The two candidates for Town Council President shared their vision for the future of the town on Monday night at a debate, sponsored by WCAT and the Winthrop Chamber of Commerce at the WCAT Studio on Monday night.
Incumbent President Jim Letterie is being challenged by current Council Vice President Hannah Belcher on the Nov. 4 town election ballot.
The debate was hosted by former Winthrop Superintendent of Schools John Macero. Panelists included Winthrop Chamber of Commerce Secretary Nicole Bettano, Winthrop High School Student Council members Jillian Buonopane and Francesca Indrisano, and Adam Swift from the Winthrop Transcript.
Letterie and Belcher fielded questions about town infrastructure, how to best help the small business community, and their vision for the future of the schools from the panel during the first half of the forum. During the second half of the forum, the two candidates had the opportunity to question each other before providing closing remarks.
Right off the bat, Macero questioned the candidates on their stances on the MBTA 3A Communities Act. Letterie voted against a planning board recommendation to comply with the state law, while Belcher supported the compliance plan.
“We took an oath as counselors to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth,” said Belcher. “There were some challenges with this law, and I think Winthrop asked really good questions; we met with Secretary Augustus and the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to advocate for Winthrop’s unique position, both geographically and with our current density. They did allow us to present a plan that resulted in zero additional units, and Jim has acknowledged that that plan really does not result in real new units.”
Belcher said the town needs to acknowledge the work done by the planning board with the compliance plan and work to make itself eligible for the grant funding the town has lost by not being in compliance with 3A.
Letterie noted that the 3A compliance plan has been voted on by the council twice and has not passed either time.
“I took an oath to protect the citizens of Winthrop, that’s the oath I take and I feel very strongly about it,” said Letterie. “The citizens of Winthrop do not want this law; it’s a badly written law. Does it result in potential lost funding? It could potentially, however, we don’t know that.
“We were fully compliant last year and we did not receive an MVP grant that we had been promised the year before.”
Letterie said that while the plan the planning board brought forward technically results in zero new units, there is no guarantee that the state will not change the law.
Buopane, the president of the Winthrop High School Student Council, asked the candidates about their visions for the school district. The council president also serves as a voting member of the school committee.
“As a graduate of Winthrop public schools, it has been a challenge to learn about the things that were there when I was in school that aren’t there anymore – music programs, art programs,” said Belcher. “Despite things like this, there is still a wonderful drama program, we see more AP classes than there were when I was there. But looking at the beginning of the negotiations for the schools, it is clear that we are underfunding our personnel.”
Belcher said it is concerning to hear that Winthrop has to increase pay by about 20 percent to reach the median salary for educators in the region.
“The lack of retention of teachers is very concerning, and I think the retention of teachers equates to the quality of the education,” she said. “That needs to be a very strong focus as we move forward both in these negotiations and in the next few years to ensure that our students have teachers who are dedicated to not only their role as an educator, but their role as an educator in the Winthrop Public Schools.”
Letterie said he wants to see increased programs and AP courses at the schools, as well as reduce class sizes.
“Money is always an issue,” said Letterie. “We are so fortunate to have the citizens of Winthrop stand by and support an override that is going to help support the schools over the next several years. That will help with some programs.”
Bettano asked several questions about how the candidates would help the small business community in Winthrop and how they would work with the Chamber.
“If you are looking at one initiative recently, we’ve put a lot of money into the CBD (Center Business District), the town, the taxpayers, the state, and federal money,” said Letterie. “We did a lot of infrastructure repairs which enables us to keep new businesses and to expand businesses. We’ve been able to grab a couple of new businesses now and then, but we haven’t done what I feel we should be doing.
“We have to look at redevelopment opportunities, but we don’t want to limit the space,” he continued.
Letterie said one initiative he would look at is one that shares money taken in from the local meals sales tax with local businesses and the Chamber to work on efforts to help those businesses.
“We have to be partners with the Chamber and help the businesses to grow,” he said.
Belcher said she works with the Chamber to attend as many events as possible.
“That’s something that I take very seriously,” said Belcher. “I have shown up at as many events as possible over the past four years and I plan to continue to do that. I think in attending events like that, that’s where we hear directly from the business owners, what they need from us, and how we can support them.”
Indrisano asked the candidates what past experiences best qualify them to lead the community and their biggest accomplishment during their time on the council.
“In my professional role, I work on a team in a very bureaucratic system that is incredibly advantageous as you do government work,” said Belcher. “This position is the leadership of a team, and it is a team that operates not only in the confines of our own charter and ordinances, but also Mass General Law and our state charter.”
Belcher said the council accomplishment she is most proud of is the Winthrop Ferry coming off the town books and being operated by the MBTA.
“It was not a good use of taxpayer’s money, but to get it picked up by the MBTA, so now we have direct service into Boston keeping all those cars off the road, that is something that I am proud of us being able to achieve as a council,” said Belcher.
As Council President, Letterie said his proudest achievement has been getting the debt exclusion passed for the construction of a new fire station.
“We’ve been working on that for the past 50 years,” said Letterie. “Our two fire stations were built in 1882 and 1905, so that’s just an incredible accomplishment. It’s a win for the town, we couldn’t have done it without the taxpayers.
“But I also look at the middle-high school, which was a fantastic project, and Mr. Macero was the superintendent when the school opened,” he continued. “You look at the school and we paid $80 million and got reimbursed roughly 51 percent, so the town paid a little under $40 million. And you look at Revere building a school of a similar size, but for only a high school, and there’s close to $500 million, so the accomplishment of the school and the fire station is incredible.”
The candidates were also asked how they believed the town and the council could best address stormwater mitigation and flooding issues in Winthrop.
“We have seen a variety of reasons for flooding in this town, some of it is failed infrastructure, some of it is coastal resiliency and climate change,” said Belcher. “The first step to solving these problems is identifying them and putting price tags on them; which the climate commission has done over the past year-and-a-half. They have identified the nine hotspots across town that have the most trouble with flooding.
“It is an incredibly costly endeavor to solve all of these problems, and I don’t think it’s fair to ask the people on Cliff Ave. to pay for the flooding on Morton Street when we are not looking at all the other options, whether that’s grants, partnering with regional coastal resiliency organizations,” Belcher continued. “We have operated in a silo for a long time, especially regarding environmental things, and I think we need to come out of that silo and start reaching out in the region to see if there are creative solutions that are right at our fingertips.”
Letterie said the flooding and stormwater management issues are ones that the town needs to and has been addressing.
“You can’t handle this problem holistically, you can’t go and solve all the problems, it’s unrealistic,” said Letterie. “Hannah or I can sit up here and promise we are going to fix all the flooding; I can tell you it’s not going to happen in the next two years, it’s probably not going to happen in the next four or five. But we have to start, and that is what we are doing now.
“We are on Phase 2 in Tilestone and Girdlestone, and that’s something we have to address,” he continued. “Certain parts of the project would affect water rates, other parts of the project might include a debt exclusion, some parts of the project might include a grant. I do believe though that we are one town and we all have to understand that we all have to pitch in and help everybody throughout the town.”
During the one-on-one questioning portion of the debate, the focus was on experience and vision for the town.
Letterie questioned Belcher as to why she did not vote to appoint Karin Chavis to fill a vacant Precinct 2 council seat earlier this year, citing Chavis’s experience and knowledge of town government compared to the other candidate who was up for the appointment.
“I’ve served on many committees with her over the past four years, and while I appreciate her experience, her and I do not share the same vision for Winthrop,” said Belcher. “Almost everything I had presented, she had disagreed with, and I think that it is my role on the council to move forward with the vision that my constituency tells me they want.”
Belcher said it would be difficult to vote to put someone on the council who disagreed with her initiatives.
“Thanks Hannah, for your thoughtful response, I appreciate that,” said Letterie. “Everybody has said it takes a good three to four to five months to get really comfortable on the council, to be productive, to add to meetings, it just takes awhile and there is a learning curve. This was a six-month position … and she would have been one of the most, if not the most qualified candidate on day one.
“In this situation, I have to disagree; this is not about your goals, it’s about the town’s goals and what’s best to help us move forward.”
Belcher questioned Letterie about his plans to pay for townwide infrastructure projects that are coming down the road.
“We’re staring down the barrel of infrastructure and capital projects that have gone untouched in your time on the council, and we know we have attention that has to be paid to the schools,” said Belcher. “When will we hear about your plans for paying for these, and will it be solely through tax increases?”
Letterie noted that there has been much work down on infrastructure during his four years as president.
“We are approaching now 10 miles of infrastructure, and we have roughly 48 miles of infrastructure under our town, and most of that 48 miles is 80 years old or older,” he said. “We’ve been addressing those as fast as we can. We cannot break the bank to fix it.”
Belcher countered that the loss of grants through the town not being in compliance with 3A is handcuffing the town when it comes to helping pay for some infrastructure projects.
“I’m a little unsure what the plan is to pay for everything while we continue to poke the state in the eye and put ourselves in a disadvantage,” Belcher said.
The full video of the debate is online on both the WCAT website and the WCAT YouTube page.