NORTHAMPTON — The four candidates for two at-large seats on the City Council largely agreed on issues including affordable housing and the redesign of Main Street, but differed in some ways on police reform, during a candidate forum on Wednesday night.
The League of Women Voters of the Northampton Area and Daily Hampshire Gazette co-sponsored a 6 p.m. virtual forum with candidates Jamila Gore, Michael Quinlan, Marissa Elkins and David Murphy.
Quinlan, Elkins and Murphy said they were concerned with understaffing at the Department of Public Works, and all four candidates said they supported the implementation of the new Department of Community Care and the eventual transition of the municipal fleet toward only electric vehicles.
The candidates were asked for their positions on the use of infill zoning to improve housing access.
Murphy, a former seven-term Ward 5 councilor, said he served on the council when infill zoning was enacted, but it has not had the desired effect.
“The problem is that we created these new lots, but they’re market-rate lots,” Murphy said. “The houses that are built on them are built, in most cases, by speculators for profit, so … we’re getting $500,000 and $600,000 houses put up.”
Quinlan, the incumbent Ward 1 councilor finishing up his first term, agreed with that view, saying infill zoning “is not necessarily achieving its primary goal, initially. … A lot of the infill that’s coming in is expensive housing.” He said, though, that he supports infill as a concept because it offers the chance to create more affordable housing units.
Gore, an activist and writer who placed first in the Sept. 28 preliminary election with a wide lead over second-place finisher Quinlan, said she doesn’t “know a ton” about infill zoning, but agreed that current practices are not expanding the affordable housing stock.
Elkins, a defense attorney and vice chair of the Planning Board, said that “pretty much everybody” who wants to move into Northampton “is having trouble finding something that meets their needs,” regardless of income. She said it’s “incredibly important to build on existing infrastructure” in order to meet the city’s long-term sustainability goals, and for multi-generational families to have the right to build accessory structures on their properties.
In response to questions about police reform, Quinlan said that his service on the Policing Review Commission showed him where there are “opportunities for Northampton to explore our community’s health and safety,” and that he is “an advocate for the Department of Community Care.”
Gore has received the endorsement of Northampton Abolition Now, an advocacy group that supports reallocating money from the Police Department to other social services, including the Department of Community Care.
“Our current way of policing people in this country is not sustainable anymore,” Gore said, and the department’s $424,000 budget for the current fiscal year is so low that it’s “not acceptable.”
Murphy said he earned the endorsement of New England PBA Local 186, the Northampton patrol officers’ union, which has expressed support for the new peer-led emergency response department. He said the City Council’s decision to cut the police budget by 10% in 2020 was “a horrendous mistake.”
“It was demoralizing to that department that their elected public officials didn’t support them,” Murphy said while also voicing support for the new community care department. “It was just a mindless thing to do” and represented a failure of leadership by the longest-serving councilors involved.
Elkins said that Northampton is “a very safe community,” but the new department should be up and running as soon as possible. She praised Police Chief Jody Kasper and urged a strong collaboration between police and the new department.
The forum also touched on issues including the redesign of Main Street, the needs of the downtown homeless population and addressing the climate change emergency declared by the City Council in April. Northampton Open Media streamed the forum live, and the video is now available on the organization’s YouTube page.
About 24.5% of the city’s 21,389 registered voters turned out to cast ballots in the Sept. 28 preliminary election, eliminating Michelle Serra from the at-large candidate field and choosing Gina-Louise Sciarra and Marc Warner to face off for mayor in the general election, scheduled for Nov. 2.
In addition to mayor and City Council at-large, voters will see races for City Council in Wards 1, 3 and 4; School Committee in Wards 2 and 6; Forbes Library trustee; Smith Vocational trustee; and Elector Under the Oliver Smith Will.
The ballot will feature a non-binding question asking voters if they support allowing the city to create a municipal light plant, which would be a city-owned company that could offer broadband internet service to residents and businesses in Northampton. The question does not authorize any spending.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.