About Lisle Baker: Alderman Lisle Baker, Newton, Massachusetts

About Lisle Baker

NewTV gave its 2009 award for Producer of the Year to Alderman Lisle Baker, president of the Board of Aldermen, for his 24 segments of 'Aldermen at Work', broadcast on the government channel of NewTV. The series involved his interviews with colleagues on the Board and from other aspects of Newton government to help make the work of the Board and those who advise it more understandable to Newton Citizens.

Lisle Baker was honored by the Newton Conservators at their 2009 annual dinner, with the following citation: "The Directors Award for 2009 goes to Alderman Lisle Baker, for his vision and leadership in recognizing the opportunity for guiding the acceptance of a Conservation Restriction that permanently protects Newton Commonwealth Golf Course as open space for the enjoyment of Newton Residents."

A Ward Seven resident since 1968, Lisle is a law professor at Suffolk University where he has taught property, land use and zoning, environmental law, mediation, and law practice management. He and his wife Sally, also an educator, have raised three daughters, Nancy, Mary Sarah, and Louise in Newton. Lisle is a graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School.

He has also worked to help Newton prepare for its future, co-appointing first the Blue Ribbon Commission on the City's Finances and then its successor, the Citizens Advisory Group, which is conducting its own evaluation of revenues and costs, including capital expenditures.

Some of what Lisle has done is listed in his campaign brochure ("Baker's half-dozen: Six reasons why we need to keep Lisle Baker as our Ward 7 Alderman in November"), and you can download the brochure in PDF format (approx. 221 kb).

In 2009, he is completing his 26th year of service on the Board of Aldermen as the Ward Alderman for Ward 7. He currently serves as President of the Board, and as a member of the Zoning and Planning Committee, where he has worked to strengthen and simplify Newton's zoning ordinances. A member of the Programs and Services Committee, which has jurisdiction on such matters as Parks and Schools, Lisle also sits on the Aldermanic Real Property Reuse Committee, and the Special Committee on Long Range Planning.