Councilor-at-large candidate Tim King

Tim King wants Waltham to know that he has put in the work to join City Council.

He has lived in many different parts of the city over the course of his lifetime, and he praises its welcoming spirit and diversity. 

Growing up on Highland Street, he said his family didn’t have a lot of money but his parents taught him how to be a hard worker. Many of the jobs he has held have been in public service: He has worked as an EMT, in the Department of Corrections and eventually in the Waltham Police Department. As a Waltham police officer, he saved up enough money to put himself through both an undergraduate college program and law school. 

“[I’ve] worked my way through life to be married, have children, and we live fairly comfortably. But then Waltham’s provided a lot of those opportunities for us to grow here,” he said.

Today he sits on the city’s Board of Cemetery Commissioners and the Waltham Education and Beyond Foundation board of directors. He has helped with his daughters’ sports programs, and volunteers with inclusive sports projects such as Nothing’s Impossible Baseball and A Special Day in Waltham.

Two years ago, though, when King retired from the police force, he turned his sights to city government. He said that all city councilors have their own areas of expertise, and he hopes to bring his experience with issues such as governance, transportation and safe labor practices.

He said his work as an attorney, including more than 30 years working with unions across the commonwealth, has given him a lot of experience working with and in government systems. He’s also a member of the board of directors for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, where he said he learned how to work with state-level budgets and operations. 

Part of what King wants to see in Waltham is more long-term planning for the issues he hears from people in the city, from traffic to infrastructure.

That applies to housing and zoning issues, which The Waltham Times readers identified as a priority area in this election. King said Waltham needs a plan to make sure it’s updating its infrastructure as it grows to avoid saddling residents with a large cost burden down the line.

He said the city’s needs for both affordable housing and businesses will keep down property taxes, and Waltham needs to figure out how it wants to meet and balance those needs going forward. He’s considering solutions such as mixed-use zoning,  but at this point he thinks Waltham needs to gather data to consider its options. “One thing you have to understand about me, being an attorney, I’m all about information, data, exploring options … without creating that analysis paralysis, without trying to get things done,” he said. “I’m not a fan of knee-jerk reactions.”

Government transparency — another issue identified by our survey — is a problem in every level of government, King said. He said he thinks city leaders could get information out more effectively through social media and its website and can investigate other ways to keep the city informed.

As a former police officer, he said that public safety is one of his top priorities, “because if people don’t feel safe, you are not living in a successful community.” He also said he thinks the City Council can help first responders by ensuring they get the resources they need and points to construction plans for a new police station as a step in the right direction. However, he pointed out that the project has been in the works for a while and said the city needs to make sure it gets finished. 

He emphasized that the city needs to make sure that all residents feel comfortable reaching out to city resources and departments, including the police, especially in light of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Waltham.

In an email to The Waltham Times, he identified a list of further priorities: ensuring resources for Waltham’s senior population and partnering with other organizations to help connect people “suffering from mental illness and addiction” with housing and treatment options, including by better supporting the Police Department’s clinician staff.

He said he wants residents to know that he’s not new to this scene. “This is something I’ve been working on my entire adult life … I come to this position with experience, with knowledge, and with a true want to give back and to help the community that I grew up in, that I work in, and that I live in.”