A 23-year-old, in his second year of law school, and who is skeptical of the mayor’s proposal to make the chief of police an appointed position, announced today that he is a candidate for one of the four at-large aldermen seats.

The purpose of the civil service is to protect competent government workers from undo political pressure, said Domigos R. Santos Jr., who moved to the city from Medford in June.

Santos said he is running for alderman-at-large to improve existing city services by demanding greater accountability from department heads, create new city programs to insure that Somerville tenants live in habitable rental units.

“The city must develop a growth strategy for real estate development that balances the need for housing stock, especially affordable housing stock, with the need for the preservation of open space,” he said.

In the coming months, Santos said he will be unveiling the “Somerville Vision,” a comprehensive plan detailing his legislative agenda.

The first piece of the vision is the establishment of a Certificate of Habitability program, he said.
Under this program, a landlord must obtain a certificate of habitability from the Inspectional Services department prior to renting a unit within the city, he said.

“The certificate would assure that the rental unit complies with the standards set forth in the State Sanitary Code. The certificate program will protect the rights of tenants who are in a position of unequal bargaining power and fear retaliation from their landlord,” he said.

Santos said he is an evening division law student attending New England School of Law, and has worked in Chelsea’s law department. He is now a research assistant for a well known expert in the area of land use and planning law.
He is the co-President of the New England School of Law chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, a member of the Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts. He is also a member of the Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law of the American Bar Association.

Santos graduated summa cum laude from the Salem State College School of Business earning a bachelor’s degree in business, he said.