NORTHAMPTON — The four candidates for mayor committed to treating climate change as an emergency, and shared their strategies for increasing citizen engagement with government, in a final forum Thursday before Tuesday’s preliminary election.
The 7 p.m. virtual forum hosted by Climate Action Now featured the candidates still in the race: City Council President Gina-Louise Sciarra, retired resident Roy Martin, social worker Shanna Fishel and transportation analyst Marc Warner.
A fifth candidate, Rosechana Gordon, will appear on the ballot despite dropping out in August.
Voters in the Sept. 28 preliminary election will narrow the field of mayoral candidates to two, and one City Council at-large candidate will be eliminated from a field of five, for the general election on Nov. 2.
Early voting is available on Friday at the Senior Center, 67 Conz St., from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Sciarra, an at-large city councilor and president since 2019, said the carbon emission goals laid out in the Sustainable Northampton Plan — a 50% citywide reduction by 2030, 75% by 2040 and full carbon neutrality by 2050 — are not ambitious enough.
“The climate emergency will drive every action the city takes,” Sciarra said. “Before I’m sworn in, I will begin working with the outgoing mayor (and department heads) on a tracking system that is transparent so we can see progress. We need this done.”
The city should “move away” from pesticide use, Sciarra said, and she is against “indiscriminate” mosquito spraying. She supports establishing a task force to investigate natural gas leaks and recommend solutions.
On Wednesday, the City Council’s Finance Committee, which Sciarra chairs, passed the first reading of an order authorizing the lease of rooftop space on Bridge Street, Leeds and Ryan Road elementary schools for photovoltaic solar arrays.
“I’m committed to achieving true sustainability and equity,” Sciarra said, describing the Finance Committee as the place “where our progressive ideals become progressive realities.”
As a way of involving more people in government decision-making, she supports a municipal broadband system that will be the subject of a ballot question in the general election and said the city should consider continuing virtual meeting participation.
Asked how he would increase City Hall’s engagement with people of color in the city, Martin said that every board and commission should have “some people of Spanish, because we have a lot of Spanish here in town.”
“We have a lot of Black people in town who are put behind the eight ball, so to speak, and they’re never asked what to do. They’re told what to do,” Martin said. “Maybe we’d take a few Jewish people. … I’ve heard that a lot of the Jewish people are not that much up on politics.”
Moderator Ben Weil asked each candidate to name the most impactful thing they would do, if elected, to fight climate change at the local level. Martin spoke briefly about the challenges of regional cooperation between cities, then said, “I don’t know how to answer that question.”
Earlier in the forum, he had said that he would “institute small and slow increment things” that, if every municipality participates, would have a cumulative impact on carbon emissions.
“Together, we can all do it. Together,” Martin said. “Otherwise, we’re going to be eating crap, as you might say.”
Martin committed to “fully funding” the Urban Forestry Program that works to restore the city’s shade tree canopy, but said he would prefer hardwood trees over “the little things” that are being planted now.
In response to Martin’s comments, Fishel said, “I’m a very proud Jew, and I’m very proud to enter politics. We need to empower marginalized communities.”
Fishel is an outreach social worker in Holyoke and a former special education teacher in Boston Public Schools.
“In those roles, I’ve encountered the harmful impact of municipal decisions on the most vulnerable, and I have dedicated my life to working toward equity,” Fishel said. “I commit to good listening, better planning and genuine empathy.”
Within their first year, Fishel would establish binding guidelines on carbon emission, rather than the non-binding goals of the Sustainable Northampton Plan, they said. All new city vehicles would be electric, Fishel said, and the city would encourage citizens to use motorized skateboards, hoverboards and unicycles, among other alternative transportation options.
Fishel wants the city to reach its net-zero carbon emission goal by 2030, two decades earlier than currently planned.
Warner said the city has three options when it comes to climate change: first, attempting mitigation; if that fails, striving to adapt to more extreme weather; and third, “misery.”
“This is an alternative that we do not want to leave to future Americans,” Warner said. Climate change “is something that calls for management, not just goals.”
Over the coming years, the city will have dozens of opportunities to apply for state, federal and private grants, he said, and each one will have different requirements, legal issues, revenue predictability, evaluation criteria and submission standards. Navigating those various factors will take strong management, he said, and “I have those management skills.”
Warner, founder of Warner Transportation Consulting Inc. and its president for 29 years, said he has experience managing massive projects for public transportation agencies all over the world, including helping Los Angeles plot out new rail construction last year.
In terms of bringing more public transportation to Northampton, Warner said increasing the number of buses “is an ideal, but it’s not really realistic.”
Fares will “never” cover the operations of public transit, Warner said, so the money would need to come from somewhere outside the city or from its own coffers. He called for expanding walkability and adding bike lanes in targeted places like the Baystate Village area.
He said that, although climate change is a critical challenge, mitigation efforts should not cause the city to neglect its other priorities.
“Let’s make sure this fits with our whole community’s goals in other areas, as well,” Warner said.
He said the city should have a carbon reduction contest with Amherst, work with utility companies to identify municipal energy use and display the numbers on the side of City Hall, and hold department heads accountable for measurable action on climate change.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.