Both candidates in Woonsocket Mayoral Forum highlight their experience

Plus: I ask about the future of Woonsocket’s new Housing and Homelessness Report.

The League of Women Voters Rhode Island held a Woonsocket Mayoral Forum on Thursday at the Gaston A. Ayotte Senior Center with at least 75 people in attendance. The forum featured incumbent Mayor Christopher Beauchamp and City Council President John Ward. The position of Mayor is non-partisan, The forum was moderated by Dr. Joseph Cammarano, Associate Professor at Providence College.

Since the moderator did not ask any questions pertaining to Woonsocket’s new Housing and Homelessness Report, I cornered the two candidates separately after the forum to ask about the plan. In the process I learned that the authors of the Report will be issuing an Action Plan as early as this Thursday. For more on the report see: Woonsocket - yes Woonsocket - unveils a terrific new Housing and Homelessness Report

Here’s my conversation:

Steve Ahlquist: Of the things that we didn't talk about tonight was the new homelessness plan introduced two weeks back. We didn't talk about that at all. I was wondering what you thought about that document and whether, if you were elected, that plan would be executed.

John Ward: It has to be continued because homeless people have a problem, and it needs a solution. If you read the entire report, it's a challenge that has very few solutions other than to provide assistance and guidance. Frankly, we never discussed that I want to talk with people from the State about some of these buildings that the City bought that we might be able to develop into more housing, even in the downtown area.

We need to work with the state, their funding streams, and developers to put that housing in place as quickly as we can and be able to offer it to people who can't afford a place to live. We also need to make sure that the social services we have downtown are providing the kind of services that are assistive and hope for mobility out of the situation rather than create a system that perpetuates dependency. I want a system that creates opportunity. I need to get more intimately involved in what they talk about, follow up with whatever has been done, and continue it.

It's very difficult to come up with specific answers to the challenges of homelessness and opioid addictions. They are more complicated in the urban areas because that's where the social service agencies are. We're attracting peinople to the city who come with problems that we can at this point only assist them manage. That's where I'm at.

Steve Ahlquist: I'm asking about the homelessness plan because it didn't come up tonight.

Christopher Beauchamp: It didn't. I'm disappointed. The task force just put together an action plan that comes out Thursday. There are a bunch of solutions to move forward on this year and next year. Some are achievable, some we're going to need some money and some support. Our main goal right now is to find some transitional housing to get the unhoused off the street and out from under the bridges. That's working on an old rectory at the Holy Family Church on South Main Street, and the Dignity Cus is coming back. I know the bus is only sleeping quarters, but it's part of the solution. We're talking to the Diocese and we're talking to anybody and everybody that has buildings in the City. The City of Woonsocket owns a few buildings, and if we can convert them and get them fire code safe, maybe that's a place where a shelter can be. So I'm working on all this.

Steve Ahlquist: I think you're the one municipality in the State that's doing new work in this. I really appreciate it.

Christopher Beauchamp: One of the things I said at some of these meetings with the Community Care Alliance and our partners is that I don't want to be taken advantage of, but I want to help them, the Woonsocket people. Now, when they do outreach, there are people from Boston, and God bless you, but I've got to take care of my own, right? If you've got ties here or you live here, you are going to be our first priority, in my opinion, because the numbers have gone from 40, 50, or 60 people last year to over a hundred this year.

Steve Ahlquist: If you're talking to the Governor, regularly bring this to him because we need a regional response. It can't fall on one city.

Christopher Beauchamp: The State has been receptive to us because they've seen a different mindset of tackling this. I can't just sweep it under the rug. I can't say it's somebody else's problem. We're not going to solve it by ourselves. The City, Public Safety, the Housing Authority, the Community Care Alliance, churches, and faith leaders - everybody's coming together.

I'm leveraging our State and City delegation. Our Representatives have got to be on board with this so we can advocate at that level, not just the Mayor, everybody. If you've got a coalition of 15 or 20 elected officials going to the State House, it makes a difference, as you know.

You can watch the Woonsocket Mayoral Forum here:

The transcription has been edited for clarity, and starts with opening statements:

Christopher Beauchamp: It's important to understand where John and I come from and what we believe the City can be and should be. When I became Mayor on November 9th, it was because we removed the former Mayor. I was a vital part of removing the former Mayor because of the egregious violation of the charter.

I've been told and I've heard that I'm still part of her. There's no shape or form of the former Mayor on my campaign telling me what I'm doing or informing me. I am my own person. I want to make that abundantly clear.

I've been [Mayor], since November 9th, almost 11 months, I've very much grown into the job. I love the job, I love the City. More importantly, I've learned to love the people that work at City Hall. You don't know the people at City Hall when you're a councilman because you only interact there for a few minutes, but what I found is that they're hardworking, vital staff. Moving forward, we're going to make it even better.

John Ward: We will hopefully keep this very civil like we did our first debate. We received a compliment from the professor for having done that. How I came here: I know my family is going to say, "Oh John, that story again," but here it is. It all started back in 1986 when I tried to become a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. That was my first foray into the political world. My children were young, I was younger, and having failed at that, I then, in 1995, at 40 years old, decided to run for a school committee in the City and was elected.

I've been serving in the elective office and other appointed positions since that time. I am now almost 30 full years into serving in office or working in some capacity. I have worked in government at the Woonsocket Housing Authority, for the School District in Johnston as the business manager, and then the Finance Director in Lincoln for 16 and a half years.

I have run a campaign telling folks how experience matters, and I think what the Mayor alludes to in terms of his recent experience of 11 months in the office. I personally believe that my 30+ years of doing what is effectively much of the same job qualifies me to run for Mayor and that I could do an effective and better job in serving as the Mayor of the City of Woonsocket. That's why I'm here.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: I watched your earlier debate ... and I got the impression that there's a lot of consensus between the two of you on a lot of issues. Could you explain what is it about you that makes you the preferred choice for them? There's a lot of difference, a lot of similarities. What differences might matter when people are making their choice?

John Ward: Though [Mayor Beauchamp] separates [himself] from the previous Mayor, and that may be true related to his campaign, the fact is that while they were serving together, they had a very close relationship. I was one of the people who had her removed from office because I was aware of the internal mechanics of City Hall that were preventing the Council from doing its job. I felt as if [Mayor, then Council President Beauchamp] had not done the citizens right and failed to call her out on the things [Mayor Baldelli-Hunt] was doing. The difference is the experience I have internally in the management of a municipal operation is consistent with the serious problems we have and how we're managing City Hall. [Mayor Beauchamp and I] have similar feelings about some of the social issues that we deal with, but the difference, in my experience, is that I can bring more ability to solve problems without having to learn the job. I can walk in knowing the job.

Christopher Beauchamp: As John says, they continue to try to patent me after the former mayor. John knew that on day one, my door was open. I continually promoted transparency and openness. John came into my office maybe 20, 30, 40 times - until I announced that I was running for Mayor in May. And then it diminished. That's the way it was 10 years prior. If John was honest and asked himself how many times he came to City Hall on the fourth floor when the former mayor was there, it would be probably zero. My open-door transparency is what I share, and I believe that I've shown that in the 11 months. Experience does matter, and I've been the mayor for 11 months.

John Ward: I have to disagree. I was asked to come to the former Mayor's office once. I went, and we discussed paying off a bond issue so that we would save on the interest costs. We did, and that was fine. I firmly believe, as I experienced in Lincoln when I worked there, that it is the Town Administrator's or the Mayor's job to reach out to council people because they're the people who they have to get things approved through. It's the Mayor's job to reach out, not the council's job to reach in, because we don't know what needs to be determined and decided until the administration brings it to us. That's how I would operate the office.

Christopher Beauchamp: I disagree. It's the Mayor and the Council President's job to get the city business done. By interacting, they can achieve a lot of things. John knows this because we did that for several months. Unfortunately, it changed when we became political opponents. That's not fair. I want to move this City forward. I know he does, too, but we've got to work together, and I will work, if I'm elected, with whatever city council people are elected. I promise to do that.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: I've become aware through the questions that were sent to me that there were changes in the position of Human Services Director for the City in the recent past, before you became Mayor, reducing the budget and supporting only a halftime position. I did some investigating and I couldn't quite figure out what that position is. Could tell us a little bit about what the person in that position is supposed to be and whether it should remain a part-time job or go back to full-time the way it was in prior years?

Christopher Beauchamp: When I came into office, I inherited a lot of things, and so did the City Council. Whatever happened prior, we dealt with it, and the Human Services Director was a part-time director. The person that was doing that job told me he thought it was a part-time job and I never got one phone call about anything related to human services, whether that was here at the senior center, veterans, or elderly. He handled the job as a part-time director, and when the budget was proposed by me, the legislative body, which is the City Council, could have made it to a full-time position. Nobody mentioned that. It remained a part-time position because it was working.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: What is that position supposed to do?

Christopher Beauchamp: It deals with any constituents that call City Hall, whether it's elderly affairs, veterans, or homelessness. People call up if they've had a fire at their residence in the middle of the night. The Human Services Director is the person who goes out there and is responsible for public safety. They handle the concerns of every resident on an emergency basis.

John Ward: This is where you're going to see us differ because when [Mayor Beauchamp] mentions that he never got a call about Human Services Director or human services, this is where we differ on how things go. This Human Services Director was a part-time position principally to accommodate a retired policeman who was limited in the number of days he could work because the previous Human Services Director had resigned. It never should have been a part-time position. It never should be.

They're responsible for the Senior Center through the board that serves in that capacity. They're the conduit for all of the people in the City that don't know exactly where to go to get services, and they are the channel by which [constituents] are directed to where they need to go, whether it's the Community Care Alliance, ThunderMist Health, or a variety of service agencies in the City. The Human Services Director never reached out to Aging Well Inc., the group that operates the Senior Center - this building - to find out what their budgetary needs are, whether it's the operating budget or our community development block grant funds. He should have been the person coordinating those conversations to develop a budget and it never happened.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: Do you think it's a full-time position?

John Ward: Absolutely it is. The position also deals with all the emergency situations you mentioned - Red Cross, emergency housing, and things of that nature.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: That's very helpful. The term we use to describe those activities is ombudsman. They're the citizens and government go-betweens, and they help to link things.

Christopher Beauchamp: Having been there for 11 months, I believe it should be a full-time position. When the person who was doing it resigned, I hired somebody I knew who had experience dealing with agencies in the City of Woonsocket. I think she's doing a great job, and we've talked about making it a full-time position.

Editor: Former police officer and Baldelli-Hunt appointee Michael Houle recently resigned, and Mayor Beauchamp hired Margaux Morisseau to fill the position of Human Services Director.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: The future of Woonsocket, like any other city, is tied to the quality of the public school system, which is not just for educating children but for attracting younger people with children and people without children who want to buy a house in a city with good schools. I took a quick look at the Rhode Island Education Department report cards for the District and found proficiency scores among the lowest in the State - even lower than comparable school districts. Even among [similar communities with] a high percentage of poverty, minority students, and non-native speakers, Woodstock is at or near the bottom... Only one out of three high school graduates from the Woonsocket High School go to any kind of college, and that's compared to sometimes 90% or more in other jurisdictions. As mayor, what initiative would you embrace to make sure that children in Woonsocket are more ready, willing, and able to go on to higher education and have more successful careers and lives?

John Ward: It is a complicated question because we need resources in an urban area. I'll refer to the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council's analysis of the State's funding for education, which clearly points out that the State is deficient in funding urban education because we have student/teacher ratios that are similar to suburban areas. We have a different breed of students here with different family struggles and different environmental conditions. That makes it more difficult. We should have smaller class sizes and more of the social services associated with those students available to them and their families in order to promote their education and their family.

We don't have the money to do it, plain and simple. I've been fighting about the failure of the education funding formula for years and years. It's fallen on deaf ears. We've gone from being the fourth-lowest median household income in 1990 to being the second-lowest. It's very difficult for this community to fund schools and support students in the way we should because we simply don't have the taxable value, income, and resources to do that.

Christopher Beauchamp: He's right. The funding formula needs to be revised. I know we've been talking about this for years and years, but It's true. In my time as Mayor, I've built relationships, and I've had relationships with the State House, the Governor, Senator Reed, and Senator Whitehouse to ask them about how we can do better. One of the things we did this year with the Governor's help was Attendance Matters, where we went to the high school and we told the students and teachers how important attendance is. It's a simple thing. If you're attending school, you're going to learn, but if you're not there, it's going to be difficult. Simple steps like that will help. And attendance has gone up, I believe, 15 to 20% from where it was before. [And that was] just by educating and talking to the students and telling them why attendance is important.

John Ward: All very good and correct. However, much of that was done with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER Fund) money and hiring more counselors and guidance people who were out there working with students and encouraging them - doing the kinds of things that we're not going to be able to do now because several of those positions have to be cut in the next budget and the budgets after that will be worse so that all of those support systems that came because of the misfortune of Covid will now disappear, or many of them will, unless they can reorganize their departments and operations. The challenge is coming back, and I'm not saying everything isn't helpful. I'm saying I'm not sure where we will go if we don't provide the support services that are critical to their success.

Christopher Beauchamp: I agree with talking to the school department, which was very remiss under the former administration. I've opened my door to the school committee superintendent. I've been in my office multiple times, but that has never been the case before. Having that dialogue and creating relationships, which I'll say many times over tonight, is valuable and very important.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: When I was looking at the data, I noticed that even though about half or more of the students are non-Caucasion,no-white students, for many of them, English is a second language or they're English language learners, the teachers are almost exclusively Caucasian. Do you think that matters? And if so, what would you do about it?

John Ward: It matters greatly. It's a matter of recruitment and education coming out of Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island to get teachers who are prepared to walk into urban environments. But the struggle is, again, and I hate to go back to finance all the time, but it's essential. With the kind of funding we have available, we can't be competitive. For instance, when I did an analysis of all the Master's Plus 30 levels around the State a few years ago, we were second to the bottom, and the [neighboring] Town of Lincoln was second from the top. For us to compete with those communities for teachers, with the salary levels we can afford to pay - we should be paying people bonuses to come here to work in these urban environments to have the skills they need and promote them - [maybe] through some kind of grant in their tuition to get them into this community to teach.

Christopher Beauchamp: It definitely does matter. It matters in the police department, it matters in the fire department, it matters in our schools. You want people who look like the students. You want teachers who look like the students because they're from that culture. It's important that we have the Education Center on Main Street which was recently opened in the last two or three years. It's vital that we utilize that for English learner classes so people know there are resources in this City that will not cost them any money to go there and get the workforce development that they need. That's vital.

John Ward: Just to add to what Chris just said and what I was thinking, if we go back a century, we could have the same discussion dealing with the French Canadian population. Today, we're dealing with a Hispanic population or Latino population, and it's simply that we are evolving, and we have to embrace that. We have to make it work and find ways to open channels of communication with all the cultures so that we can have a city that survives and thrives just like it did when transitioning from the French Canadian battles with the English-speaking to the 21st century, where it's Spanish and English speaking. We need to adapt and adapt quickly.

Christopher Beauchamp: I was a volunteer freshman coach for 12 years at the High School, and I learned valuable lessons from them. I hope I imparted some valuable lessons to them, too. That's a two-way street because when you see how some of these kids who come to school haven't had a meal. It's hard to learn when your stomach is empty. There are things we can do, simple things, that will benefit our students in the future.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: What's your assessment of the plans for the new athletic complex and the new elementary school at Berry Field?

Christopher Beauchamp: They're both great assets to the City of Woonsocket. I've been in the construction field for 43 years, and I lend great value to being the Mayor and using my expertise on construction projects. We had the pre-construction meeting today. The school department and the superintendent were there. It's very exciting because we were the only High School in this State that didn't have their athletic facilities adjacent to their high school. For years, it worked, but as John said, we have to amend, we have to adapt, and we have to do different things now. Having our athletic complex next to our high school gets better attendance. The graduation rate will be better because kids will want to be student athletes and come to school because of that athletic complex. It's going to be a $6 to $7 million investment and well worth it.

John Ward: I think we are very fortunate. Unfortunately, it's a tragedy that brought us here to get the money to be able to do this. It was promised to be something else, but let's forget that for now and talk about the fact that we're going to get it done. We're using federal funds. We're not going to have a bond issue burdening the taxpayers in this City or locally - I can't speak for the federal government - but in any case, that field at Cass Park is essential. I've talked about wanting that since 2013. It's come to life, and I think it's going to create a sense of pride in the student population. It's right next to their school, and it may actually encourage attendance and participation in athletics if it is right there. As to the elementary school, I think the critically important thing about that school and its design and consolidation of a few schools has to do with efficiencies in providing some of the more challenging services by having teachers - who would otherwise have to move from place to place - be in one place with the students that they serve and by its size will be more educationally efficient in communicating with and assisting students.

Christopher Beauchamp: I'd just like to add that the new elementary school is what we need. When we were going to school, John and I went to neighborhood schools everywhere, and they worked well for a while, but they were not handicap-accessible. They need a lot of money to update them, and I know some people still like the neighborhood school way of thinking, but this new elementary school is going to encourage kids to learn. You want to be in a new environment, a new school. That's critical.

John Ward: I can't speak highly enough of the design team that's putting it together and the plan to provide a more efficient level of service to the needier groups in the population of students who will attend. Many of the kids with IEPs and handicap issues will be attending this school, and as I said, they'll be able to get services in a larger group and have more efficiency in the staffing, which is a great thing. It's not often that we have an opportunity to give our students a brand-new building that's in good shape and will allow them to be proud of what they're doing in a school. I'm looking forward to it.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: Someone wrote and asked about this very unique relationship the City has with the Senior Center where we are. Most municipalities have a government-funded and run senior center. Woonsocket has a unique configuration, not just in this area but nationwide. There aren't all that many structures like this, and it raises some questions about budgetary support. Since this is one of the main places to do programming for seniors, are we currently providing enough funding, and should we make a full commitment by putting a specific line item in the budget for senior citizen support?

Christopher Beauchamp: We can always give more money to our seniors and veterans. TheCcity owns this building, so it's a city building. We do all the maintenance - the roofs and whatever else - and then we provide money to Aging Well to do their programs. I was here the other day for the exercise program, and I'm telling you I'm still hurting from it. 70-year-old people made me look shameful, but it was great to see that. I've toured other senior centers throughout the state. One in Lincoln, in particular, where they have a lot of green space. We've got a lot of asphalt around this senior center. At some point in the future, I'd like to see a new senior center, whether it's here or somewhere in Woonsocket, where you can have some green space so people can get out, get fresh air, and walk around. A lot of people are accustomed to what they have here, but change is not a bad thing. We have some old antiquated buildings, and this is one of them.

John Ward: It is a unique relationship we have with this Senior Center. When I worked in Lincoln, they had a very old Senior Center, and people in Lincoln went to Cumberland, or they went to Smithfield. Smithfield had a very nice, new Senior Center, and then Lincoln built a new Senior Center, and people came back, and people from Woonsocket became members of the Senior Center there. Many of our people here in Woonsocket go to Lincoln. This place is a nice building. It's a functional building. There are a lot of people that come here, and it needs to be invested in. A couple of years ago, during the budget deliberations, I evaluated budgets around Northern Rhode Island for senior services and senior centers. We are unique, and we are nowhere near funding the way they do in other communities. We do it with a contract with Aging Well, and that's longer than I can cover in 30 seconds. But yes, we need to invest in our seniors. We need to invest in the Senior Center to bring people who would go out of town back.

Christopher Beauchamp: Again, building relationships and talking to people in our City and State delegation. I plan to have quarterly meetings. That hasn't happened with our city leaders and state and federal delegations. It's important because they know Woonsocket is a community. It's not a rich community as far as wanting to spend money left and right, we don't have casino money like Lincoln has. We've got to find other ways to get money. We don't have settlement money from Google. We've got to do with what we have. We pivot very often, and unfortunately, some of the pivots are hard, but that's what we have to do.

John Ward: The Mayor is right in that regard. Some of the pivots are difficult because most of them involve finance, which we have a very limited pool of every year. However, we do have community development block grant money that fortunately pays for the fire trucks but doesn't put enough into a senior center. The reason the Senior Center is in a situation is because when it was first set up, it was run by Senior Services Inc., which was producing meals for a variety of areas around us. That doesn't happen anymore. So that relationship could change. But at the same time, like with North Providence, where the Mancini Center was run by a nonprofit, we were being run by a nonprofit. Mayor Baldelli-Hunt took it back, and it was not exactly a warm, loving relationship when that happened. I would not want to cause a problem for the seniors by getting into some sort of a turf battle over who's going to run the Senior Center. It would be a conversation to find out how it's best done.

Christopher Beauchamp: Since I've been Mayor, I've been to this Senior Center several times. I've seen the activities and the love that people have when they come here. I just want to make it a little bit more of a warm and fuzzy place, and that needs money. We're going to do the best we can, and I believe that we can find more money to help this Senior Center continue to be what it is and, hopefully, in the future, something more.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: You both hinted that you might find money. Do you have any ideas other than what you've already mentioned as to where you might look?

Christopher Beauchamp: When I looked at the budget this year - I've been there 11 months - I see things that are a little wasteful, but they're not big-ticket or big-dollar items. I evaluated for the first 11 months here, but there are things that we can do better. We can save some money and put those funds towards something that I think you'll get more bang for the buck for. That's what I'll look at. Even though some people may not like the Governor, he and I have conversations two to three times a week. That's important.

John Ward: I need to take a slightly different approach to what the Mayor just said. When some other council people and I met with the directors of Aging Well and asked them straight up, has anybody from City Hall contacted you about your budgetary needs for the 2025 fiscal year? The answer was no. No one ever contacted them, no one from finance, no one from human services, no one. I asked whether they were communicated with about their community development block grant money needs, and the answer was “no.” Nobody from the planning department developing the budget ever contacted them. That was one of the reasons the council people got together and made an effort to do more. It starts with every year, when you're developing a budget, to sit down with or at least ask the groups that run these operations to tell us what their needs are before we put a dollar value on it. When you start by asking the question and listening to the answer, you can then assess whether you need more money or just need to move money in a different direction.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: The next question comes from the citizen who asked about bicycles and pedestrian traffic. As a user of bike paths, I deeply appreciate the Blackstone Bike Path and have been to Woonsocket many times because of it. A lot of communities throughout Rhode Island and around the country have taken advantage of the Rails to Trails movement that has created these bike paths and made pedestrian and bicycle traffic through the main commercial districts much safer, more pleasant, and more conducive to people stopping for something to eat or to drink and then wandering around for a while. I'm curious about your view. How well has the city leveraged that asset, and what might they do better in the future?

John Ward: Pardon my surprise, but I'd say what asset? You have been into Woonsocket on a bike path. You have never been through Woonsocket on a bike path.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: I have, actually, made my way up to Worcester.

John Ward: You've hit some shared lanes on main roads, but the bike path itself was intended to go on a completely different path. It's not complete. Woonsocket is one of those few places where it's not complete. They do have a plan that would put the bike path out onto Clinton and Cumberland Streets and come closer to the areas for recreation and dining where you would hope to bring the bicycle traffic - but that has not been finalized and done yet.

I would hope to work with the State and try to persuade them to move us up on the priority list so that we could have a conversation among City residents about alternative plans to complete the bike path all the way into Massachusetts without having it be painted lines on Hamlet Avenue and over the Vernon Street Bridge and actually incorporate it into more of the commercial zones in our City.

Christopher Beauchamp: I'm encouraged by the amount of people who ride bikes. Unfortunately, you can't change people's habits, and there are people that ride bikes and motorized bikes where they shouldn't be. I am for bike paths and bike lanes. I called the Department of Transportation (RIDOT), and they told me they were going to try to push us up to 2026, but this has been postponed since 2016 or maybe even before that. They continue to say they're going to do it and create that piece that's missing in Woonsocket. We just did the Greenway Project and that's about 80% complete. The bike path goes adjacent to it. That's going to be an attractive addition to the bike path. We need to contact RIDOT and stay vigilant to get that other piece built.

John Ward: I agree on the bicycles. We have a culture shift here. We have to adapt to more people using bikes, especially e-bikes, because they're a viable means of transportation for short distances, [as in] people going to work and recreating. That's why it's important. By the way, I sat in a meeting with RIDOT with my wife in the library back in 2013, and they promised they'd be starting it next year, but it's not here. We need to work with the State to make it a priority because with the higher number of e-bikes and scooters - people using alternative means of transportation - we need to give them a more dedicated pathway through the City that is a safer way than putting them in the middle of traffic or having them do the wrong thing and be on the sidewalk and putting pedestrians in danger. We need cultural adaptation. We need to make physical adaptations to take care of the problem and and do it in collaboration with the State.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: A number of communities in Rhode Island and nationally have joined movements. These are nonprofits that encourage advanced planning when funding comes. Is Woonsocket involved with Safe Streets or Walkable Streets? There are a number of these organizations that help you plan ahead of time so that you can envision what you want to do with it. Have you done anything like that here?

Christopher Beauchamp: There have been some contracts and grants that we've gotten from Safe Streets where we've done Americans with Disabilities Act compliance [with] stamped concrete crosswalks so they're more visible. So yes, the safe routes things we have tackled. There is more Federal money to tackle this. We need RIDOT to come down to Woonsocket more often to look at what we have and to see the gapsbecause that's imperative.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: You both have raised this issue about being left out because we're in the northeast corner of the State and far away, technically, miles from the Rhode Island capital. I'm going to give you each an opportunity to expand on that challenge and how you might address it.

John Ward: I thought you were going to say “vent.” I don't want to vent. I could, but that would take two hours. It is a problem for us because ever since that fellow who ran Lincoln Downs moved Route 295 south, instead of coming through the edge of Woonsocket as it was originally planned, we were effectively economically isolated from the rest of the State with no major roads or highways coming through like every other urban area in the State has. We're alone. We're an island. Economically, we're an island. Even though we have CVS, they're wonderful people, and they have Route 99 that goes into the industrial park, it does create a challenge for us being outliers, isolated from the State in that regard. It makes other cities that are more connected more attractive to the national transportation systems.

Christopher Beauchamp: I take a different approach. I think we're in a good position geographically between Worcester, Providence, and Boston. In the 11 months that I've been Mayor, there've been many developers and contractors who have come here who had that same thought. We need to promote that. They come and look at our old mills and the architecture we have here on Main Street. And I've never seen such activity in the 11 years I was on the City Council from 2007 to 18. As the Mayor, my job is to promote Woonsocket the best I can, and that is by calling people, building relationships, and telling the out-of-state people that we have stuff to offer. When you do that, they figure it out and see it. That's been lacking. I don't look at Woonsocket as a negative, I look at it as a positive. We're at the northern end of the State, but so what? You can go from Westerly to Woonsocket in an hour.

John Ward: I don't disagree with what the Mayor's saying, but the interest in our commercial and former industrial buildings in this industrial giant we used to call Woonsocket is in turning it into residential units. The fact is, because we are away from much of the larger transportation systems and rail systems, we are turning into an urban residential community, which is an unusual combination. We have an urban infrastructure system that requires a lot of overhead and cost.

Christopher Beauchamp: Some of these people will come down here three, four, or five times. By getting people interested in the old buildings that we thought were never going to move - we finally have movement on the old middle school, and that could be a $30 or $40 million project, and it's going to move forward. Development like that brings in more tax revenue, and that's how you move Woonsocket forward - getting more tax revenue here. We're never going to have the retail that we once had. You can call Amazon and the things at your door in 20 minutes. Getting people to invest in housing is critical.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: We don't generally think about Woonsocket as being subject to the effects of climate change. What kind of impact do you see in the short, medium, and long-term related to climate, and how should the City prepare?

John Ward: We are fortunate that we suffered a disaster in 1955 that led to a flood control program. I'm sure Cumberland doesn't agree that that's a fortunate thing because we're able to have our levees contain most of the water and because the extreme rainfall events that have been happening most recently make our Blackstone River into a dangerous situation. Most of it in the City of Woonsocket is contained within the levees that take it downstream and inflict it on Cumberland and such. I lived down that river for a while, and so it's a good thing for Woonsocket, but the fact is there are other ways that we need to look at how we can have an impact both to our benefit and to the benefit of what you may consider climate change.

One of the things that's troubled me is all of our LED conversion, the promise of solar, and the fact that the former Mayor made an announcement back in 2017 about big plans for solar canopies and solar projects. It never happened. We need to work with a State agency, whether it's the infrastructure bank or whoever, that can provide us some low-cost financing to help pay for a system of putting in some solar canopies above parking lots while we're fixing parking lots and putting as many solar panels on buildings as we can possibly do to create energy efficiency internally and save money for at least 20, 25 years and make us less dependent on fossil fuels. Despite any of the rhetoric out there about whether climate change is real, it's something and can work to our benefit.

Christopher Beauchamp: Climate change is real. I mean, you have the poor people in Florida that have been hit with those hurricanes back to back. We are lucky here in the northeast that we don't get that kind of drastic weather - although we did back in the thirties and fifties, we got hurricanes. It's not the norm, but you've got to recognize that our levies and the Blackstone River if we did get some catastrophic hurricane that came here, we got to be prepared. We've got to make sure our levies and dams are maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers in case something happens. We've got to make sure we stay in contact with those agencies and do what we're supposed to as a City to make sure we have everything updated the way it should be. You only think about catastrophes when they happen. We should be prepared for them in case they do

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: Most of the questions I've been asking are about the fiscal priorities of the City. The current budget has a 4% property tax increase. Clearly, the funding isn't there to do everything. What are your two most important priorities?

Christopher Beauchamp: We did have a 4% tax increase. As the Mayor, putting my budget together was difficult. It was difficult to talk to directors and the staff and ask, “What can you do with and what can you do without?” When you have that honest dialogue as opposed to “I'm telling you what you're going to do, you get things solved.” The Council and I inherited a lot of things from the previous administration. We have lawsuits that we still have to settle, and we've settled some of them - that's why we had a 4% tax increase. It could have been a lot worse if we hadn't tightened our belts and done some things that we've done. The ARPA money is part of that, but that goes away. It's going to be tough to say that we won't have a tax increase, but by getting more development here - we talked about the plazas at Walnut Hill, and we just had a meeting. If one of those plazas gets redeveloped, $500,000 is 1% of that 4% tax increase. That's new tax revenue coming.

John Ward: [That new tax revenue is] probably in a couple of years, not next year. Our priority next year is the fact that we have used $1.4 million of ARPA funds and we have had to settle approximately $10 million of commercial property lawsuits over values. And if those values are now reset down to what they settled as that's going to impact our future years and our residential taxpayers. Our first priority has to be the taxpayers because they got hit with 4%, and we need to find a way to make sure that they don't get whacked again. It's going to be extremely difficult to cut $1.4 million of revenue away, come up with an alternative way to fund the programs we have in place now, and do the things we plan to do. That's a huge challenge. The priority has to be protecting the taxpayers from the corrections caused by all of the disasters that were handed over to us.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: What is the number one and number two thing that you will protect from budget reductions in a period of fiscal stress? What won't you touch?

Christopher Beauchamp: I won't touch Public Safety because it is paramount to all of us. We settled all the contracts last year when I was the Mayor, and we gave people raises. Public safety is paramount - and the taxpayers. I did not want to have a 4% tax increase, but we had to. We had to generate more revenue. How do you do that? Again, look at these people who are coming in to buy buildings. The value of these buildings is very low, and if they are rehabilitated and create more space and more people in these buildings, the values will go up. Creating higher values will get us more revenue.

John Ward: I can't disagree with putting Public Safety first. We have to keep people safe. We have to be there in case of a medical emergency We have to be there to protect people in our parks and on our streets. That has to be the first priority. The second priority is a hard one to disagree with - the taxpayers. The taxpayers have to be a priority. But in terms of the spending side of the budget, public works and finishing the projects that we're working on with the ARPA funds in this next cycle has to be the second highest priority because we need to spend that money properly before the end of next year in order to not lose it and get the job done.

Dr. Joseph Cammarano: You each get 60 seconds to make your final statement and pitch.

John Ward: I began my campaign with the motto, “Experience Matters.” I've pointed out throughout my campaign that I have experience designed to get the job done and demanding of myself and all City employees the highest level of integrity, applying sound judgment to all our efforts. My opponent speaks of his 11 months of experience. Well, I have 30 years of experience. Experience doing all the things the Mayor is responsible for. So yes, experience matters, and I'm here to offer my experience to the citizens of Woonsocket. Experience matters. It's not just that you have experience, it's about the experience you have. Thank you.

Christopher Beauchamp: Experience. That word is thrown around a lot. However, my experience sitting as the acting Mayor for the last 11 months is critical to moving forward. As a council person for 11 years and then the Council President last year, I thought I knew what a Mayor did. I had no idea. Until you sit in those shoes - we hear that bantered around, right? You don't know until you step in somebody's shoes. It was crystal clear to me that the Mayor of the City of Woonsocket does a million things, and unfortunately, you get pulled in many directions. I don't have a Chief of Staff. I don't have certain things that other cities and towns have, and I think we have to look at that because you can only be in one place at one time. There are critical things to look at, but other people want to be part of you, too. I've learned that you have to adapt. You've got to try to get whatever sleep you can because it's a hard job. I love it. I enjoy it, and I hope to be here for the next two years.