Councilor-at-large candidate Kathy McMenimen

Kathy McMenimen may have grown up in Charlestown, but Waltham has been her “place of choice” for 55 years. 

“When I got married in 1970 and moved from Charlestown to Waltham, I felt as though I was just moving right back into my old home environment,” McMenimen recalled. The people, camaraderie and small town feel are what she loves most about the city. 

Besides being a councilor-at-large for nearly 44 years, McMenimen has been a trustee for the Waltham Hospital and the Walter E. Fernald Development Center (both now closed). She also hosted a live call-and-talk program called Tick Talk on WCAC-TV. She also taught in the Boston Public Schools system for 35 years. McMenimen is an active member of both the Waltham Garden Club and Waltham Historical Society. 

The idea to run for City Council was presented to McMenimen by her husband and one of his friends. She ended up being the first woman elected as a councilor-at-large in Waltham. At the time McMenimen received a lot of criticism. “They all looked at me like, ‘Why isn’t she cooking her meals? Why isn’t she taking care of her children?’” McMenimen said. Despite this, she said she knew she was on the right path. “People would call me a trailblazer. I don’t look at it that way. I’ve just done what I’ve always wanted to do and let the chips fall where they may. It’s just the way life is. It’s a tough business. I’m a tough lady.”

McMenimen authored the city’s inclusionary zoning code in the late 1980s, a regulation that requires developers to give a certain number of housing units or a monetary amount to the city to support affordable housing if they violate the zoning code while building their construction project. 

She plans to continue being involved in the development of the zoning code for the city if reelected.

A frustration for McMenimen is the city’s spending on education, which makes up 54% of the fiscal 2026 budget when including direct and indirect costs. “There are 29 departments in the city, so the other 28 departments are living on 46% of that budget,” said McMenimen. If reelected, she plans to try to remedy what she sees as unbalanced spending so that other municipal services get a larger share of the pie.