Last week, Springfield incumbent Mayor Charles Ryan and challenger City Councilor Domenic Sarno met for a televised debate at the downtown studio of public television station WGBY. The debate, hosted by Jim Madigan, was aired as a special, one-hour edition of “The State We’re In,” and featured questions from three panelists.
Sarno’s main pitch was for public safety, arguing that clean and safe streets by default lend themselves to enhanced economic development. He also stated that small businesses in the city deserve support and custom-tailoring from the public sector.
Opposing the city’s controversial $90 annual trash fee, Sarno said that he would cover one year’s trash collection costs by drawing on the required $4 million or so from the city’s $17 million in cash reserves; he has indicated that future funding would come from the inevitable economic development that will result from safe streets, which will result from having the additional 50 police officers he has pledged to add to the force.
Likening Springfield’s potential to that of New York City, Sarno cited the efforts of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, likely similar to the “broken windows” approach to policing, emphasizing the need for quality-of-life improvements through a coordinated effort involving police and other city departments.
Sarno also repeatedly criticized the city’s efforts to bring on board what he termed “Boston consultants and attorneys” to examine best practices, at a price tag of $2.5 million, he said; but at the same time, he argued in favor of some things that could be said to have resulted from such studies and legal advice, not exclusively from consultants in Boston. For example, Sarno advocated targeting empty nesters as possible downtown dwellers, which emerged as a recommended direction to take both from the Urban Land Institute national panel survey of the city, as well as from the Zimmerman/Volk Associates study of downtown market-rate housing potential, both in the last year.
A few nervous elements came into play for Sarno during the debate, such as a habitual repetition of the phrase, “at that point in time,” and other filler words that came across as attempts to sound perspicacious. His dry mouth was also evident in the sound of his voice; there was possibly no water available for the candidates, as they were not seen taking any refresher sips. At moments of emphasis, perhaps speaking with force, Sarno’s breath could be heard puffing into the microphone and interfering with the audio momentarily, lending a sense that he was feeling exasperated.
Ryan addressed the need to maintain a steady course, in his closing statement likening the city’s situation to that of someone in need of medical expertise in the wake of the discovery of a brain tumor. He repeatedly referenced the number of municipal employees hired on his watch as the city has rebounded from sudden layoffs and firings after state fiscal aid cuts in 2003 delivered a shock to the city’s capacity to maintain consistent services. Pointing to his administration’s attention to infrastructure and harbingers of fresh, significant economic development in the private sector, Ryan issued a plea to residents to allow him to continue to the work underway, with steady guidance and an experienced hand.
Turning to the recent past, Ryan placed culpability on Sarno for some of the past administration’s misdeeds and oversights, including the sudden layoffs, possible misuse of Chapter 90 funding leaving streets unpaved, a city with no money to work with in general, and eight percent of taxes going uncollected. When Sarno defended himself to say that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue had approved every budget during those years leading up to the cuts, and not long afterward, the 2004 imposition of a state-appointed Finance Control Board, Ryan tsk-tsked Sarno in return, saying that the people responsible for a city’s budget are the mayor and the city council, and the state office only reviews a municipality’s budget in a cursory fashion. “All I know is what I inherited, and it was there when I walked in the door, on the very first day,” Ryan retorted.
Comfortable before the camera, Ryan also deferred at least twice to moderator Madigan’s offers to have a moment more time to respond on a given subject, when in fairness, it appeared as though Sarno had been allowed a few moments slightly more. “We’ve either got to move on or spend the whole night on this one question,” Ryan replied to Madigan’s offer, which followed a lengthy series of volleys between the two candidates in response to the very first question from the panelists.
In an opening statement, Sarno referred to his individual capacity and past experience, going all the way back to his work as a member of a flooring crew, laying down tile in supermarkets across New England and putting himself through college. Ryan, on the other hand, did not refer to his background professional experience at all as he opened the debate, but instead chose to list off accomplishments since taking office, and the steady footing he believes the city has now achieved.
Click here to read a transcript of the debate. For more on the candidates, Maureen Turner of the Valley Advocate has an article in this week’s paper outlining some of their views and featuring interviews with both of them.
