John Rogers wants to continue serving as Norwood's state rep

Aug. 26--Veteran legislator John H. Rogers has served in the House since 1993 after having worked there as a legislative aide for nearly five years beforehand. As he heads into the state primary election on Sept. 1, he believes his record of bringing concrete achievements to Norwood and Walpole will convince voters to return him to the House to navigate the continuing effects of COVID-19.

Rogers faces a challenge from Norwood native Mike Dooley, a Town Meeting member and youth baseball coach who has been active on the progressive political front.

Just the facts

Rogers said he was surprised at the negative tone that the race has taken in recent weeks. He wanted to clarify some comments Dooley made about him that he said were untrue.

He made it clear that he supported Norwood's override vote last year that provided additional funding for the schools and noted that education always has been a top priority of his.

"The fact that I have had three daughters in the Norwood Public School system speaks for itself," Rogers said. "The override basically stopped the bleeding. It's unfortunate that he would say that."

He also said his former aide accused him of "attacking or criticizing essential workers." Rogers explained that, in the case of the numerous deaths at the Charlwell nursing home at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he advocated for their protection.

"I received calls from workers inside the nursing home who said the administrators were putting them and the patients in harm's way," he said, noting that he was endorsed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "I reached out to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and I urged him to take over the facility. They (the Charlwell) weren't sharing COVID-19 related data, and they weren't sharing information about the mortality rates."

Because of this, he co-authored a new law that requires nursing homes, assisted living facilities and rehabilitation facilities during instances like a pandemic "to share basic health information to the public" such as the positive case rates and death rates. The families also would be required to know this information.

Rogers also reached out to get personal protective equipment for health-care workers there.

"So I don't know why Dooley said what he said," he said. "I try not to take either the praise or the criticism I get too seriously."

As to Dooley's comments about his "absent leadership," Rogers suggested that Dooley look at his own attendance record since becoming a Norwood Town Meeting representative. According to Town Meeting attendance records provided by Town Hall, from May 14, 2018 to May 20, 2019, Dooley missed a total of eight out of 11 days.

"I have one of the highest attendance records in the Legislature, never mind the House," Rogers countered, "and I am recorded on every vote. I would estimate that he has missed about 200 votes.

"So when he says, 'I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines while nothing is getting done, that's exactly where he was. That makes him the poster child of absent leadership. He says, 'Public service just called me,' but he failed to answer the call."

A desire to serve

Public service was a desire instilled in Rogers from an early age by his parents.

"My parents were very religious," he explained. "They taught us that, if you were not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. It was just ingrained and inculcated by their actions and words."

One of seven children, he stood beside his family members, stocking shelves at the Norwood Food Pantry and delivering Meals on Wheels, among other activities.

Rogers pursued his law degree at Suffolk University at night while working at the State House as a legislative aide by day for Rep. Greg Sullivan, who served for 17 years. There he learned the heart of constituent services.

"Usually you can help someone through a state agency or by working with a congressional delegation," he explained. "But sometimes that comes down to creating a new fund or filing a new law."

Providing leadership in uncertain times

"These are uncertain times for so many families in Norwood and Walpole," Rogers said. "They are looking for a steady leader with an experienced, proven track record. The only candidate they care about is which candidate can affect positive change in their lives."

Rogers said he was one of the first legislators to urge Gov. Charlie Baker to declare a state of emergency during COVID-19. He then worked with Congressman Stephen Lynch to procure 2,000 N95 masks for Norwood Hospital. After getting the approved specifications, he collaborated with Lynch and Gillette so that the company could create 6,000 face shield at the height of the pandemic.

"Congressman Lynch has really been the leader on this," he said, noting the extra face shields were donated to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton and the Carney Hospital in Dorchester.

Another issue where Rogers took charge was during the flood on June 28. He and state Sen. Mike Rush toured Norwood Hospital, which was devastated and had to close.

"That was the day we asked the governor to declare a state of emergency in Norwood," he explained. About 400 surgeries were scheduled that day, but because of federal regulations preventing reverse credentialing for doctors operating at other hospitals, he feared that people would have to wait months for their operations unless they got a federal waiver.

"I had to call Gov. Baker, and we got it the next day," Rogers said.

In addition, he and Lynch met with the owners of the Steward Health Care Systems on site a couple of weeks later.

"They gave us the commitment that they would open the emergency room in September," according to Rogers. This would be Phase One of their reopening plan. Phase Two would include parts of the building that did not suffer damage to see other patients, while Phase Three is unknown at this time.

What is a great achievement, Rogers explained, is that Steward promised a long-term commitment to Norwood, planning to build a "state-of-the-art facility" on the existing site and to "invest millions of dollars" into a major regional employer.

"We haven't built a hospital in Massachusetts since 1995," he said. "They are confident that this will be the best hospital in the state."

Rogers also visited the homes of many flood victims whose basements and yards were virtually destroyed by what he termed the "super storm."

In response, he created three budgetary items to help those in need.

The first is a line item that would draw down federal money to create a "June 28th Super Storm Fund" of $50 million. In the state budget, he created a line item with MEMA for state relief for homes and business. The third mechanism is a line item that would assess the insurance industry $10 million and take money from their account and transfer it to the MEMA account for the flood victims.

Because of the flood, Rogers also worked with Rush to get a $375,000 grant that would be administered by the Neponset Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the town.

The storm proved that the sewer system was woefully inadequate to address major floods. Rogers was able to procure $2.7 million in from the Department of Environmental Protection to upgrade the sewer system.

"All these families I talked to had one thing in common -- resiliency," Rogers stressed. "If our infrastructure isn't resilient, our citizens are. Everyone said, 'Oh, other people have it worse."

Education

"Education has always been a high priority for me, if not the highest priority," Rogers said, "and especially in this term."

One of his achievements was co-writing the Foundation Budget Review Commission legislation because he found suspected inequities in the way Chapter 70 funding was distributed.

This commission found that the number of both in-district and out-of-district SPED students was higher than the formula originally provides. Also the funding for health care costs for active employees and retirees was inadequate.

"This is now a part of the Student Opportunity Act, which we passed and I co-wrote," Rogers said. "It's a law I pushed for seven years."

The Student Opportunity Act brought in a 21 percent increase in funding for the Norwood Public Schools at a time "when the rest of the state budget grew by 2.3 percent," he pointed out. It also fully funds the SPED circuit breaker, which he created. He also built in transportation costs to help school districts reach the circuit breaker faster.

One of his crowning achievements was creating the Massachusetts School Building Authority. It created a pool of money where school districts could partner to get funding on a "cash by cash basis." It has given out more than $14.5 billion to date.

This will help build a new Coakley Middle School and a new Bird Middle School in Walpole, saving taxpayers an estimated $50 million.

Walpole

One program for Walpole of which Rogers is proud is prison mitigation, which has generated $10 million in funding. This money helped the town build a new senior center and police station.

"These are beautiful facilities," Rogers said. "This used to be a Superfund site, so what a wonderful re-use. And that money was also used to build a fire rescue facility."

In addition, he and Sen. Walter Timilty created a law that allowed the state to buy surplus state land at the Department of Corrections for $400 an acre for 50 acres. There is a recreational facility and field currently under construction for Walpole and regional facility.

"No other municipality in Massachusetts that hosts a prison or a correctional facility gets this money," Rogers said.

So why hasn't the public heard more about Rogers' accomplishments during his tenure?

"Some legislators have a difficult time patting themselves on the back," he said.

But he hoped people would keep these things in mind when it comes time to vote on Tuesday.

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