NORTHAMPTON — With two competitive races for School Committee and three for City Council approaching, city residents were able to hear directly from candidates at a forum Tuesday.
The candidate forum was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Northampton Area, the Gazette and Northampton Community Television. During the first hour, the audience heard from School Committee candidates Howard T. Moore and Emily Serafy-Cox, who are running for the Ward 3 seat, as well as Susan Voss, Roni Gold and Katherine Cardoso, who are vying for two at-large seats.
After the School Committee forum, candidates in three competitive City Council races took to the stage: from Ward 1, Andrew Smith and Michael Quinlan; from Ward 5, David Murphy and Alexander Jarrett; and from Ward 7, Penny Geis and Rachel Maiore.
The candidates running for City Council from Ward 1 were asked about vacant storefronts downtown and the perception that some landlords aren’t doing enough to rent those spaces. Both said that was a hot topic at doors they have knocked on while campaigning.
Quinlan pointed to the fact that the City Council is limited in what it can do to get landlords to rent those properties.
“I think you have to create a standard for those landlords to, at the very least, put an effort in,” he said. “We can apply some pressure, and through creativity and judgment, really push for people to get into those businesses.”
Smith said the city’s development strategy is perhaps too tailored to just one thing: retail storefronts. He said creating opportunities for “micro enterprise” is important to him, noting that he would push to loosen restrictions on where food trucks can operate in the city.
“I think it’s important to let people succeed here,” he said.
Murphy and Jarrett addressed the use of pesticides on the high school sports fields — both thought an organic method would be better — and both proposed improvements to sidewalks to make the city more accessible to those with disabilities.
The real differences between the candidates emerged during their opening statements.
Murphy, who has served on the City Council for the last 14 years, touted his decades of public service in the city. He said that as the chairman of the Finance Committee for the last eight years, he will bring knowledge and experience to the council in a year when the city is expecting a tax override vote and budget challenges.
Jarrett, on the other hand, said the city needs innovative leadership and out-of-the-box thinking. As the cofounder and treasurer of Pedal People Cooperative, he said he has learned business resourcefulness and thrift. And, because Pedal People is a democratic business, he touted his experience facilitating engagement and being responsive to others.
Maiore and Geis, competing in Ward 7, both gave answers highlighting their past experiences — Maiore as an activist and Geis as a former county commissioner.
Regarding how the city can achieve public safety without police aggression or brutality, the candidates had different answers.
Maiore said the city already has a low crime rate, adding that there are models in other municipalities for handling such questions — community boards or citizen police boards, for example.
“I think the way we can go about it is really engaging the community on this,” she said.
Geis referred to a ride-along she recently took with police, saying that police officers in the city often do the kind of work social workers do.
“How to police without violence is a problem that I haven’t seen in Northampton — it seems we have an excellent police force already,” she said.
During the School Committee portion of the evening, two issues emerged as a central concern for voters and those running: the implementation of an “inclusion model” that saw special education students moved into mainstream classrooms, and tense contract negotiations with the school employees union that recently led to a contract.
Responding to a question about whether those negotiations could have gone differently, the Ward 3 candidates gave their takes.
“I’m not happy with the way it played out,” Moore said, adding that he was ultimately satisfied with the contract both sides agreed to. Moore said he wished more of the negotiations would have happened “at the table and ad little less in public.”
Seray-Cox said the issues were years in the making.
“I really feel like there were many years of changes that could have gone on,” she said. “That being said, I’m glad that the union has a contact it felt like it could sign.”
Cardoso mentioned the contract negotiations in her opening statement, noting that she decided to run because she wants school employees to feel heard and respected. Later in the evening, she stressed the importance of retaining teachers.
Gold, in his closing statement, addressed the contract dispute. As a public school teacher and a union rep at his own school in Springfield, he said it was hard to see the tense negotiations knowing both sides wanted the same things for the school district and its kids. He vowed to help rebuild that relationship.
Voss, who is already on the School Committee, said in her opening that during contract negotiations she was an early and strong supporter of union members getting more pay, in line with what other teachers in local districts make.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.