IN FEBRUARY, Everett City Hall was thrown into the spotlight when the Massachusetts inspector general announced that longtime mayor Carlo DeMaria had been improperly paid $180,000 for “longevity” bonuses – payments he helped to draft and pass via city ordinance.
The investigation found that DeMaria, who led the city for 17 years, intentionally hid the overpayments from Everett City Council, as well as the public. In March, the City Council passed a unanimous, symbolic vote of no confidence in DeMaria after he refused to pay the money back. DeMaria called the report a political attack and sued the state inspector general in August, shortly before an independent audit uncovered more improper spending.
With annual longevity bonuses of $40,000 paid between 2018 and 2020, the Boston Globe reported that DeMaria had become Massachusetts’ highest-paid mayor, surpassing even the mayor of Boston’s salary.
It wasn’t the first time DeMaria had been the subject of unflattering headlines. In 2022, then-US Attorney Rachael Rollins launched a federal investigation into multiple allegations of racism in Everett’s city government that was later dropped. In 2023, the superintendent and deputy superintendent of Everett Public Schools filed a lawsuit against the mayor, accusing him of racial and gender discrimination.
Still, DeMaria declared he would seek reelection this year, claiming his work in Everett wasn’t finished. But on November 4, residents decided it was.
In a closely watched upset, City Councilor Robert Van Campen beat DeMaria by 9 percentage points. His promise to restore trust and accountability in City Hall wasn’t hard to sell to residents who had grown tired of a mayor prone to lining his pockets, according to investigators. But Van Campen has a tough act to follow, despite DeMaria’s scandals.
The defeated mayor presided over a massive development boom in the city of 50,000, anchored by his welcoming of the $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor casino, which Wynn Resorts opened in 2019 on the Mystic River. Changes to zoning under his tenure paved the way for thousands of housing units and many mixed-use projects to be built, and he has nearly completed a deal with the Kraft Group that would land a New England Revolution soccer stadium in Everett.
The growth has been nothing short of transformative for the once-scrappy industrial city just north of Boston. Now, Van Campen will inherit both the good and the bad of DeMaria’s legacy.
I spoke with the mayor-elect at his home in Everett to learn more about his plans for the city and how he will repair the shaken trust in City Hall while also keeping DeMaria’s legacy of development alive. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.
COMMONWEALTH BEACON: Coming from City Council, you’re a familiar face to many Everett residents. But for those who may not know you, talk about your background.
ROBERT VAN CAMPEN: I am a city kid at heart. My parents were renters for a big chunk of their married lives, and they had an opportunity to, like many, live out the American Dream, better their lives, and buy a house, which they bought here in Everett. My house is literally 100 yards away from where my 84-year-old mother still lives. That’s kind of the family homestead. That’s where we still celebrate big holidays – big Italian Christmas Eves and all that stuff. I am very much rooted in our community. I have two children, and my wife Lisa and I are raising them in this house. My daughter is at the University of Connecticut right now. My son is a sophomore in high school. Professionally, I’m a labor and municipal attorney. That’s what I’ve done for about 25 years. I represent public sector workers, private sector workers, and I have been on the City Council for the last two years. I had an earlier stint on the City Council when I was in law school. I was elected in 2000 and served for 14 years. I ran unsuccessfully for mayor at that time against Mayor DeMaria. After that, I left office, enjoyed private life, enjoyed being with my family, enjoyed practicing law, and decided in 2023 that there was this growing need for some different voices on the City Council. I was lucky enough to get elected to ward council. My colleagues apparently saw something, because they made me president of the City Council at my first meeting. I just wanted to be a freshman city councilor, but I was happy to take a leadership role and work with the City Council to drive forward our agenda.
CWB: Why did you decide to get into this mayoral race?
VAN CAMPEN: Earlier this year, it became apparent to me that there was a tremendous appetite for change in our community – not just to change the name on the mayor’s door, but to bring real improvement to people’s lives. Whether dealing with school overcrowding or overdevelopment in our neighborhoods, restoring transparency and accountability to City Hall – it appeared that the rudder started to get a little too loose at City Hall, so I decided to enter the race.
CWB: Everett City Hall was thrust into a scandalous light this year. How do you plan to pick up the pieces from that?
VAN CAMPEN: We ran a campaign on restoring trust, transparency, and accountability to City Hall. My plan is to do that on day one. The first part of that is to hire an exceptional professional leadership team, which I am in the throes of doing as we speak. That’s not to say there aren’t professional staff at City Hall today, but I think bringing that in and trying to heal the divisions that we’ve had in our community for the last couple of years is the first step. One of the things I’d like to do is create what I would call a municipal academy, which is nothing more than an opportunity for the various department heads, led by my leadership team, to bring in the people of Everett and have them maybe better understand: What does the chief financial officer do? What is his or her role in the city? What is the city solicitor’s role? What does the assessor do? What does the treasurer do? How does the school budget get funded at City Hall? And ultimately, what is the mayor’s role and the City Council’s role, and who ultimately are they responsible to? They’re responsible to the people. Bringing those kinds of transparent programs and initiatives forward I think will also help heal some of the division and restore some of the trust that has been broken. I want to bring in a far more superior budget tool. I’ve been looking at other municipal websites recently, and I think we could do a much better job throwing open the doors to the city budget. Full transparency. You should be able to go online to the city of Everett’s website and drill down into every line item as a resident and as a taxpayer.
CWB: Do you think residents have lost trust in their city government after the inspector general revealed Mayor DeMaria’s longevity bonuses?
VAN CAMPEN: I don’t want to say they’ve lost trust in the entire government. I think their confidence was shaken in what happened, and their confidence is shaken, perhaps, in whether our systems can ensure that something like that doesn’t happen again, and that what they’re being told is the truth. We’re living in an age today where the truth is under attack at all levels right now. When this issue broke in February, I questioned whether the administration could continue in office, because folks had lost confidence in its ability to navigate, and I think the people of Everett agreed with that sentiment.
CWB: You’re following a big personality in office. What style of leadership will you take on, and how will that differ from the current administration?
VAN CAMPEN: My kids always say that I’m a combination of serious and goofy around them, and that’s just who I am. I’m really comfortable in my own skin. I will set my own leadership style. I don’t walk in anyone’s shadow. I’m going to very much set my own path as mayor. My style will be more collaborative, more constituent-focused right out of the gate, and I think the people of Everett will see a dramatic shift in the political culture of Everett and the view that people outside of Everett have of our community.
CWB: Is there anything about DeMaria’s legacy that you hope to continue as you enter office?
VAN CAMPEN: What can’t be disputed is that Mayor DeMaria has a legacy of transformation in our community. There is absolutely no question about that. After nearly 18 years in office, you see it. You see it particularly in South Everett. You see it on lower Broadway. You see it with Encore. You see it with a potential soccer stadium at the foot of South Everett, and all the development potential that could happen down there. I am committed to making sure that projects that can transform our community continue to go forward. The difference between the mayor and me is that I have a more focused view to ensure that the developers aren’t dictating these projects, and that the people of Everett are the ones in the driver’s seat. For example: the proposed Kraft soccer stadium. I really want to drill down into the potential impacts that stadium will have on both vehicle and pedestrian traffic in that area. I want to make sure those impacts are addressed to the satisfaction of every person in the city of Everett.
CWB: Under DeMaria’s tenure, zoning changes allowed for a development and real estate boom unlike any other the city has seen. Some people might be concerned that the boom is going to stop with you. What would you say to that?
VAN CAMPEN: False rumors. I want to continue our progress while prioritizing the people of Everett and prioritizing our neighborhoods. What I don’t want to see is development that strangles neighborhoods and tears the fabric of those neighborhoods apart. We’ve seen that in recent years. But in our blighted areas, and in the areas where we have transit-oriented hubs, I have no objection to responsible, reasonable development happening there.
CWB: What kind of development does Everett need to see more of that you hope to usher in?
VAN CAMPEN: What I would really like to see is developers starting to focus on our downtown area. Everett Square has remained relatively unchanged for the last 20 years. There’s been no meaningful investment there. I want to change that. I want developers to start noticing the real potential. We have some thriving restaurants, but we can take this to new heights. I’m going to need partners in the private sector to make that happen. They realize that South Everett is such a valuable, dynamic place to invest, but I hope they realize that if they come up the street just half a mile, Everett Square and all of our downtown businesses are too. That is a priority that is a shift from the current administration.
CWB: Something that many Gateway Cities struggle with, including Everett, is how to attract the right mix of both market-rate and affordable housing development that simultaneously brings revenue to the city, is welcomed by most residents, and is something developers are actually incentivized to build. It’s a tough balancing act. How do you plan to manage it?
VAN CAMPEN: The issue is that rents are going down across the country, but they’re going up in Boston. It’s a real challenge to not overbuild while creating enough housing to start to bring prices down. One of the initiatives I’m going to explore as mayor is to create, in City Hall, an office of housing affordability to try to figure these issues out, provide expert guidance to folks who are looking for affordable housing options, and, more importantly, to use the leverage of City Hall to have meaningful conversations with developers. But I do think that is probably the most critical challenge – not just for me as mayor of Everett, but I’m sure for my friends in Somerville, Malden, Medford, Revere, and Chelsea – that we are all going to face over the next couple of years.
CWB: You’ve said that you plan to carry forward with plans DeMaria laid for a soccer stadium to be built in Everett. How might that project fit into your residents-first approach to development?
VAN CAMPEN: The New England Revolution has been kind enough to have some community meetings recently, and there’s going to be a whole [Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office] process that has to be followed at the state level to ensure that any environmental concerns are mitigated. I will simply take a more aggressive approach to make sure that the voice of the people of Everett is the primary voice at the table when those issues are discussed. Even folks in our state delegation have said that if the infrastructure is not built, the stadium cannot happen. That infrastructure has to happen, and I want to make sure that the people of Everett have a voice in designing what it looks like.
CWB: DeMaria had a vision to turn Everett’s lower Broadway district into an entertainment and hospitality center. Is that a vision you plan on continuing?
VAN CAMPEN: I’ve had initial conversations with some of the larger investors in that part of the city. I understand and acknowledge the boom that has happened down there. That’s something I would like to see continue forward. The real question for me at this point is what does it look like? I haven’t been participating in any of these conversations up to date, so I don’t want to get myself ahead of the curve here. But is it progress I’d like to see continue? Yes, it is.
CWB: Wynn Resorts has put a $400 million expansion on hold at its Encore casino in Everett, saying it has reached an impasse with the city over how much it should pay if the project is built. As you enter office, what kind of relationship will you have with Wynn when it comes to development?
VAN CAMPEN: I’m a negotiator by training, so I think we’ll have a mutually respectful relationship. I want Wynn and Encore to be successful, because if they are successful, the local economy here in Everett is successful, and the people of Everett have greater opportunities for jobs. I think the issue with phase two of that project also relates to the online gaming legislation [which would make online gambling legal in the state and has been criticized by Encore] that is pending at the State House right now. Hopefully the Legislature can dispose of that issue and allow that type of an investment to go forward.
CWB: DeMaria was the highest-paid mayor in Massachusetts, and it drew a lot of controversy. Will you continue to have the highest salary of any mayor in the state?
VAN CAMPEN: I will follow the ordinance that sets the mayor’s compensation. We repealed the ordinance that afforded the mayor a longevity bonus. But the mayor’s compensation, according to city charter, is to be set by city ordinance. That ordinance remains in effect, so I’m going to follow the law.
CWB: Do you think the city ordinance could change under your tenure?
VAN CAMPEN: It could. In terms of all the different priorities in the city, it’s not something that has really been at the forefront or discussed. I do think chief executives, particularly in our current times, deserve fair compensation if we’re going to attract seasoned, experienced municipal executives. Obviously, like any other job in the industry, you have to provide a competitive rate to do that. But that issue hasn’t been discussed. I am not sure it will be discussed anytime in the first six months of my term, simply because there are so many other priorities. But for purposes of today, I’m going to follow the ordinance and have the finance division implement whatever the terms of the ordinance require.
CWB: What is one thing you hope to work on with state lawmakers during your tenure that would benefit Everett?
VAN CAMPEN: First and foremost, I’d like to see them defeat the online gaming legislation as a way to allow for greater investment in lower Broadway. I think that is critical. Another thing I’d like to work with state lawmakers on is a solution to our housing affordability crisis and trying to find a way to incentivize the creation of more, not less, affordable units.
CWB: Many Gateway Cities in the Commonwealth could only dream of the amount of development Everett has seen in the last decade. Going forward, what do you think is the city’s role in Greater Boston and the Greater Boston economy?
VAN CAMPEN: I think we are driving the bus right now. It is breathtaking, not only what has happened, but what will happen in the next five to 10 years. I want to see Everett become an urban model for Greater Boston and beyond. I want to make the schools an urban model of excellence and success. Those investments that are going to be made in the next five to 10 years – the job creation that’s going to happen – we’re really putting Everett on the map and taking it to new heights. Our greatest asset in the city of Everett is our geography. We are right on the border of the city of Boston, a world-renowned city. We should be a world-renowned city too, and we can see it happening right before our eyes. I’m blessed that I will be the man who has the privilege to hold the pen to write that next chapter.