Select Board candidates answer community questions at Candidates Night

Mar 28, 2019

With town elections set for April 2, candidates from both contested Select Board races answered residents' questions and made their pitches at a candidates night on  March 27.

In one Select Board race, former Dartmouth Police sergeant Frank Condez is challenging incumbent Shawn McDonald. In the second race, former Select Board member Kelli Martin Taglianetti is challenging incumbent John Haran.

All four candidates answered questions submitted by the audience. Here’s what they said about the issues.

What is the biggest fiscal challenge facing Dartmouth?

Condez: One of the biggest fiscal challenges that could face Dartmouth is in fact the cleanup of Bliss Corner. DEP was talking a four-year window just to determine the extent of the pollution. Fiscally Dartmouth is going to be spending a significant amount of attorney’s fees in working with DEP to try and solve this problem.

McDonald: There are a lot of things coming down the road that need to be addressed, but it also needs to be addressed on a state level. One of those is of course pensions and health benefits, the OPEB numbers.

Taglianetti: Pension and insurance. We have a great finance board that manages that. I just think we need to continue with it and hire the right people and try and find ways for new revenue. A lot of the revenue sources we had in the past are diminishing for lack of a better word. We need to try and find new sources.

Haran: I agree Bliss Corner is our top priority going forward, and we have to go forward with a balanced budget and it has to be sustainable going forward. In the years coming we can’t buy what we can’t pay for.

 

Can you address the issue at Lake Noquochoke?

The City of Fall River and Town of Dartmouth are at odds over how to repair a dam on the lake, which could affect the future of the waterway.

Haran: With everything, it’s going to cost money. Where is that money going to come from? We have to save ours for Bliss Corner. I don’t know how much it’s going to cost. I’m going to ask for help from Mark Montigny and Chris Markey to see if we can go for a year or two an earmark in the state budget. That’s the only solution I see to help us.

Taglianetti: We need to work with Fall River to get the right people in the right room to make the right choices for the town.

McDonad: Dartmouth has a vested interest in repairing the dam. I don’t have a problem with trying to come up with the money and get them to pay half the cost of the dam. If [Fall River] no longer needs the lake, maybe it’s time for them to talk about returning that resource to the town. People have built homes in that area. People have renovated homes in that area.

Condez: I’d attack it from the area of trying to look at state or federal reimbursements, where it is a waterway and if there are reimbursement programs the federal government can help or the state government can help us so we can minimize or eliminate any cost to the town.

 

Best hiring practices have always meant hiring the best people available. How would you continue to practice best hiring practices knowing people don’t come cheap?

Taglianetti: We need to look at the rate we’re currently offering people for positions in town. We aim to keep salaries low to reduce costs but I think we’re doing a disservice to the town because we’re keeping our pool small with increasing costs in health care and cost of living. People want to live in this town and they can’t do it on low salaries.

McDonald: We’ve lost candidates in this town because of the healthcare ratio, which is 52-to-48. They basically said they can’t afford to take that. We get candidates whose spouses take care of healthcare so they don’t have to. We can’t rely on that dynamic.

Condez: One of the primary missions of any organization in developing and hiring in town is room for advancement. If you properly set up your HR practices you are not going elsewhere to find people. There's something to be said for institutional knowledge, someone who started at bottom and worked their way through. That's one part of the equation. The other part is salaries and healthcare.

Haran: First and foremost, we need to have a balanced budget. I firmly stand that we have to have a sustainable budget going forward. Do we have enough future revenue in our budget to secure these higher pays?

 

How would you balance the town’s open space with the need for economic development?

McDonald: It’s truly a balance, that’s for sure. Dartmouth has roughly 25 percent of its land in open space… We have areas of economic business where they don’t go. It does not stretch into farmlands. Everybody knows where our businesses are and everyone knows where our farms are.

Condez: Growth pays the bills, but you don’t want to overgrow and take away Dartmouth’s unique character. I thin through zoning and the work of the other boards — Zoning Board, Planning Board —  you can sort of create a controlled plan for growth that maintains Dartmouth’s character in the portions the town is willing to allow for growth.  

Haran: One of the things our Planning Board members are going to have to deal with going forward is we’re running out of good land. A lot of parcels left now have issues. Close to wetlands. We also have a major concern with the digital economy. It's coming to we don’t need big box buildings to the same extent we have now. It’s a tough question I look forward to working with the Planning Board on going forward.

Taglianetti: I’ve been a huge advocate of open space. Having lived my whole life in North Dartmouth I continue to watch it grow. I think the way to manage balance is to try and repurpose a lot of buildings we have that are being unused in the Route 6 corridor so we don’t have to keep cutting down trees and building on open spaces.

 

How do you plan to move Dartmouth into a greener town? We are a major polluter of Buzzards Bay.

Taglianetti did not answer this question, stating that she was not prepared to answer it.

McDonald: In Buzzards Bay, it’s a nitrogen problem. And a lot of that problem is homes that surround the Slocum’s River that eventually dumps into Buzzards Bay. We don’t have sewer there, it’s septic. It’s also fertilizer. Everyone wants greener grass… how do you balance someone’s desire to have a green yard with the runoff that ends up in the water? The solution is a low nitrate fertilizer. Or do you regulate Title 5 septic systems? How do you do that? That becomes more expensive.

Condez: Some of the pollution in Buzzards Bay is quite possibly people using town beaches and not properly disposing of trash. Something as simple as making everyone a little more ware and a little more mindful could help. The general population can be greener through education and making people more aware of what habits they have.

Haran: What I’d do is reach out to the Buzzards Bay Coalition and UMass and ask them to give us a program so we can help educate homeowners on what’s the best to use on lawns and at what frequency.

 

In Bliss Corner, should properties be revalued with a reduced tax assessment with the knowledge that it will reduce tax revenue?

Condez: I think it absolutely should be. The town should be proactive in helping the people of Bliss Corner in every way that they can. Through abatements, through education and transparency, and letting people know exactly what’s going on there.

McDonald: It’s going to be a long process in that area to determine what the problem actually is, so to call for an abatement at this time when you don’t know what the problem is adds to the angst of a neighborhood and the neighborhood has enough angst as is.

Taglianetti: I lived through the same issues. I can appreciate concerns of the residents in that area, but I think it’s too early to make a determination about abatements.

Haran: Absolutely. If I lived in the neighborhood I would like to be treated the way I would. I will definitely back them and help them file for abatements. They deserve our support. If it’s an option to help them weather the storm I’m in favor of that 100 percent.

 

Is it inevitable that Dartmouth’s three fire districts will merge into one and be overseen by the Select Board? How would you support the fire and police departments?

Haran: Do I see them becoming one? As a taxpayer it’s not the best option. I support them now as a volunteer force. We support the police department directly.

Taglianetti: I do not foresee that happening. I think they all manage themselves fairly well. We support the [police department] now. We support them, we help them when they need us.

McDonald: It would be nice to have one fire department instead of three separate ones. Unfortunately the town’s budget can’t handle that unless there was a way legislatively to take fire taxes and roll them into the regular tax base of town. As far as support of the police department, we supported our police department by authorizing a brand new building.

Condez: It’s a situation of if it’s not broken it doesn't need fixing. We have three departments. No one complains about the service they get from the fire departments. As for support, sometimes something as simple as letting them know is appreciated.

 

Why are executive sessions not public until the matter is resolved?

McDonald: Executive session is designed to protect the town when potential litigation comes up. Also contract negotiations and dealing with sometimes but not often employee situations. It’s like going into a lawyer’s office and talking to your lawyer to determine how to handle a problem. To do that in open session will give your strategy away. Same thing with negotiations.

Condez: Executive sessions I honestly believe is being overused in the Select Board. Mr. McDonald will remember because he was sanctioned for eight inappropriate uses of executive session. The law requires all business of the Select Board be done in open session save for very specific purposes which the board can choose to use executive session but is not required.

Haran: I’d like to see a little more of the issues discussed in executive session in open meeting. If you talk about something in executive session, and you complete the act, you can talk about it legally.

Taglianetti: I’ve always believed that executive session is necessary in some matters that need to be discussed in private, especially today with social media. You start talking about things, it gets out, and next thing you know you’re in a legal lawsuit over something that hasn’t happened. I believe it’s necessary part of government especially when you’re talking about salaries or legal issues that could affect the town and jeopardize people, places, and things.

 

How can you reassure the voters that you will be objective and keep the best interest of the town first and foremost, even if you have business or some involvement in town that may be a conflict?

Haran: I had a situation in years past. I called the State Ethics Commission and had them answer for me before I even voted on the issue. If there was something coming before me on the board and I had even an inkling there’d be an issue with it I’d recuse myself from the issue.

Taglianetti: I would go into a discussion about an issue with an open mind, gain all the facts, then discuss with my fellow Select Board members. If there was a huge conflict I would definitely recuse myself.

McDonald: Just take a look at my votes in the past. Every single vote I have done on this board, every single vote made on the Finance Committee, Planning Board, and my 43 years as a Town Meeting Member has always been in the best interest of the town. Nothing else.

Condez: As far as recusal issues go there are some that are automatic - if you have a personal financial interest its automatic. Recurisal is often a common sense thing, they’re so obvious that it’s not really a problem. If it's not obvious the State Ethics Commission will provide you a written opinion on whether or not you can vote. One of the ways you’re objective is getting all the facts, and the other way is to be open and transparent.

 

Provide an example of leadership and share a time you were on a board which was divided and how you brought consensus.

Condez: I was President of the Dartmouth Police Brotherhood in a very tumultuous time. We were in contract negotiations with the town, and were offered significantly lower than many of the management people were offered. It was an extremely divided eboard. I think through getting the facts through providing those facts to membership and listening to everyone and the membership we were able to move forward… one of the things I think is most important is being accessible. Anyone could come to me and say this is what the thinking is, and this is what we have.

McDonald: Being accessible, but being accessible doesn’t mean holding office hours. It means answering the phone when something happens. This phone rings two to three times a day at least with someone asking a question. They always get a response. When I was elected on the School Board, a week later Jason Robinson died. The high school was in such turmoil during that time. We didn’t know what to do. We wanted to have security, we wanted to have a presence in the building, so I volunteered to walk the corridors of the high school for three days. I just walked to make sure students knew someone was there for them.

Taglianetti: On the many boards I have been on — a few in town, and my workplace — I have been fortunate enough to not be in a situation where they have been divided. But the key to managing divided people is being accessible. I was actually just reprimanded for being on the phone at a restaurant — I was dealing with a situation. You have to let people know you’re there and talk people through things.

Haran: I wrote a bylaw when I was on the Planning Board for three-story buildings in the Faunce Corner area to help our medical industry. I even got Joe Toomey to vote yes. A couple years ago, at the Seaport Economic Council I asked for a million dollars. I didn’t get that million right away to help the Arthur Dias Landing. But I did get $75,000 coming down for a feasibility study.