by Julia Reischel

The man who has represented Ward 5 in the board of aldermen for nine years spoke at the Oct. 1 contributors meeting of The Somerville News.

“I’m a political junkie,” said Sean T. O’Donovan, a Somerville native and attorney at the firm of O’Donovan and Lyons. “The direction of the city means a lot to me, and I’m never going to leave.”

O’Donovan said began his career as an elected official in 1995 when he joined the school committee, and became an alderman in 1999.

He said he remembers well serving on the board when the mayor was Michael E. Capuano, who now represents Somerville in Congress. “The meetings were much more intense than they are today. During Capuano, you could really see both sides of the issue. Now, it’s kind of a mixed bag—it’s more issue-based today than camp-based.”

O’Donovan said that the biggest controversies he’s faced while on the board of aldermen have been about the anti-gang ordinance that was signed into law in August, the plans for an Assembly Square Mall and calls for a living wage in Somerville.

Assembly Square will top City Hall’s agenda again this year, O’Donovan said. Case in point, hearings have just begun concerning the recent controversy over building permits awarded to the Assembly Square developers. “The permit fee probably won’t be paid at the raised price,” said O’Donovan.

The developers were not trying to avoid paying the city money by acquiring the permits two days before the linkage fees increased, he said.

O’Donovan said he is working to encourage the development of Union Square, but said that it was unlikely that the MBTA would extend the Green Line there.

It would be easier for the MBTA to reinstate the low line near Ball Square, he said.

Being a ward alderman is less glamorous than being an alderman-at-large, he said.

But it means that you have a strong base of people who know to call you when something is wrong. “The aldermen-at-large have fewer connections in the community—there’s a deference paid to ward aldermen who have been in their kitchens,” he said.

An avid hockey player growing up, O’Donovan said he continues to play in local leagues. “I used to live in the rink,” he said.

But, when he was 12, he almost died at the rink.

During a public skate, he fell on the ice into the path of a figure skater who tried to jump over him but missed, severing the main artery in O’Donovan’s leg.

Blood began to shoot from the wound, landing almost 15 feet away on the ice. “I lost almost all the blood in my body, my heart stopped twice, and I was in the hospital for a month,” O’Donovan said.

Today, he said he must wear a nylon stocking on his leg to boost his circulation.

In the last mayoral campaign between the Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and Tony Lafluente, O’Donovan said he was the chairman of Joseph A. Curtatone’s mayoral campaign.

He said he decided to work for Curtatone after supporting Dorothy Kelley Gay against him in 1999. “Joe is a contemporary of mine, and in 1999, I thought he could use a little more molding, because I was looking at myself and thought I could use more molding.”

In 2003, O’Donovan’s choice to support Curtatone was clear: “Joe lives the job; that’s why I supported him. He works the way Capuano used to work,” he said.

About his own career plans, O’Donovan said that he was interested in elevating his political status. “Any politician who’s in it, if they say they aren’t looking for advancement, they’re lying,” he said.

He said he was interested in running for a seat in the state legislature someday, but had no interest in running for mayor.