About Mayor Jim Fiorentini

Background and Summary

Jim is a former VISTA Volunteer who worked in Waterloo, Iowa, with the poorest of the poor to deliver good government services to them. While in Vista, he organized a school for high school dropouts. What makes Jim special is his lifetime commitment to keeping kids in school and to helping those less fortunate than him.

Jim is a member of the Elks Club, and the Sons of Italy.

Jim worked his way through Tufts and Northeastern Law School by driving a cab in Boston (often in the poorest areas) on nights and weekends. He also worked washing dishes, on construction jobs, and numerous other jobs prior to becoming a lawyer in 1973. He was even a substitute teacher in Medford, Boston, and Stoneham in 1968 and 1969, and taught at the Martin Luther King School in Boston.

Jim has been married for thirty-two years to Martha (Cooper) Fiorentini and they have three children: Regina Lucia, age 29; Chrissy, age 27; and Jay, age 25.

Jim's commitment is to the middle class and working families of Haverhill. His goal is to deliver the best possible government services at a cost we can all afford.

Education

Haverhill High School, 1965
Tufts University, BA, 1969
Northeastern University School of Law, JD, 1973

Jim has taken, and taught, numerous post graduate courses. In 2007 he was selected as guest lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he spoke about "Dynamic Leadership for a Dynamic City." Jim has also been a practicing attorney for thirty years. In this capacity, he met budgets and had the responsibility to hire and fire people.

Politics

City Councilor 1996-2003, vice president 2002-2003. As a city councilor, Jim fought for more money for public education, and fought to expose the problems at the Hale Hospital. When the management company at the Hale said that the hospital was making money, then Councilor Fiorentini said "file those numbers in the fiction section of the public library." Jim is widely credited with having blown the whistle on the incompetent management team at the hospital.

Jim ran for Mayor in 2003 and was elected with 57% of the vote, carrying every precinct. He promised to avoid receivership and to revitalize abandoned factory buildings by using brownfield's funding to restore them to the tax rolls.

Jim's plan has worked. Five and a half years into his term, buildings that had been abandoned for a half a century and had been all but forgotten, are now being reused as upscale housing.

Talking Points

Family Highlights

Jim and Martha

Married to Martha Jean Cooper for 32 years this year.

Three children: Regina, 29; Christina, 27; and Jay 25.

Regina works in Washington D.C.; Chrissy is studying in India; and Jay inherited the family love of education and is a Latin teacher.

Click here to read more about the city's First Lady, Martha Fiorentini.

Favorite Books