The rezoning of the Saunders Brothers mill from Industrial to Gateway Commercial to clear the way for Wal-Mart to possibly come to Westbrook (opposed)

I voted against the rezoning of the Saunders property because, at the time, our Planning Board did not have sufficient tools to handle a development the size of the proposed Wal-Mart. We could not directly address problems like 24-hours operation, truck deliveries in the middle of the night, and size. For example, we could not tell Wal-Mart that it could not have trucks making deliveries at 3 a.m. 50 to 100 feet from homes, waking the neighbors with their air brakes, back-up alarms, and the noise of unloading deliveries.

The additional site plan restrictions that limit the size of buildings in the Gateway zone developed by the Planning Board and approved by the City Council in response to the Saunders zone change (favored)

While we need to be open for business, we also need to protect our citizens from intrusive and overbearing development, like we have seen in parts of Westbrook, such as the “paper street” development off Mitchell and Chestnut and some of the “infill” development. To make sure we retain the proper balance, I proposed the additional site plan standards that we have enacted. While the Mayor and some staff called the site plan stands “unnecessary” when I proposed them, I was proud to vote to pass the additional site plan restrictions. I think they strike an appropriate balance between encouraging development while still protecting our neighborhoods.

Pay-as-you-throw trash pickup and curbside recycling (favors)

I support curbside recycling and reducing our trash flow. However, we have not had the opportunity to vote for or against pay-per-bag pickup and curbside recycling. Two years ago, the mayor included pay per bag in his budget without any prior notice to the City Council and without any research or discussion. At the time it was proposed, the administration did not know what it intended to charge per bag, what the costs would be, or what the recycling rate would be. I opposed including it in the budget because we did not have answers to the most basic questions you would want answered before implementing such a drastic change in this City. The one thing that was clear was that anyone who put out more than one bag per week would have paid more in taxes and fees under the Mayor’s proposed plan than they would have under the current system.

We then did what should have been done in the first place, which was to gather information so we can make an informed decision as to whether this is the right step for Westbrook. We waited nearly a year as the administration gathered information about pay per bag systems and about a different alternative in Saco, which might be promising. The city council president and City Administrator Jerre Bryant met with Saco officials about a system that is not pay per bag. Instead, the city provides one 95-gallon trash can to every home along with containers for curbside recycling. Saco has apparently achieved impressive recycling rates and reduced the cost of disposing of trash without making its citizens pay for bags. I’m interested in that proposal and am waiting to hear more.

The city purchasing land on Saco Street to market it as the Westbrook Heights Business Park (favored)

I voted in favor of it. Because of the grant money available, it made more financial sense for the City to purchase the land to sell than to let the deal die. Westbrook needs economic development in order to take the pressure off the residential taxpayer. This is a project with limited risk to the city, with the support of the neighbors, and with the potential to bring many new jobs and significant tax revenue to Westbrook.

How would you have voted on this year’s school budget? (favored)

I voted in favor of the entire budget including the school budget because it lowered taxes while also protecting the services the citizens of this city expect and deserve. I did not support the Mayor’s attempt to cut more than a million dollars from the school budget because he could not say where the cuts would come from or what the effect would be. We shouldn’t make cuts without knowing what we are cutting and what the effect will be. Cutting that much money would have required significant layoffs and loss of programs. Just as I would not support undermining fire safety or snowplowing, I would not support undermining strong schools.

The potential redevelopment of Saccarappa Park as a combination commercial building/public park (no answer)

The development of the park is not the answer to all our problems and should only be done if it can be done right, but it can be an important part of the downtown revitalization. My concern is that the city has given so many mixed messages over the years that we have scared off the experienced developers who know what they are doing. I have heard many similar stories from smaller developers who have received different answers from different people at City Hall and have incurred expenses and lost money because of the conflicting messages coming from the administration. This is the kiss of death for developers. Developers need an answer they can depend on. We need to make sure we have just one or two people who can give answers to developers so everyone is on the same page.

The City Council’s recent decision to add $150,000 to a capital improvement bond for playground improvements and the Westbrook Food Pantry (favored)

I voted for adding the $150,000. As long-term expenses, they are appropriate to be bonded. These are also expenses we have been debating for years and are well-researched and well-defined. I proposed adding the $50,000 for the food pantry because we have been trying to find a permanent location for the food pantry for years. At any point, the food pantry could get notice that it needs to be out in 30 days and we have no place for it to go. I hope that we won’t have to use all or most of the $50,000 and am still talking with churches, developers and anyone I can to find a free, permanent home. But the $50,000 is there should those efforts fail.

Many of our citizens, especially senior citizens and children, go hungry every day. For them, the food pantry fills a vital, basic need. If we can’t help the most vulnerable amongst us, then we are not doing our jobs as city leaders, but even more importantly as neighbors and friends. I am not willing to let our neighbors, our friends, go hungry, not when I can do something about it.

Please give us your comments on the following subjects:

Paper streets have been a major source of contention in the city recently. How would you have dealt with residents’ complaints about old paper streets being used for development?

First, we never should have changed the requirements that a developer must prove that it owns the fee simple in a paper street in order to develop it. I was furious to discover that Mr. Bellucci’s lawyer had met with the mayor and with our economic development director to identify this requirement as an obstacle and request that it be removed. The administration then included that change in a huge list of “textual changes” to the zoning ordinances (i.e. removing commas, making minor corrections) with no notice to the council of this change. If the administration had wanted this change, it should have identified this issue, and we would have discussed it. I would have voted against making this change. If this had been done the right way, then we could have avoided this entire mess off Chestnut and Mitchell.

Second, we should have had a requirement that even if a subdivision plan was approved more than one hundred years ago, as some of these were, as soon as you start moving dirt around, you have to go through the site plan review process with our Planning Board. I have argued for this for years. That would take care of the more egregious cases.

Third, we should have identified this as a potential problem and dealt with it in advance. We aren’t the first community to have gone through this with paper streets. We could have and should have compiled a list of these old subdivisions with paper streets and notified neighbors in advance of these issues arising. This goes to my chief complaint about our need to be more proactive.

How would you settle the dispute between the city and the two local businessmen who purchased the old Cumberland Mills police station?

I voted against selling the former police station to Mr. Gore and Mr. Mazzone because it was a bad deal for the city. We should have taken more time to market the property. If we had, I am confident we would have found a buyer willing to pay a higher price who also would have developed that property in a way that would have made us proud.

Mr. Gore and Mr. Mazzone promised that they would develop that site into an incubator for emerging business. We should demand that they keep their promise, as I did at this month’s council meeting. I would also consider taking the property back from them at a considerable discount, and then marketing it right this time.

What can be done to help lower Westbrook property taxes?

We need to continue efforts to provide city services in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. But cutting costs takes us only so far. We still want our trash picked up. When our house is on fire, we want the fire department to respond. And we want good schools for our kids. The best way to reduce the pressure on the residential taxpayer is to grow the businesses we have in Westbrook, and to attract more businesses to Westbrook. During the past two years, commercial development projects in Westbrook have shrunk from $12 million to $3 million. That means that we, the residential taxpayers, are bearing more and more of the cost of the city services. We need to do a better job growing our businesses and attracting new ones, or all of us will continue to pay more and more of the costs.

That is why I proposed hosting an economic summit in Westbrook this fall to bring commercial developers to Westbrook to see what we have to offer, and to see what we can do better. We need to do more consistent outreach to bankers, developers, business groups, attorneys, and other groups in the commercial development business with more consistent follow-up.

On a smaller but still important scale, we need to do a better job helping small businesses develop. Starting a small business is a very daunting task. I have proposed creating a pamphlet that tells the new small business owner everything he or she needs to do to start a small business in Westbrook.

How would you work to settle the protracted dispute between the police union and the city?

It would not be appropriate for me, as a sitting city councilor, to comment since the administration has told all city councilors that we are not to make any comments that might be construed as negotiating the contract. Without getting into specifics, I and other councilors have consistently urged the administration to research the cost of different proposals and have sought common ground between the administration and the police union.

What do you want to see done to improve parking in the city?

Several years ago, I suggested that we needed a city-wide parking study. The mayor formed a parking committee and I have been waiting to hear the results.

Please comment on any other issues of importance to you.

A general issue that I have already mentioned is the need to be more proactive and less reactive. In other words, we need to do a better job of looking ahead and anticipating problems before they occur, instead of simply trying to put out whichever fire has erupted today. So many times, we are simply responding to problems that occur by trying to make them better for the next person, rather than the person in front of us with the problem. Many of these issues (i.e. development of centuries old subdivisions or paper streets) are not new. Other communities have encountered these issued before us. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. That is why I have proposed an annual best practices review of our neighbor communities’ ordinances. On an annual basis, staff shall survey our neighbors and see what issues they faced that we haven’t yet. How did they respond? Then staff shall report back to the City Council. Then we can take what they have learned and put it in place before a problem arises here in Westbrook. We’ll never anticipate every problem, but we must do better than we are.