HOLYOKE — Mayor Joshua Garcia climbed onto the Hispanic food and drink packed countertop of his newly unveiled campaign headquarters on Wednesday night, ready to rally his base. But why exactly does an unopposed candidate need a headquarters or a rally?
The night wasn’t about flaunting his track record after four years in the corner office of City Hall.
First and foremost, Garcia used the opening of his headquarters at 120 High St. to endorse several city council and school committee candidates who will be on Nov. 4’s ballot. Garcia is pushing to get a two-thirds majority of likeminded people in key positions so he can implement his agenda more efficiently as he gears for another four-year term.
But he also used the night to vent some frustration about running unopposed as he distributed lawn signs.
After thanking the some 40 people gathered in the room for putting their faith and trust in him as he used the countertop as his soap box and rally stage, he said, “But I am very frustrated at the fact that there’s no race right now, believe it or not.”
He said the lack of competition doesn’t give him the opportunity to reestablish his “commitment” to Paper City, and to speak about the challenges the city continues to face. Then there is the issue of low voter turnout.
“Voter participation is already low here in the United States, and even here in Holyoke,” he said. “When there’s a mayor’s race, we get about 30% of voters. That’s good, but it isn’t good. It’s still low.”
He said he is “extremely, extremely” concerned that no mayoral race will mean an even lower rate of voter participation. That’s a problem since he sees the city council races, in particular, as being “extremely important.”
Garcia: ‘Key Races’
Up for grabs at the municipal election will be six at-large council positions, with nine candidates on the ballot.
Garcia supports incumbents Tessa R. Murphy-Romboletti, Patricia C. Devine and Israel Rivera, as well as newcomers Mimi Panitch and Christopher Dunay.
The three other candidates are Howard B. Greaney Jr., Kevin Andrew Jourdain and Michael J. Sullivan.
For the Ward 1 City Council race, Garcia backs Jenny Rivera over Victor Machado.
The Ward 3 race will involve incumbent David K. Bartley and challenger Anne Thalheimer, with Garcia supporting the latter.
In Ward 4, newcomers Richard Paul Purcell and Peter Diaz Jr. will fight for the seat. Incumbent Kocayne S. Givner is not seeking reelection, and Garcia has backed Purcell.
For Ward 5 School Committee, Garcia is endorsing his former teacher Aida Oquendo, who is running against Jens Michaelsen.
Garcia said some residents have raised rumors that he is telling these candidates what to do, but he said Wednesday that they share his similar values and goals of making Holyoke “inclusive” and “equitable.” He accused some on the council of acting in bad faithing by playing a game of, “Delay, deny, delay, deny,” which stunts change.
Looking ahead, reflecting back
After his speech, Garcia shared with the Gazette that going forward he will be prioritizing beefing up the Department of Public Works, and finalizing a five-year capital plan which will feature numerous projects.
“Whether it’s streets, intersections, bike lanes and sidewalks, or trees, those are the things we’re going to start bringing forward and investing in,” said Garcia. “We’re going to see construction in certain areas of the city, but again, that’s going to require two-thirds of the city council.”
Looking back, he is proud of the accomplishments in his first term.
He pointed out that he has guided the Holyoke schools out of state receivership and back into local hands, cracked down on crime and blight, and has advanced once-in-a-century infrastructure updates to the city’s sewage system.
Other achievements in the areas of education include beginning investments in school buildings, including the completion of Peck Middle School.
He said law enforcement is also making significant strides under the leadership of Police Chief Brian Keenan, selected by Garcia last year to head the Holyoke Police Department after a rigorous vetting process.
Outside of “traditional policing,” he celebrated a resource center for those reentering society that launched this year in the Armory Building on Appleton Street in conjunction with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department.
He is also proud of his work in reducing blight in the city.
“Blight harbors crime, and so we’ve done a lot of work to step up the expectations,” he said.
One mechanism to reduce blight is the city’s Flex Squad, a multidepartment initiative that picks up trash around Holyoke on the weekends. Garcia has also ordered notices be sent to landlords to clean their properties.
“On the government side,” he said, “we’re consistently enforcing laws across the board, and we haven’t seen that in a long time in the city.”
Part of beefing up the local government has been to increase retention among city employees while staffing up the Board of Health, Human Resource and the Building departments.
Totally unrelated related to Holyoke City policy, Garcia, Holyoke’s first Puerto Rican mayor, is feeling “great” about the selection of acclaimed Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl LX in February.
“I was playing some Bad Bunny earlier just so that people can start familiarizing what they’re about to hear at the Super Bowl,” said Garcia.