HAVERHILL — Mayor James Fiorentini is taking a vacation.

Upon his return next week, he will begin organizing a series of neighborhood meetings to help form his agenda for his record-tying fourth term in the corner office, he said.

"I'm going to introduce a packet of proposals to the City Council and the public in December or January, similar to the governor's legislative package," said Fiorentini, who defeated John Michitson in Tuesday's election 7,154 votes to 5,122.

Fiorentini said his plan will likely include two to four major economic development projects and an emphasis on bringing services to neighborhoods. He said he will ask the public to suggest ways to make the city better — including businesses to lure here and how to use land along the Merrimack River.

In a post-election interview with The Eagle-Tribune, Fiorentini also talked about embracing ideas suggested by Michitson during the campaign, and ending tensions with city workers.

From the river to potholes

Fiorentini said leading candidates for high-profile projects include a recreational rail-trail pathway on the Bradford side of the Merrimack River opposite downtown, and extending the new river boardwalk toward Merrimack Street and the long-abandoned Woolworth Building.

He said similar projects from previous terms include the downtown 300-unit Forest City housing development, the just-completed boardwalk and securing $10 million to build a parking garage next to the Washington Street train station.

The mayor said besides big project, his focus will be on items that affect residents' everyday lives.

"I'm going to focus on delivering services to the neighborhoods, things like fixing potholes, cutting and trimming trees and increasing our police presence," he said. "When I knocked doors during the campaign, those are the things that came up most often."

His top priority will be city finances, which are likely to get worse due to more state aid cuts and declining local excise tax revenue, he said.

Embracing his opponent's criticisms

In an interview from his office last week, Fiorentini talked about several issues that were highlighted by his opponent during the campaign, including curbside recycling, maintenance of public buildings and the mayor's strained relationships with firefighters and other city labor unions.

Last summer, Haverhill began a pilot curbside recycling program that has since been expanded to two large sections of the city. It allows residents on those routes to put all recyclables at the curb. If he had won, Michitson vowed to quickly take the program citywide. Fiorentini has said he intends to go slowly and expand the program only if and when and it is able to pay for itself.

"I'd like to eventually bring curbside recycling to the whole city, but I won't lay people off to pay for it," Fiorentini said. "The early results aren't as good as we had hoped," he said of whether it is saving enough money in trash disposal costs. "But it's too early to tell yet if we can continue or expand it."

The mayor said he intends to revive his recycling committee for the purpose of developing ideas for improving the program and making it profitable.

A main issue in Michitson's campaign was purchasing updated textbooks for students. The former City Council president also criticized Fiorentini for allowing school officials to eliminate the middle school band program.

School officials have acknowledged they have done a poor job of acquiring modern textbooks for students. Many texts have not updated to include information upon which the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests are based.

The mayor said from now on his annual school spending proposal will include money for new school books, but he added what has become his familiar refrain at budget time — "more of one thing means less of something else."

Fiorentini also said he has been in talks with Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan about bringing back the middle school band that was lost in budget cuts.

"The superintendent has agreed to bring middle school band back by Jan. 1," the mayor said.

Mending relationships, maintaining buildings

During the campaign, Michitson often criticized Fiorentini for his "management style," particularly in his dealings with the firefighters union. The mayor said he hopes to improve those relationships in the coming months, particularly because he needs the unions to agree to health care concessions such as joining the state health care program. He has said joining the state program, called the GIC, could save the city up to $2 million annually.

"I want to end the acrimony and bitterness with the unions and engage union leaders in talks about health care reform," he said.

Fiorentini said the city's financial limitations have made it difficult to spend as much money on maintaining schools and other public buildings as he would like. However, he said it is not as big of a problem as Michitson claimed.

"It's more of a perception problem than an actual problem," the mayor said. "What we haven't done is a good job telling people about our maintenance efforts, such as when we repair a roof, which we recently did at Cogswell School."

Call to the public

Fiorentini stressed he wants more input from the public this term.

"I want to hear people's ideas for attracting businesses and redeveloping land along the river," he said. "I want to know how they want us to deal with state aid cuts that we know are coming. We're going to have to continue to prioritize and make more tough decisions. I want the public's help."

The mayor acknowledged is can be difficult to get residents to attend neighborhood meetings.

"I'm trying to figure out some new ways to get people to show up," he said. "We might make automated phone calls telling people where and where (the meetings are). We're at least going to send post cards."

The mayor said more spending cuts are possible this year and almost certain next year.

"The public understands there's a shortage of money, but they still expect services and new projects," he said. "The question is how to we do it with diminishing state aid."

Fiorentini said his administrative secretary Linda Koutoulas and his chief of Andrew Herlihy will be staying on for another term.

Haverhill's two-year mayoral term comes with an annual salary of $90,000.

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