs are compiled, mutually supportive, and widely, consistently advertised (including in physical form) is critical to the overall success of integrated civic project efforts and the reduction of overall distrust.

What specific methods will you use to gather and represent your constituents’ perspectives on issues that come before the City Council?

I intend to continue the weekly public in-person office hours which have been an advertised part of my campaign since early May. I'll also make myself available before the bi-weekly public meetings at City Hall. I'll leave my campaign Instagram operational for those who use social media. I'm hoping to be the chair of the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee which would also grant me access to streams of constituent perspectives through relevant policy areas and city departments.

The past two years, the City Council has been updating the zoning across the city. Many residents feel the process has been too quick and has covered too much at once. What are your thoughts on that? If elected, how would you approach zoning?

The pace of the zoning process has been aggressive and has emphasized too much of the top down process based on a static plan rather than being a balanced process including bottom-up neighborhood engagement. The city needs modern development for a variety of reasons, including financial health, and that process needs to be comprehensive rather than a conflicting patchwork. 

However, as a councilor I'd ensure the smoothing over of this process by communicating across the 16 precincts to get a better sense of what the various neighborhoods would like to preserve and where impact is most concentrated. Negotiation between the needs of the city overall and its parts is key.

There have been City Council meetings that have gone past midnight. Do you really think these marathon meetings are serving the public? Should there be a time cap on meetings for everyone’s sake?

These marathon meetings are a symptom of systemic communications failures, a City Council makeup which prioritizes and strays well beyond their jurisdiction, processes which lack transparency and accountability, and an inflamed public which feels as if it's under siege or being ignored. This does not need to continue.

While having no time cap isn't ideal, I think adding one prematurely while all the other root causes mentioned above are still un-addressed would produce a pressure cooker. My solution is therefore to switch to weekly meetings until the root causes are considerably reduced. After 1 year if review shows the problems have been addressed the council should consider a return to bi-weekly with a cap at 3 or 4 hours.