NORTHAMPTON — The four candidates vying for an at-large City Council seat squared off at a forum Monday night, addressing the budget, public schools and the local economy, among other issues.
Blue DuVal, Marlene A. Morin, Ryan O’Donnell and Andrew B. Smith are running for the at-large seat vacated by Jesse Adams. The forum comes in advance of a preliminary election July 7 that will narrow the race to two candidates before a new City Councilor is named in a final election Aug. 4.
The quartet was unanimous on most issues, but disagreed on questions of practicality versus principle, affordable housing and how City Council operates.
The event lasted two hours and drew a crowd of some 100 people who filled a room at the Northampton Senior Center on Conz Street. It was hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Northampton Area and the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Stanley Moulton, a Gazette editor, moderated the forum. Members of the league kept time, giving candidates 90 seconds to answer each question with a 30-second rebuttal period and two minutes each for opening and closing statements.
The future of downtown Northampton was a hot topic at the forum. Candidates offered their ideas, which ranged from revamping Pleasant Street to pop-up shops and food trucks.
O’Donnell, 36, said the downtown business community is in good health. Some storefronts have been vacant for far too long, he said, but many have a healthy turnover rate. He suggested the city do everything in its power to make the city walkable and sustainable to promote business, including putting energy into improving Pleasant Street and King Street.
For Smith, 37, conservation and sustainability director for the city of Holyoke, when councilors get mixed up in the storefront turnover rates and ordinances, it is easy to forget the reasons why people would come visit Northampton in the first place.
“We need to make sure downtown has something for everybody,” Smith said. He suggested bringing in a movie theater, food trucks and pop-up shops to appeal to a consumer base that often takes its business online rather than downtown.
According to Morin, 62, a longtime resident and local attorney, councilors should do more to understand the costs and challenges of owning a small business or property in the city. The burden falls on the backs of small businesses, she said.
“We need to be able to identify with small business and property owners,” Morin said. “We need people who can identify how expensive it is to paint a building, let alone put a new roof on it. Small local property owners can’t compete.”
DuVal, 55, said she thinks Northampton and Florence are going in the proper direction when it comes to the economy, but the city could do more to help business owners. She suggested setting up a committee to advise the council on business-related issues and asking tough questions to ensure the budget is balanced and fair.
All candidates agreed lifting the cap on charter schools is a bad idea, in reference to a potential November election ballot question that will ask Massachusetts voters whether to allow 12 more charter schools in the state annually.
At a forum last week, Mayor David J. Narkewicz said children leaving the Northampton public school system to attend charter schools take $2.2 million from the city budget annually when they go.
“Enough is enough,” Morin said. “We have great schools and we should keep them that way. Our music … and arts programs need the funds more.”
O’Donnell agreed, saying lifting the cap would be a “huge mistake” because the state’s public school funding system is already “utterly broken.” DuVal and Smith agreed, saying the public schools are already underfunded and another hit to the budget would be detrimental.
As the city faces a lawsuit brought by Forbes Library sparked by a dispute over control, candidates were mostly hush when asked if the library should be considered an arm of the city or a private entity. Candidates agreed the situation is unfortunate and future lawsuits should be avoided, but said it is up to the probate court to determine where responsibility lies.
“It is lamentable we have a situation where an entity is suing the city,” Smith said.
Morin agreed the city should avoid litigation, which she said often stems from the interpretation of statues, documents and ordinances. She used the question to pivot to her criticism of City Council, which she believes is having an “ordinance frenzy” that could lead to future lawsuits. “Litigation is very expensive for taxpayer money,” Morin warned.
Regardless of who is in charge of the library, the board of trustees must follow the Massachusetts Open Meeting law, O’Donnell said. The library stands to receive most of its budget from the city, $1.2 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
“They’re receiving a lot of money from the city … if you’re spending public funds, you must do it in the open,” O’Donnell said.
Candidates agreed the city should work to help the 51 refugees who could join the community as early as October.
For O’Donnell, it was an issue of principle. He said he rejects the idea that the city cannot help its citizens and incoming refugees at the same time.
“Imagine yourself 20 to 30 years older. What are you going to be proud of?” O’Donnell asked. “It is a basic principle to take care of our own people and people who want to come here. It is part of who we are.”
Smith agreed, saying data he has analyzed as a municipal worker show the more diversity, the better.
“Let’s bring more,” Smith said. “I think it’s fabulous that people are coming to our community with different world views.”
Morin suggested the city enter a partnership with local businesses to help refugees find employment opportunities and become a part of the community. It’s a win-win, she said, to ease the council’s relationship with local businesses and help refugees find their way.
DuVal, a former at-large School Committee member, said she supports hosting refugees, but worries about the funding it will require.
“We need to realize it is going to cost us,” DuVal said, saying she expects refugees will require more services than the school’s special education and English language learners departments can handle.