Jan. 5,
2022
| Amy Porter
amyporter@thewestfieldnews.com
WESTFIELD – For former Mayor Donald Humason Jr., this New Year is the first time he hasn’t had a job lined up since before he started working for Westfield District Court, the day after graduating from college.
“I’ve never been out of work,” he said during the final week of his two-year term as Westfield mayor, which ended Jan. 3 as Mayor Michael McCabe was sworn in.
Humason’s first job at 13 and a half was picking tobacco for Clark Brothers Consolidated Tobacco. He was a slow picker, so he became a basket checker and then a basket loader as he got bigger.
He also worked for Southwick Chimney Sweeps for two years.
“That was a neat job,” he said, although he remembers having dreams of sliding down the pitch and sinking into the roof. “It’s funny what you remember.”
Humason worked all through high school and Westfield State College, where he studied criminal justice and psychology. While in school, he also worked for Westfield Area Mental Health as a crisis counselor. He graduated from college on a Friday, then started work in Westfield District Court on a Monday, a job he saw posted while at the court to answer for a traffic ticket.
Before being elected to the Legislature, Humason served as a legislative aide to Michael Knapik, and as an administrator-advisor to the state secretary of health and human services’ director of legislative affairs from 1998 to 2002.
“I’ve had a chance to work with some really great people. I wanted to work in criminal justice – didn’t intend on politics,” he said, though the connections he made kept leading him to elected office.
Humason said when Cele Hahn announced she wouldn’t run again in 2002, he put his hat in for state representative for Westfield, winning that election and keeping that job until 2013. When Knapik left for a position at Westfield State that year, Humason won a special election for the Senate seat, which he held through 2019. Altogether, Humason won 10 elections for state legislative seats before becoming mayor the first Monday in January 2020.
He left his Senate seat mid-term, with no break between work on Beacon Hill and his new job at City Hall. Losing his re-election bid in November 2021 was his first electoral defeat after nearly 20 years of consecutive victories.
Now, he’s not certain what’s next, but at 54 years old, he said he’s wide open for the first time since picking tobacco. Most of his career has been spent in government service, in the public sector. Now he wants to use his experience, and is open to looking at city or state administration, advocacy, legislation, lobbying, or consulting.
“I really liked being an administrator, what I’ve been doing the last two years, making decisions with the team up at City Hall,” he said. “I have a lot of years of watching the governor and senators. Then I became a senator myself, and assistant minority leader, and got to work with people on both sides of the aisle.”
Humason said that legislative experience was helpful, as a mayor, working with the City Council. He said working with the department heads was the biggest part of the job as mayor.
“Then the pandemic happened. I was sworn in the first week of January in 2020, then came the March shutdown; not just locally, but impacting the whole country, state and region.” He said even while responding to that challenge, the mayor still needs to make sure the government runs and the streets get paved.
Humason said economic development didn’t stop during the pandemic, either, although it slowed down during the first year. After the state government rescinded the state of emergency and Westfield followed suit, the city’s mayor and its economic development director started getting calls from businesses who were previously interested in coming to the city.
“Peter Miller got calls and I got calls,” he said.
The work on the new elementary school also continued. The City Council is set to approve a $61 million bond, $31 million of which will be reimbursed by the state, at its next meeting on Jan. 6. Once the bond is approved, the bidding process will be undertaken and the two abutting houses the city has purchased on Franklin Street will be demolished.
Humason said that he, Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft and School Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski negotiated the purchase of the houses during the pandemic, transactions that he said were friendly and not hostile.
“This administration was scandal-free,” Humason said. “I made sure we conducted ourselves properly. I’m proud of that.” He’s also proud that he gave the taxpayers a full two-year term, after the previous three mayors left before their terms ended.
Asked whether he is interested in working in state government again, Humason said Boston is not his first preference, though “it all depends on the job.”
As for elected office, although in previous comments he said he was done, this time he said, “I would always keep the door open.”
“To me, it is disappointing to build up all of this experience, some of it pretty hard-won. Now I don’t have a place or an outlet to use that experience.” Humason said for years as a member of the legislative minority, his job was to represent his party, and give the view of the minority party to a strong “monolithic” party.
“The nice thing about being mayor, I didn’t have to continue the political position. I’ve gotten less partisan over the years,” he said, adding that he likes to say, “there is no Republican or Democratic pothole.”
“A lot of people think the mayor is the most powerful position in the city. It’s not true, by design. I think that will be a surprise to the new mayor — it was to me,” Humason said. “The legislature has the authority, then the executive branch, then the judicial branch.”
Asked whether it is a bit of a relief to be out of the public eye, Humason said, “Absolutely. It’s funny. I was very conflicted after losing the race,” he said. “There’s as much relief as there is disappointment.”
Humason said he’s looking forward to spending Saturday afternoons with his son Quinn, who is now in fifth grade, rather than having to represent the city at a public event.
“Whatever job I accept, I can take one that lets me spend time with my son and my wife,” he said.
Humason said being fiscally conservative, both he and his wife Janice, who works for Friends of the Homeless in Springfield, have always lived well within their means and paid off all their debts.
“Janice and I have worked really hard to get in that position,” he said.
But Humason said he definitely plans to keep working.
“I don’t have to go to work, but if I stay home, Janice has four pages of things for me to do, which is harder than going to work,” he said jokingly, adding, “My family’s been great. They’re sad we lost, but relieved that now we’ll have time to do the things we want to do.”
Becoming philosophical, Humason said there is sacrifice in public service.
“No self-enrichment – I didn’t get rich doing the job. You’re supposed to do the job for the benefit of the people you represent. That’s what you’re supposed to do,” he said.
“I feel very rich from the people I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had, and the people I’ve been able to help. I wouldn’t change a thing. That’s a richness money can’t buy,” Humason said.
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