The resignation of New Bedford City Councilor Hugh Dunn leaves the Ward 3 temporarily without a representative in city government and the council losing one of the few members who comes from a legislative and policy background.

Bob Bromley, a lifelong resident of New Bedford and Ward 3, enters the special election to succeed Dunn with a deep understanding of important policy issues and an even deeper understanding of the day-to-day issues facing residents in the ward's most highly-trafficked neighborhoods.

For over 30 years, Bromley has worked as a Senior Fiscal Analyst in the Rhode Island State Senate. In his position, Bromley analyzes personnel budgets, operating budgets, capital budgets, oversees the state pension systems, and advises Rhode Island senators on fiscal policy.

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Bromley said if he's elected councilor, he plans on using his expertise in governmental finance to more effectively address budgetary issues in New Bedford, and make the entire budget process more understandable and transparent to the taxpayers of the city.

"One of the things that I do is taking the state budget and portions of state budget and having to break it down and explain it to 38 senators," Bromley said on WBSM's SouthCoast Tonight.

"It can be a complicated issue for a lot of people," he said. "But again, for me it's almost secondhand because I've been doing it for so long. I can just take a look at it and know what they're talking about and explain it into a very simple term."

One of the chief concerns Bromley said he wants to address is how New Bedford is managing its OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) because it can impact the city's bond rating.

Prior to working in the Rhode Island State, Senate Bromley worked for the City of New Bedford's Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development for six years. In that role, he oversaw programs that provided funding to renovate housing in the city through federal, state and local finance sources.

Afterward, Bromley worked as a legislative aid for former New Bedford State Rep. Robert Koczera.

Bromley lives in one of the neighborhoods off of Hathaway Road, where the city-owned golf course will be converted into the Advanced Manufacturing campus business park. Bromley, like many who live off of Hathaway Road, is primarily concerned with how the implementation of a business park will impact the already traffic-congested Hathaway Road.

"That whole area, as far as I'm concerned, is deadly," he said

Bromley said as the city moves forward with the project, it should answer important questions that he and the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods are asking about the traffic.

"What is the traffic pattern going to be? Have studies been done? Have community meetings been set up? We've heard none," he said.

Aside from his professional endeavors, Bromley volunteers a great deal of time to local veterans. He is a longtime member New Bedford's Veteran's Advisory Board, which he said originally managed and restored the veterans monuments, but has also began providing a broader scope of outreach to local veterans to fill the void left by the depleting number of veterans organizations in the city.

Bromley is one of the founding members of the Fort Taber/Fort Rodman Military Museum in New Bedford's South End and previously served as the museum's curator.

Bromley also organizes and marches in the annual New Bedford Veterans Day Parade.

Listen to Bob Bromley's full interview on SouthCoast Tonight:

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