Economic growth and the issue of vacant buildings were at the forefront of voter concerns at Thursday night’s forums for town supervisor and town board.
Candidates were given the chance to answer questions from audience members at the Thursday, Oct. 22 forum. The event was held at Guilderland High School and sponsored by the Albany County League of Women Voters, The Altamont Enterprise, Spotlight News, the Capital Area Council of Churches and the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce.
For the supervisor seat left vacant by retiring Town Supervisor Ken Runion, two candidates faced off, each claiming to have more experience than the other. Former Democratic town board member turned Republican Supervisor Candidate Brian Forte squared off against Democrat Peter Barber, chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals for Albany County.
As for the two open town board seats, incumbent Democrat Al Maikels is seeking his second term, with Retired Democratic Town Clerk Rosemary Centi running with him. They are facing Albany County Legislator Lee Carman, R-District 29, and former Town Comptroller Republican Michelle Coons.
Abandoned Buildings
With the recent passing of the Vacant and Abandoned Properties Local Law in town, each candidate was asked how they would support this and why.
While Town Board candidate Coons agreed it was “nice to have them looking nice on the outside,” she also contended that the law did not address how the buildings should be revitalized. “We can’t just leave [buildings] vacant. They’re not generating any new taxes,” she said. Coons also worried people would enter the abandoned buildings.
Maikels, one of the board members to draft the law, said he was proud of the legislation. “If we can encourage reuse of those buildings, we will do so,” said Maikels.
The problem he said were “zombie properties,” which become dilapidated after banks foreclosed on homes and businesses. “If properties are not being kept up, we will go in and fix them, but they will be billed, not the town,” described Maikels.
Both Centi and Carman agreed that they would support the law.
Supervisor candidate Forte was also one of drafters of the law. As such he also agreed it was a “great first step.” His opponent Barber supported the law for it “fair and open process.”
Economic Growth
The Town of Guilderland has consistently had some of the lowest tax rates in Albany County. While this bodes well for the town, voters also worried about the financial growth of local businesses amid thriving large retailers.
“All I know is by any measure the Town of Guilderland has lowest tax of any county,” said Barber. “We’ve done a phenomenal job at keeping our spending low,” he said.
To him, complaining of the misfortunes of businesses takes away from pride of local business owners. “Most of [the business owners] are town residents. These are beautiful places that people take pride in,” he said.
Forte, however, contended, “Our tax rate is lowest, but not the taxes. Our ability to get taxes lower comes in form of commercial growth.” Forte would see a government group formed to “foster business relationships in the community.”
Both town supervisor candidates, as well as all of the board candidates said they would support the proposed 2016 budget and its zero percent tax increase.
“We’re paying off millions of dollars of debt and continuing services,” said Maikels. “I fully support the budget and will vote yes.”
On the issue of economic growth, all board candidates agreed that local businesses should be promoted. In Carman’s opening, and Centi’s closing remarks, both Republican and the Democrat said they would strive to create meetings with local business leaders.
Carman envisioned “town hall-style meetings” with business owners to promote government/business partnerships. Centi saw a need for local businesses to have a forum for their concerns. Coons, as well said her goal as councilwoman would be to promote businesses to have open communication with government.
Yet, while many candidates reflected their desire to promote financial growth, Centi stated she was wary of developers.
Police
When the topic of police was brought up, a voter reminded the candidates of a horrific event in recent memory. “We recently had a horrific, brutal homicide that we know nothing about,” stated the question. “What will you do to keep the community safe?”
Maikels had no complaints for the Guilderland Police Department. The issue in question – the quadruple homicide of a family that occurred one year ago – was more of an international issue than a local one, he said. “The police department is doing a great job. To my knowledge, they have most if not all of the resources they need. They handled the situation well by keeping the public informed.”
Coons agreed, saying that with Forte in office as supervisor, the connection between Town Board and Guilderland Police would be even stronger. Forte was Chief of Police in Guilderland for many years before serving on town board.
Centi said to keep these lines of communication between the board and the police, she proposed utilizing a police liaison position. This person would be free to approach to town board with any of their needs. This open communication between departments, she said, was “the key to good government.”
Rather than use the question to commend Guilderland Police, Carman took the opportunity to speak of the town’s heroin epidemic. “I agree we have an excellent police force, but the focus should be on at-risk youth. The town and the police need to be speaking with them about this issue,” said Carman.
The only other candidate to address this problem was Centi, with her proposed youth court.
“Thankfully my kids haven’t had these kinds of problems, but I’ve seen their friends go through them,” said Centi. As she explained, when a child younger than 18 commits a low-level crime, such as being caught with illicit drugs, they would be judged by their peers, rather than sent to county jails.
“It’s something that a lot of other towns around here have and it would be easy to do,” she said. “Even if I am not elected – and I hope that I am – it is something that I will pursue.”
Carman later jumped on the idea, stating in his closing that he too would support the creation of a youth court.
Neither town supervisor said they would reduce the police and EMS services in Guilderland or consider consolidating with Albany County.
The supervisor candidates each had their own solution to the heroin problem. While Barber would see a library mentoring program created for youth to “keep them active, which gives them less of a chance to get in harms way,” Forte would see more police action.
“It was a big mistake when they took the school resource officer out of the middle school, due to budgetary restrictions a few years back,” said Forte. Forte himself was a school resource officer for many years, and a police officer for 30 years.
This year’s election falls on Tuesday, Nov. 3.