As governor-elect Deval Patrick prepares for Beacon Hill, several local advocates will help him with the transition.
Among them are Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and Tufts Drama and Dance Department Chair Barbara Grossman.
Curtatone will co-chair the Working Group on Local Government along with Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, and Grossman will serve on the Creative Economy group.
All of the transition groups, which were announced last week, are in their incipient stages.
"Right now we're discussing ... guiding principles, as all the working groups are," Curtatone said.
His 15-member group, currently comprised entirely of Massachusetts mayors, will try to distill the philosophies of Patrick and his running mate Tim Murray into achievable policy goals.
In doing so, they will "evaluate and test" recommendations in areas such as health care, taxes and local aid with the goal of "partnering with cities and towns to move the Commonwealth forward," he said.
This commitment will come in contrast with the lack of focus on cities and towns during the current administration led by Governor Mitt Romney, he said.
"There is no partnership presently with cities and towns," he said.
Grossman's group is also charged with translating ideology into specific initiatives.
"Our first charge is to take the basic principles of the Patrick/Murray agenda for the Creative Economy and make them into a list of achievable goals for the state," she said in an e-mail to the Daily.
Specifically, the goals of the Creative Economy are "promoting and selling our cultural institutions and resources," "promoting arts education in our schools and beyond" and "investing in our state cultural institutions," she said.
Both Curtatone and Grossman have been active supporters of Patrick and Murray. Curtatone was among the first mayors in the state to endorse Patrick.
Grossman was the chair of several "Women for Deval Patrick" events and was selected at the Democratic Caucus as a delegate to the State Convention.
Curtatone and Grossman are part of a local contingent in the transition groups that, according to the Somerville Journal, will also include Director and Founder of YouthBuild USA Dorothy Stoneman, President of Middlesex Community College Carole Cowan and Harvard professor Dr. Margarita Alegria.
According to Curtatone, Somerville's representation on the committees is not surprising.
"Somerville has always had a strong and successful history of activism and so I'm not surprised with our representation in the transition," he told the Daily.
More important, he said, is the diversity of interests represented in the groups. "I thought it was great certainly for Somerville, but I'm more impressed with the breadth and scope and diversity of his transition [groups]," he said.
He said that he is grateful for being asked be a chair of one of them. "[I was] pleasantly surprised and I was humbled and honored to be asked to do so and I don't take my responsibilities lightly," he said.
