The
Committee to Elect Ted Hess-Mahan
About Ted
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Alderman Ted Hess-Mahan was born and raised in Massachusetts and moved to Newton with his wife and children in 1996 because of its diversity, superior public schools and safe and welcoming environment. Ted has been married for over twenty-one years to his wife Anne, a fifth grade teacher in the Arlington Public Schools. They have three wonderful children, Bridget, Corey and Maura, who all attend the Newton Public Schools. Ted is also a musician and an artist, and has written a number of published articles and op-ed columns. Ted has been a practicing attorney for
seventeen years, representing individuals, companies, governmental agencies and
institutions in complex litigation. He
recently joined as Of Counsel to the firm of Hutchings,
Barsamian, Mandelcorn & Zeytoonian in Wellesley Hills, where he
represents individuals, business, institutions and other organizations in
complex litigation. Previously, Ted
was a litigation attorney at the firm of Shapiro
Haber & Urmy in Boston, where he specialized in representing
shareholders and consumers who have been victims of corporate fraud as well as
protecting the rights of children with special needs.
Prior to that, he was a member of the litigation department at Ropes
& Gray, where he represented individuals, businesses, hospitals,
universities and governmental agencies in both trial and appellate cases.
During his legal career, Ted has also
served as a Co-Chair of the Boston Bar
Association (BBA) Class Action Committee and a Member of the BBA
Litigation Steering Committee, a law clerk to Justice Francis P. O’Connor of
the Supreme
Judicial Court of Massachusetts, an intake counselor for Mental
Health Legal Advisors Committee, a voluntary student defender for
indigent criminal defendants, a member of the faculty of Massachusetts
Continuing Legal Education, and a guest lecturer on various legal
issues. For the past two years, Ted
has been a guest lecturer on local voting rights at the New
England School of Law. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ted worked
for six years in human services with people who have severe disabilities as both
a service provider and an advocate. Ted earned a B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School. Ted was elected Alderman-at-Large for Ward 3 on November 4, 2003 and was sworn in by Mayor David B. Cohen on November 17, 2004 to fill a vacancy on the Newton Board of Aldermen. During his tenure on the Board, he has served in the leadership of the Board of Aldermen as Vice Chair of the Programs and Services Committee and Chair of the Rules Subcommittee, and as an active member of the Land Use Committee, Zoning and Planning Committee and the Committee on Community Preservation. Since 2006, Ted has chaired the Zoning Task Force, which was charged with revising certain zoning ordinances that were in desperate need of reform. In addition, throughout his tenure, Ted has served on the Long Range Planning Committee of the Board, which has worked with the Mayor’s office on improving the budget planning process by developing a long range financial forecast that served as the foundation for the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Newton’s finances. Ted was also a member of the special task force which created the Angino Farm Commission, to preserve and operate the last working farm in Newton. In 2005, Ted received a Certificate of Recognition for his participation in seminars on “Municipal Governance and Policy” at the Rappaport Institute of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge. Ted has served his community as both an
active volunteer and an outspoken advocate on behalf of human rights, housing
affordability, public education, equal marriage, civil rights and civil
liberties. He is a former member of
the Newton Human
Rights Commission and past President of Citizens
for Affordable Housing In Newton Development Corporation, Inc. (CAN-DO), a
non-profit developer of affordable housing in Newton.
Ted is also a member of Uniting Citizens for Housing Affordability in
Newton (U-CHAN), a non-profit community organization that advocates for
affordable housing. Before running
for alderman, Ted served as a member of the Newton
PTO Council and as Co-Chair of the School Council for Horace
Mann Elementary School. Each Spring, Ted and his family
participate in NewtonSERVES,
Newton’s annual day of community service that brings together over a thousand
volunteers to assist more than 40 non-profit agencies and the City of Newton.
This year, he and his family joined many other members of the community
who volunteered to help clean up the grounds at Wellington
Park in West Newton and along the banks of the Cheesecake Brook at the site
of the soon to be completed Greenway project in Newtonville.
In the past, Ted and his family have participated in community projects
at Wellington
Park, the Newton
Community Service Center, the Zervas
Elementary School and to build the play structure at the Albemarle
Playground for NewtonSERVES. This past year, Ted was especially proud to serve on the Re-Accreditation Committee of the Newton Senior Center, which has been a nationally accredited senior center since 2002, and one of only five in Massachusetts to receive such accreditation at that time.
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