Copyright The Boston Globe
“To have a mayor of color for the city of Brockton, that’s more than historic, that’s progress in the making,” said Phyllis Ellis, president of the Brockton area branch of the NAACP. Ellis said she hopes the election of the new mayor will lead to greater diversity in other leadership positions in the city and will encourage more citizens to get involved. Across Massachusetts, people of color make up very few of the state’s nearly four dozen mayors. Among them: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, and Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña. A lack of diversity also exists in other elected posts at the local level. A 2019 report by MassInc., in partnership with the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, found huge gaps between city leadership across Massachusetts and the demographics of their residents. Brockton had one of the biggest gaps: People of color made up 64 percent of residents at the time, but only 8 percent of elected positions. . Ben Forman, director of MassINC’s Policy Center, said some of the gaps may be shrinking, as people of color get elected to more positions. “It takes a while for elected leaders to become representative of their populations, but they definitely transition faster than civic leaders, nonprofit leaders, and business leaders,” he said, noting that can also lead to some challenging dynamics. “What you often see is a diverse gateway city leader working with an old guard structure … and I think that creates tension in of itself in some ways, especially if places aren’t prepared for that," he said. Over the past decade, the ground in Brockton has been shifting, and in some ways may have led to the election of Rodrigues. In 2019, following the death of then Mayor Bill Carpenter, the Brockton City Council appointed Rodrigues to serve as interim mayor until a new mayor was elected. Although Rodrigues decided against seeking the job permanently at that time, one of the finalists for mayor that year was the son of Cape Verdean immigrants, Jimmy Pereira. He ultimately lost to current Mayor Robert Sullivan, who will be stepping down in January after deciding against running again. On the campaign trail this year, both Rodrigues and Derenoncourt kept their attention focused on the issues. Each zipped across the city Tuesday in a final push to get votes. Rodrigues, 64, vowed to increase the city’s commercial tax base to reduce the tax burden on homeowners and improve the quality of life for residents through such measures as safe streets, good schools, and clean neighborhoods. “I appreciate all the support from the unions that supported our campaign to the community at large and the volunteers who came out,” Rodrigues said during a mid-day interview Tuesday. Rodrigues has lived in Brockton off and on for more than 40 years. Born in Cape Verde, Rodrigues spent his early years in Angola before moving to Brockton as a teenager. He didn’t know any English then, but with the help of teachers at Brockton High, he learned the language. He served six years in the US Navy and worked many years in social services and eventually got elected to the Brockton City Council. He is married and has three daughters and a grandson. Derenoncourt, 35, during his campaign pledged to end corruption and nepotism, improve the quality of schools, find ways to ease the property tax burden for senior citizens, and build stronger trust between law enforcement and residents through community policing. “My paramount goal in this election is not to serve one particular group of people; my goal is to serve the entire city of Brockton,” Derenoncourt said in an interview Tuesday morning. Derenoncourt arrived in Brockton nearly 15 years ago, after fleeing the aftermath of the earthquakes in his homeland of Haiti in 2010. He didn’t speak any English, but with the help of a program at the Brockton Public Library, Derenoncourt learned the language. His proudest moment, he said, is when he became a US Citizen, because it enabled him to vote and get engaged in politics. He eventually landed jobs in state government and got elected to the Brockton City Council. Sullivan said this year’s mayoral race reflects the ongoing evolution of the city’s immigrant community that is increasingly drawing in a more diverse population that includes Cape Verdeans, Haitian-Americans, Angolans, Nigerians, and Latinos. ”Brockton has always been a wonderful melting pot,” Sullivan said. “It’s diverse, welcoming, and inclusive. ... People choose to leave their homeland to come to Brockton for a better life and we need to provide at all times the ability for them to succeed.”
