with welcome to belmont debates town election two thousand and fourteen i'm your co moderator joanna jewell is editor of the belmont citizen herald and wicked local belmont dot com joining me is co moderator this evening is belmont to disinherit reporter daniel maclean we're going to be moderating two debates for two races in the upcoming april first election first the library board of trustees there are three candidates running for two seats and i am pleased to welcome with us this evening matt sullivan gayle man and kathy prior to being on the air we flipped a coin to see who would go first to do their opening statements each candidate has two minutes to give their opening statements and gail man won the coin toss she will go first followed by kathy and matt sullivan gail you're on and you have two minutes thank you good evening my name is gail man and i'm a candidate for library trustee i would like to thank the belmont citizen herald for sponsoring this event and everyone here tonight and watching on television for taking the time to hear from the candidates my husband steve clancy and i have lived in belmont for over thirty five years we raised our two children here both of whom went through the belmont public schools and were regular users of the library as a lifelong library user myself an avid reader i care very much about the library a public facility that serves every agent demographic group in town because of my passion for what libraries offer i have decided to run for library just days as a trustee i would listen to and consider multiple points of view and immerse myself in available data to better understand options for the library facility and the services it provides like so many other belmont i would have loved for belmont to have a new state of the art library so many works so hard to make that happen but given siting in fiscal constraints the unfortunate reality is that a new facility is not likely in the forseeable future the trustees must balance the challenges associated with constructing a new building with what could be done to improve the current structure and also continue to offer quality programs and services i would work collaboratively with the other trustees the staff volunteers and other stakeholders to explore all viable options for improving the current structure and the library's programs and services in my thirty five year career as a business lawyer i have proven myself to be a successful and pragmatic project manager and leader i served on the board of the belmont foundation of education for six years and as treasurer of the generally middle school and belmont high school parent teacher organizations my professional experience and town service will serve me well as a member of the board of library trustees i ask for your vote and on april first and commit to working hard for the library and  was perfect gail you stayed exactly minutes and i forgot to mention her earlier that the bell indicates you have thirty seconds left and i will ring it as softly as i can kathy  right thank you thank you to a citizen herald in the media center for organizing hosting tonight's forum my name is kathy cocaine and i ask for your vote for library trusting there's been a lot of talk about libraries and the  of libraries in the future and no doubt about it the needs are changing the visits to our libraries both physical and virtual are up across the country and no different in belmont so are our utilization of the library services up and website visits are the downloading of ebooks we have sixty two percent of our population that hold a library card in the town of don that's a phenomenal  and when you think about a cross section across the community in terms of who holds those cards much of the dialogue talked about over the last year has been or years has been about the building of the library i feel that we need to develop a visionary plan for the services in the library a few of the future what does a community needs and wants from a twenty first century library with the growth of e books and digital media and there it will require us to rethink what the library structure programs and services must be i want to work together with the community to develop a strategic plan based on this vision and equipped with this insight we will be able to then consider what  the options may be as trustee i will work with the library staff staff trustee using community to develop this plan to forge stronger relationships with town government and school committee partners i'm a strong advocate for the library  service but i also value that balance decisions that would be best for the town at large i bring a proven track record of working across organizations to drive agreements and results and my roles as a special ed teacher a business consultant and good to have a contested race and i asked for your vote for reelection aboard a library trustees i think i've demonstrated my support for the library and i've worked well with my other committee members on the board we haven't always agreed like for a new library but i have worked on all the programs that we have at the i'm not sure that that is a new person i can say what we're going to do the first thing we need to do is to take a look at david take a look at what the fiscal realities are when state money might be available but mostly to consider what little we could do in the short term to continue the offering the programming that we're offering now while at the same time looking at what the longer term as as the life cycle of that building continues to go down and deteriorate so i you know i think that it's the balance i refer to in my opening statement that i'm i've answered the question rebuild or renovate i think we will not be rebuilding in the short term because that's the unfortunate reluctant to do something in the short term because it might be money that we would throw away so i know there's there's talk about five hundred thousand dollars to invest and the children's center definitely needs an upgrade definitely need a facelift but that's a lot of money and i would want to have a long term plan and then be able to spend against that so that it's prudent and that we get the right investment it's all about cost benefit  it's you know it's really looking at the long range plan that you have anything more to well i mean i i don't disagree with the need for a long range plan but i think there is there some baseline upgrade that you may have to do right in order to offer the programs and services and while i don't know where the trade offs are yet i expect that some number of dollars for capital improvement of the existing building will be what amenities and services that you like to see belmont public library offer that other town libraries offer well i think there's a whole series of i'm a amenities and services that we currently offer that i'd want to continue to offer and then some of them i probably want to enhance and so i think participating in the minuteman network really helps us to control the hard book costs right because you can order your book from wherever i'd like to see us increase the electronic streaming of books because the data is showing that that seems to be the way that the up and coming population are consuming the the books and that the library has i'd like to continue to have ours that respond to community need and so like  to be sure that we continue to offer sunday hours during the school year because i think that the students in particular and others utilize those hours i also think that retaining a fairly compensated professional staff is really important i mean there's no substitute for individual reference library and others have told me that that they i guess there was a staff member that recently left and i don't know why the staff member left i'm not privy to that but you know i think having professional staff is really important and we're maybe a little bit low on that of course it's all in the context of a total operating budget and where your priorities are and as we said before a quiet and welcoming space for children for students for elders there is a minimum that is necessary for the service to be offered to the community no bill necessary i agree i think the gro so i think it's continuing the services that we have looking to expand the place for the where we could have quiet it's not a place you can go and study also have collaborative space  have a lot of good services for the community as well as something that our library is not offering that other town libraries do offer that you'd like to see i'm just saying and any of you elaborat fifty years ago at a time when there were no pc's no i pads no ebooks and it's just a different environment so the challenge is to take of the syllabi that was built for a different era effectively and somehow converted into a space that will and a set of services that will support the current reality and paradigm and so i think the biggest challenge is to somehow do what we've all been saying which is reconfigure the space within reasonable capital dollars and figure out how you make the technology sufficiently accessible and and ubiquitous so that you can provide all those electronic database services books services etc etc to the community in the building that you have the interesting thing to me is that while we talk about the truck twenty first century as is all technology there's still a real desire for that welcoming quiet safe haven and there's something about walking into a building i think for children seniors and everything in between that means a lot to a community means a lot to me personally and so that's the challenge is how do you how do you take that that set that building and that set of services and get it to accommodate the current needs cleaning and i agree i mean i think it's people want to go to in the and i think that libraries in the future need to be a place not where so much that you access but you can figure out how to use that data and package it and apply that data and so i think that maybe  require new thinking about the services it requires maybe new structures as well until i think it's really thinking ahead about you know where is the library going to be in five or ten years and how do we start moving towards that and terms no no you know the skills of the staff the services that we offer and positioning that for innovation thank you kathy  for the question i think like you said we need to start planning for the future and i think we definitely need to get more computers in the library for all the uses that come there because that's really busy  speaking of the future i got an audience question the year is two thousand and thirty four what do you think will be the three most important largest services offered by the belmont public library i believe i read that correctly so the years two thousand and thirty four twenty years from now what do you think will be the three most important services offered by the belmont public library gail you are under twenty years from now well i actually think that one or two of the services will be the same services today i think it's the place to go to find information and to look for information particularly when it comes to children i think there's there's never going to be a time when kids don't want to go to story hour or read picture books or board books are whatever else and that's going to continue to be a very important service for the community as i think hardcover books will be but particularly the kids i think the  access to electronic streaming of information and that's magazine and newspaper subscriptions or whatever that is twenty years from now the ones that still exist books novels research just to be able to access it and librarians fundamentally place that where the community can gather so today people may go and look at book store read a magazine or newspaper so they will continue to want to know it's a community gathering place where you can go and redo something choir and do something with others so i think fundamentally that twenty library will always be and it will be a center of learning the  method of learning and the method of information well change and and who know you know in twenty years and you know i don't think we had i phones you know fifteen years ago or ten years ago so but i think fundamentally  be where the community gathers and and where it can come together whether it's a meeting for information or a connection of some kind i agree i think people will always be going to library to read a book a newspaper like you said story time for the kids i think that i grew up going there for that and i think that will always go on and who knows what's think we have time for closing statements i don't believe there's any other audience questions that we do have to get ready for our next debate so i'm going to give you two minutes of closing statements and galen you are up for this ok i'm going to do something a little unusual before i do a formal closing statement i'm going to talk about a future vision ok and say that visions are aspirational so this isn't a position or anything i think is going to happen during my tenure as library trustee but i thought i would share it my vision is of a new modern building staffed by a sufficient number of competent professionals that incorporates technology to provide quality programs and services that are accessible to and meet the needs of all belmont residents if only we had a benefactor that could give us twenty million dollars today i also have a vision of using private fund raising to help to continue to offer a quality library experience whatever it is or may become a reality in today's world but also a way to tap into the generosity of our residents who support our mission and in closing i would say that i have been a successful lawyer for thirty five years i will use all my professional and town experience energy skills to advocate on behalf of the library to review data dispassionately to work collaboratively with all stakeholders and i will commit to you to work as hard as i can and ask for your vote on april first thank you gail i know i mentioned this the other night and i want to mention it again mary keegan cerny keenan and center served on the library board of trustees for nearly ten years and so she has chosen not to run into that is one of the openings that we that we have so i just wanted to thank her for her service and her dedication to the town i think as we've discussed there really there's no there's no  know benefactor although the foundation does have a million dollars and so i really think we are we are faced with some very challenging decisions as we look ahead not only for the library but across that the town at have worked for many years and challenging situations and in business setting driving collaborative decisions and gaining agreement i think we need to continue to do that as we drive for future decisions for the library and the town look for your vote on your first and encourage people to vote because we have not only in this election in this race that is contested but the selectmen as well so it's important to get out and thank you thank you you know i asked for your vote tuesday april first i demonstrated that i support the for coming here and i know we definitely have a lot of people tuning in we have a live audience today and i want to thank everybody for watching and i want to ask you to stay tuned because we will have the selectmen debate up welcome back to belmont to bates town election two thousand and fourteen i'm your home moderator joanna jubilance editor of the belmont citizen herald and wicked local belmont dot com joining me tonight as cole moderator i citizen how old reporter daniel mclean i am very pleased to have with us tonight the two candidates for the upcoming town election selectman race sammy baghdadi and roger cult and welcome to both of you  john we did a coin toss between before coming on the air to determine who would go first with their opening statements and sammy one so each candidate has two minutes to give their opening statement at the thirty second mark i will quietly ring the prepared for that sure we have that so first sammy you are on ok good evening i am sammy baghdadi i would like to thank the belmont citizen herald and the belmont media center for hosting this debate i would also like to thank those of you watching here and at home for your interest in this election for over forty five years my family has resided in belmont my parents three brothers and sister all still live in belmont with their families my wife and i are raising our five children here our oldest son sammy is a soft more at brown university our son ronnie is a senior at belmont high school our two daughters lou and julie are in eighth grade and sixth grade at the chen remodel school and our younger son our youngest son johnny is in kindergarten at the daniel butler school clearly sustain our excellent schools is a very important priority for me i graduated from belmont high school in one thousand a d received my bachelor's degree in economics from boston university and my law degree from cornell i am a practicing attorney licensed in massachusetts concentrating in business and real estate law i have long been involved in belmont civic and community activities i have coached youth soccer and wrestling i am a town meeting member it warrant committee member and a member and past chair of the planning board under my leadership the planning board established an open transparent and inclusive planning process to ensure that all communit stakeholders can participate in our deliberations whether crafting those owning bylaws to govern historical building preservation and affordable housing or approving projects like cushing village and solar panels at the wellington we have made sure that all affected parties including you the residents are heard and that your concerns are taken into account i am running for selectman to maintain what we love about our town and to change what we don't there is very little disagreement about what those things are we take pride in our excellent schools strong property values and special quality of life however belmont also faces challenges we must find the means to revitalize our squares repair our streets and sidewalks renovate our high school and keep belmont a place where we can all afford to live i care about these core issues and i have the skills to move them forward thank you go very good yet thirty seconds to spare roger your on thank you joanna and thank you to the belmont citizen herald for sponsoring this event tonight and thanks to all of you who are either attending in person tonight or who are watching on television now mind is an wonderful community i've lived in belmont for nearly thirty years my wife and the j and i have lived in the cushing square neighborhood for more than twenty years but recognizing that belmont is a wonderful community does not mean that we can't also recognize that belmont has some serious problems that we must fix we deserve better than tight budgets terrible streets and reactive community planning the single biggest issue facing belmont today is this we simply must start planning for the long run both by improving on the ways we do things and by finding innovations  money and improve services in belmont i have a track record of proactive creative problem solving that gets things done under my leadership we preserve the waverley square fire station built belmont's first affordable housing in over fifty years and adopted an energy efficient building code under my leadership we took steps to control storm water runoff and to prevent flooding in both the waverly square and in the windbreak neighborhoods we reform town meeting communications and we made town meeting membership more accessible to households with children under my leadership we replace belmont high schools heating and ventilation equipment at no cost to taxpayers and we develop programs that will lower the long term cost to you the belmont light electric consumers in my day job i work as an attorney and as an economic consultant to state attorney general offices around the country the consumer protections that i have fought for for my entire professional life are exactly the protections that belmont rate taxpayers need today quality service at a reasonable cost belmont should be a leader who finds creative solutions to the challenges that face us and then follows through to make those solutions really happen i've proven that i'm that leader i respectfully ask for your vote on tuesday ask the first question you have two minutes to answer and since you won the coined us we'll start with with you and then going forward we'll alternate ok sammy the first question in many continuing to fund the other needs of the town those are no doubt challenges facing most communities i am happy to say that as a member of the warrant committee i am aware of measures that belmont has taken to date to address those very same issues so let's start with health health insurance they the state legislature did pass municipal help them municipal health insurance reform act and what that did is that allowed municipalities to negotiate with town employees and unions in order to reduce health care premiums by offering employees a plan similar to the plan that the state offers that is called the general insurance commission or g i c belmont has enacted those reforms and negotiated those changes with employees as a result our our current savings and in health care is approximately five hundred thousand dollars a year and our premiums have not gone up significantly in the last year so that is good as a selectman i would see if we could i would examine if we could achieve further savings by integrating with the affordable health care act or obamacare pensions our current pension liabilities about seventy million we are funding those currently we are about forty five percent funded and if we continue as we are going we should be fully funded in approximately twelve years pensions are very important to the security of our employees last is or other post employment benefits or liability is about two hundred thousand dollars and what we did with the board of selectmen the warrant committee and the town treasurer is we contribute a small amount towards those obligations every year about two hundred fifty thousand to show credit rating agencies that were aware of that debt and we are we are addressing it and that has helped to preserve presented to the town of belmont are a tremendously important issue not simply to our employees but to the rest of the community people who are worried about roads and streets people who are worried about increasing class sizes should in fact be worried about the increasing health care costs facing the town in belmont for fiscal year two thousand and fifteen so for next fiscal year the employee benefits are in the projected budget and it's a draft budget the projected benefits are estimated to increase by over nine hundred thousand dollars when you have the the benefits going up at twelve percent and you revenues going up at two percent then something has to get and that something or other services i agree with that belmont has done well but i think complying with and following the state legislation  immediate resolution was at the state level the the future problem of course is with opec that's where the the other post employment benefits that's where health care benefits  really show up and the and the problem is not with main not simply with maintaining our aaa rating the problem is that we are making promises to our current employees that we don't have the money to fund right now and we need to address that on my web page coltan for slackman dot com i've laid out a series of recommendations of detailed recommendations on how to address those  health care benefits are affecting the rest of the budget the health care benefits are a threat to whether we will be able to keep our future promises to our current employees and we need to take both the local actions in the state actions that we can thank you thank you roger joanna you you rang the bell twice i did you did well once for me one  we need to keep the laughter going to yes yes left or is it's just it just keeps us relaxed right ok so roger you are going to ask answer the next question the rumors have been circulating about what's going to go into the new into the former macy's site they've already started into an interior demolition but the landlord won't say what's going to go they're just not ready to tell us rumors are circulating that it could be another bank possibly  how would you manage how would you promote more diversity of businesses in town and is there a way to regulate businesses renting commercial properties as  i don't think the issue is one of regulation as a selectman what i would do is to implement the recommendations of the belmont center planning group seven years ago there was a planning group that had volunteers the put hundreds of hours of work into determining what should be done in belmont center to reinvigorate into renewable center actually my opponent sat on that planning group and the recommendations that were advanced in its final report were not implemented amongst the recommendations and i've been talking to business owners that i've not only been talking to people on their  doorsteps around the country but i've been talking to business owners and christians claribel month center waverly square longer valid road what they've said of course is their number one concern or one of their number one concerns is parking and we need to not regulate the commercial businesses but we need to implement the recommendations that were made seven years ago to pursue parking and that would fall within the the board of  selectmen purview the final report of the belmont center planning group said that there should be a specific person that would be designated at the community level that would act as a la zone between the community and the business community and that's never been done and you talk to the business owners in belmont center and they would appreciate and benefit from having such a so the my job as a member of the board of selectmen is first to take the planning that has already been done but never followed through on and to make sure that we do follow through on those recommendations and is at one end of the square and we it is really an anchor to the square so what we need some strong commercial and retail so that people will walk the entire sidewalk across the street and then walk the other side i i had always advocated for it's about sixty thousand square feet so i had advocated for the current owner to have one or two moderate sized anchors like say twenty thousand square feet a restaurant and then some retail shopping and i'm glad to see that he seems to be going in that direction we need to revitalize our squares we need to encourage businesses to relocate to belmont center and our squares and it's not through regulation what we need to do is be more proactive work with businesses some of the things we could do in order to help our squares thrive i think are things like streets s we need to modify some unrealistic zoning regulations like parking you know none of those businesses can comply with the parking because they just don't have enough land to do that next we need to do is we do have it town economic development committee and that economic development committee should work with the belmont center business association cushing square business association and we need a waverly square business association and they need to work together more closely and come up with ideas work with the belmont watertown chamber of commerce to better market our squares and lastly i would work with our tax assessors and try to come up with some constructive tax incentives that could  help attract businesses thank you danielle asked the next question dan you're up first sammy so many of the roads in belle modern pretty rough shape in fact on my way over here i hit a pothole today possibly causing permanent damage to my car we need to make our roads and sidewalks a priority and to date they really have not been a priority so number one you need a selectman who again is going to take that infrastructure improvement and put it at the top of the list rather then when we get to it second a lot of the wear and tear on our roads also is a result of utility companies that come in and dig up our streets and roads and then don't adequately repair them after they're done with the work and unfortunately i don't think we are proactive enough as a community to go inspect the work that's been done and make sure that the streets are properly repa so one of the things i would do is work with our inspection inspection services department to make sure that there is follow up after a utility company digs up our streets and makes sure that it's properly paved and and  the asphalt will not be torn up the next time a plow comes comes and plows snow lastly i think we need to consider new technology like for example pothole filling machines that can help our potholes faster and hopefully you know the work will be more resilient so the so that so that it will last i have in fact spoken with one person one resident who has offered to donate such a pothole filling machine to the town and that is something i would certainly follow up on thank you roger how would you  about our roads and streets let's first give credit to our office of community development for the progress that has been made there was a few years ago in two thousand and ten a less prepared by the office a claim clancy in the office community development of the fifty worst streets in the town of dhamma it really took something to make that last and yet within the last four years we have repaved and reconstructed half of those fifty worst streets they didn't also need water main improvements we have redone beach street we have redone common street we've started to pilot road so we're making progress on a very limited resource despite that obviously we need to make more progress and we need to make it sooner rather than later because the failure of belmont to repair and reconstruct its roads and streets has put us into this loop where the longer it takes the more expensive it gets the more expensive it gets the longer it takes and it's hard to break out of that loop in two thousand and seven the town prepared what was called the pavement management report and the pavement management report recommended a dedicated fund that would be available for no use other then the repair of streets and roads and sidewalks i have endorsed a creation of that dedicated fan i believe that we should create a dedicated fun out of which we can't take money to use for any other purposes and we need to do it sooner rather than later thank you roger you're up next this question is about increasing class sizes a major issue that could affect the quality of education in belmont some classes have a twenty seven to one student teacher ratio i understand at the middle school it's not a problem that is not going to go away any time soon especially with as new families continue to move into the town what do you think belmont should do now to prepare for what's to come what should they be doing now the town of belmont should be working with the school side to prepare on a long term basis for the number of students that are to be expected and the belmont public schools of course are getting ready for for this there have been two task  force the the employment projection task force and most recently the task force looking specifically at increasing tasks class sizes and the january two thirteen report of the employment projection  workforce has been out for a year we need to follow those recommendations they have laid out a path forward that does not include and doesn't require physical additions to our infrastructure that doesn't mean that we shouldn't renovate the high school but to take care of our class size does not require a new school does not require its expansions the problem of increasing class size today is largely financial and in order to address our increasing class sizes we really need to get our financial house in order and it is the reason that i have run hard on the need to create a long term financial plan we need to be able to project out five years and seven years and beyond not only what our expenses and revenues are but what the factors are what the what are called stressors what the stressors on the system are and tell we create a long term financial plan and follow through and implement that plan once we create it then we're going to continue to deal with the immediate problem of increasing class sizes rather than addressing the longer term problem as it presents itself to the community thank you roger sami what do you think bill maher should be doing now to prepare for what's to come you know as a parent of four children in the public schools including one in kindergarten i am very concerned about overcrowding in our schools and you know there is one study that was done for the school committee that projects that we could have as many as six hundred additional students in the next five years now that increase will be spread throughout k through twelve so so so they're not congregated in one segment of our public education in the short term what we could do is continue to assign new students to elementary schools based on available capacity ok approximately seventy six percent of our kindergarten through fourth rate this through fourth grade classrooms are at or below state guidelines we need to conduct a rigorous space utilization review in every school to identify where we could add some potential new classroom space we need to encourage you know use learning in technology and the higher grades in order to provide more personalized education to students in larger classes if school if overcrowding becomes a big problem in the short term we can always resort to modular units although that would not be preferable but we may not have a choice longer term what we need to do is we must renovate that high school because when we renovated we it will give us the opportunity to increase classroom space this will also offer the opportunity to move eighth graders from the middle school to the high school if need be to create more elementary school space we need to renovate butler or daniel butler school or burbank school obviously all these suggestions as  would be working with and through the school committee thank you thank you sammy sorry you made me three ways are different than your opponent three ways and different than my opponent ok i can do that first of all first of all i currently have four children in the bed in the belmont public school system number one number two i am an attorney who is licensed in massachusetts and i practice every day on a local level number three i have served three years on the warrant committee and i have continuous experience and evaluating the town's budget and i have helped to produce actual budgets for this town and those are the three differences thank you roger three ways are different than sammy the primary where the way that i'm different from my opponent is that i would add a different perspective to the board of selectmen our current board background as well and i believe that there is a need for yet a different perspective so the first is that i would add diversity to the board of selectmen the second way that i differ is that i bring up professional expertise that my opponent doesn't bring i work for state attorney general offices as a lawyer and as an economic consultant in utility regulatory proceedings i work with  offices that fight for long term financial planning in multi hundred million dollar businesses and i would bring that the third thing is that i have repeatedly taken proposals from the initiative to the proposal to the decision making and i have initiated proposals and followed them through rather than simply reacting or responding to proposals which my opponents  background for the town has has done and thank you so much perfect we actually have several questions that were submitted by our live audience and rather than me choose i'm going to allow you to thank you roger you are up next so it's kind of like taking a card in a card game all right i cannot believe all these what is your view of the priority of short term projects for the town in a longer term financial plan you have two minutes the first short term project would  be the continued pursuit of the high school the town of belmont has submitted a proposal to the high school to the state for funding the renovation renovation of the high school i believe that the high school is a fundamentally sound building and is not to be does not need to be torn down and rebuilt it needs to be renovated and i was in talking with dan richards the principal belmont high school yesterday about the needs of the high school and he assured me that the building was fundamentally sound the second thing that we need to do from a capital perspective and is to fix our roads and streets have talked to hundreds of people at their doorstep and one thing i've learned in this campaign is that people are not merely concerned about the roads and streets people are angry about woods and streets people are angry about their sidewalks i talked to a person over and precinct sex who lives in a double decker he and his wife live in the top half of his mother in law lives in the bottom half his mother in law is houseparent because she's in a wheelchair and she physically cannot go either direction on the sidewalk because the sidewalk is  so those are the two short short term things the high school needs to be redone in the roads and streets need to be repaired thank you sammy what is your view of the priority of short term projects for the town and a longer term financial plan so it's an audience question ok our problem is we tend to be as as as a town government reactive instead of proactive so if i go through the you know the projects roads and sidewalks high school renovated high school appropriate buildings for our police department and our public works department under pool library skating rink and the list goes on and on and they're all very important projects and there are projects that need to be addressed preferably in the shorter term what we do need to do is we do need to develop capital improvement plan and we need to prioritize these improvements and we need to set a time frame realistic time frame of when we can accomplish them our mistake is because we're reactive we  to address our capital needs when there's an emergency and we can't do that when you when you address a capital project one at a time you are taking resources from the remaining projects that are on the list so what we need to do is look at them all cumulatively and we need to forecast what they're going to cost prioritize them and do that in advance so that we have a proactive plan rather than waiting for another capital project like the underwood to fail before before putting it on the top of the list so so those are my thoughts on  you have to read the writing a little different this is from audience question this is to c m e what is your demonstrated capet capacity to work with people over agendas resident and community involvement in municipal decisionmaking whether it be development or otherwise that is my training as a lawyer who practices in massachusetts every day i meet clients with problems they come in they share their problems we exchange ideas i'm a transactional lawyer we walk out with a good result that everybody is happy with and shaking hands and that is what i would bring to the board of selectmen i have proven i can do that with coaching village many people criticized the planning boards process because they thought that we were letting the residents that were most impacted by that project talk too much at the public hearings that's nonsense there are neighbors they are most impacted by that development and they should have a say and with resident import and community involvement i am happy to say with cushing village we were able to implement a project that is much more in character with cushing square and even the developer gave us credit and said thank you you helped us design and much better project than what we initially came with so certainly you know i i understand there are agendas i understand that there are causes but issues need to be discussed by the community as a whole solar panels on the wellington there was not enough public process until until that came before us for site plan approval we opened it up residents had their say we got a better result inverters were moved to the basement rather on the roof and ironically it was that process that kept belmont from entering into a twenty year relationship with broadway electric an installer that went out of business and had to lick a date it's a sense roger how about it and what is your demonstrated capacity to work with people over agendas the the frustration people in belmont have today is that belmont is very good at making plans and very very bad and following through with those plans and making sure that things get done and the hole in the ground has existed in cushing square for more than five years last july the cushing square developer promised that he would start construction in the fall of two thousand and thirteen two weeks ago we heard that the cushing square developer had neither the financing nor a contractor to proceed and now the prediction is if it happens at all that it will start in the fall of two thousand and fourteen we need to follow through the belmont center planning group released recommendations and they were never developed my ability to is to move from resident issues or concerns to a proposal to a decision we sat in the front room of a windbreak neighborhood home and we talked about the need for flood control in the windbreak neighborhood we conceptualize the response to that as adopting stormwater controls and we developed a proposal that addresses that there was an expressed concern there was a response and now two years later it's it's done we started with concerns about a in abandoned municipal building sitting there at the entrance to waverly square at the old waverly square fire station i went out and found a grant we initiated the process i convinced the town to apply for the grant we went through the process yes and in six months not five years like the hole in the ground has been there in cushing square but in six months we found a developer that would renovate and preserve the waverly square fire station my ability and what i bring to the board of selectmen is to get things how well we keep our town economically secure without raising taxes commit we need a long term financial plan in my work with public utilities we would never let a utility operate without a plan such as operates with we need to show people that we are spending their tax money wisely we need to show people that we are  reducing the expenses where we can reduce expenses we need to show people that we're diversifying our revenue sources and we need to do that not only for next year but over time belmont has fallen into this trap of only trying to or of only allocating dollars to particular activities we let our budget drive our priorities rather than having our priorities drive our budget and as  slackman my job is to change that our budget should reflect our priorities i would not promise that we will not raise taxes raising taxes is one of the tools in the tool box that we must use it's not the only tool in the tool box but it is one of the tools in the tool box and if that is needed i would present that to the voters and my job as a member of the board of s is to allow the voters to make the decision about whether she to increase taxes or reduce services i can't raise taxes as a member of the board of selectmen the board of selectmen doesn't have the authority to raise taxes our job is to present that to the voters and then to give the voters all the information they want and all the information they need to make an informed decision and to make a decision knowing the consequences of adopting or rejecting any particular thank you roger sami how will you keep our town economically secure without raising taxes joanna i am the owner and founder of a small business baghdadi loftus and that is an issue that i wrestle with every day as a small business owner i realize that i have to run the business efficiently i can't plan spend more than i bring in and i always need to keep track of costs what what this town faces is the restraints of proposition two and a half which means that our tax revenues can't increase by more than two and a half percent a year however our costs in town government do increase by more than our revenues you know our costs and in some instances you know increase for example in the case of salaries increase four five six seven eight percent a year yet the money coming in only increases by by two and a half percent so we need to keep track of our costs and we need we need to make sure that our costs track our increase and costs track are increasing  in revenues that said i can offer a few suggestions to help keep us within our means operationally what would what we need to do is enhance our technology to streamline operations that are normally done manually you know for example like recordkeeping what we could do is consolidate departments that duplicate functions on the town and the school sides for example like the human resources department or id technology department no reason why each side of the town needs to have their their own department we did this with the facilities department we consolidated the facilities on the capital side we need to maintain better maintain our buildings and infrastructure to increase their useful life not wait for them to fail to address them we need to prioritize renovation over new construction wherever practical and feasible and then lastly we need to look when we just so happens i have one here sammy my question to you has to do with being proactive about long term planning and the fact that belmont does not currently have such a plan four years ago in two thousand and ten th like men and the planning board unanimously adopted a comprehensive plan for belmont that included eleven different recommendations for long term financial planning you voted for that plan as a planning board member and you're now on bo planning board and the warrant committee which is now much chief financial advisory group very few people have been in a better position to turn those recommendations into actions over the last four years and yet not one of those recommendations has been implemented my question is this if all those recommendations weren't worthy of being implemented why did you vote for them and if they are worthy of being record implemented why haven't any of them been made to happen roger that is simply not true your answer has an untrue assumption number one i was on the planning board when that comprehensive plan was adopted by the planning board and i did vote in favor of it however that comprehensive plan was never supported by town meeting the plan has its shortcomings it promotes greater density in europe and i don't mean to interrupt but i asked not about the comprehensive plan i asked about the eleven specific recommendations on long term financial planning that were included in that in that comprehensive plan not the comprehensive plan generically but the leavened specific recommendations on long term financial planning that was the question roger you are raising the comprehensive plan and you're making the same mistake that you make all the time you assume that that comprehensive plan is directive and i'm telling you it's not a direction it was never adopted by town meeting in fact it was strongly opposed by town meeting as you recall and it was withdrawn by the planning board from town meeting because we couldn't get support the preface of the plan states and i'm going to read i have a quote the comprehensive plan does not require the town to carry out any specific regulatory changes or public investments defined in the plan it's a resource it's a direction it's a book that we reference when we need direction when we have questions it was never formally adopted as a directive as you have treated it it has its shortcomings it promotes it advocates for greater density urban development it's critical about resident participation in the process those are shortcomings serious shortcomings lastly i will say community preservation act expanding housing options like cushing village adoption of a demolition delay by law new historic districts like the ogilvy's land ok elimination of parking for outdoor dining those were all specific plan suggestions that to respond my response is that the response that you just heard had nothing to do with the question it had the question do you know what i didn't do that time or this response will be short the question was not about the comprehensive plan in general and the land use planning the question was there were eleven recommendations that about long term financial planning that that my opponent voted for and has been in a position to pursue because we believe everybody talks about proactive planning but my opponent has been in a is directive it was never adopted and it was strongly opposed by town meeting we referenced that plan and we have in fact implemented many of its recommendations roger apparently there are recommendations that you advocate for that have not been implemented and this is the issue that i see here i'm done with my response and you very much want to go on to the next question sandy wish you well if you have to ask of roger roger ok my question is much easier roger i have seen a draft of the housing production plan that's being worked on by the belmont housing trust and i know you've been an advocate of a housing production plan in the past and that plan proposes a goal for about a month of adding fifty one new affordable housing units per year my question is do you support the housing production plan my answer is that i have not been involved with a housing trust for a number of years and i have not seen the housing production plan i have not been as you indicated  and quote advocate of the housing production plan having not seen the housing production plan i don't have a position one way or the other on the housing production plant i do believe that we do need to continue to make reasonable progress on affordable housing in belmont the town of belmont just lost one point five million dollars grant for belmont center you heard my opponent talk about how we need streetscape improve we need trees we need improvements to the sidewalks in belmont center but the reason we lost the state money for doing precisely that is because we've been backsliding on affordable housing affordable housing is good in just in its own right but it is not only good and just to do it is a mechanism to get other things and one of the other things that it could have gotten for the town  is the belmont center grant sandwich and i think the reasons i think i think the problem and the reason why we haven't been getting affordable housing is because we had an affordable housing by law that was simply an enforceable we had to develop first challenge it in town bring action against the town and town council has said this by law is much too extreme not enforceable and we were forced to settle i'm happy to say the planning board has rewritten the inclusionary housing by law and it is now a good by law that will generate affordable housing and i'm happy to say what my opponent just  incorrect the inclusionary housing by law was adopted by belmont about fifteen years ago three years ago the state changed its law within the last two years every community in massachusetts that had an inclusionary housing by law like belmont's was revising its inclusionary housing by law the notion that belmokhtar was revising its inclusionary housing by law in some unique in some capacity is simply wrong and it's a mistake extra thirty second system to find your position on the broader the last affordable housing zoning by law was drafted in two thousand and nine and you were on that committee that drafted it and that is the one that town council said was too extreme and unenforceable so it was not for fourteen years ago it was in two thousand and nine and it was adopted by town meeting on your recommendation  not the two thousand and nine amendments that that were revised it was the original housing by law and the fact remains that every community in massachusetts that had an inclusionary housing by law had to respond to the change in state law it was not uniquely a belmont problem i was on the taskforce sammy was not as a matter of fact i was on the task force th before we went on the air and it seems that with live t v sometimes rules don't always get followed but i think it was necessary for this was engaging what i really was and i think i sort of had to each ask more than one question because that's a debate you know i mean we actually have time for one more audience question would you like to choose i think it's sammy's turn as it seems turn lost track  can you give a current concrete example up a time when you have facilitated implementing a controversial decision and helping explain that this is the decision yes cushing village i mean we started out in a process where the residents of cushing square and the developer couldn't sit in a room together we ended up with a project that was better designed and that had a consensus of support by all the residents and by the developer so that is a prime example of how i was able to bring together differing sides have them work together and come up with a product that is better for belmont that makes belmont better and that's why i'm very much an advocate of residents participating in the process same with the solar panels on the wellington you know roger that was a close process and i'll tell you why i've had several residents contact me you know the energy committee has been deliberating on panels on the west solar panels on the wellington school for over a year and i've had residents who have gone back to look at look for the minutes of the energy committee which you chair and do you know no minutes have been filed in two thousand and thirteen or two thousand and fourteen so residents are frustrated that they cannot look at the discussions that occurred by the energy committee when they recommended insulation of of those solar energy panels we were able as a planning board to open up that process make it public through site plan review get resident import and the project advanced better and better project and then thank you roger would you like to answer that question i'm certain i would you know if you like first respond have thirty seconds now we don't we actually don't have enough time i'm sorry roger can you give a concrete example of the time when you have so attended implementing a call a controversial decision and helping to explain the decision yes there there is currently an ongoing controversy concerning the  is a proposal to add two hundred and ninety nine units at the upland near let's say three hundred for the purposes of rounding off and there are people who oppose that and there are people who believe that there should be a development there even if it's a research and development proposal i believe that the optimum should be saved i do not believe that there should be a research and development facility there i do not believe that there should be housing project there i have over the last number of years ten or twelve years at least repeatedly worked with the consumer in the consumers the residents and the the windbreak neighborhood to explain what's going on with the uplands to explain their steps going forward i have worked with the town i not only worked with the town i authored the the town's storm water management by law and we have been working on what is turning into a controversy a decision about whether that proposal today or that regulation to apply the stormwater by law to the uplands development is an appropriate regulation or not i believe the town has the right to regulate storm water runoff from the uplands but the controversy plans and the necessary work to work with the residents the developer and those who are potentially interested in purchasing the uplands is something i have been  intimately involved with for many many many years thank you roger it's it's time for your closing statements and roger you will be getting yours ours ron thank you again joanna for the having the belmont citizen herald sponsor of this event thank you to the belmont media center for hosting us here tonight belmont is facing a critical choice in this year's election we live in a great community however we all know that while belmont is a wonderful place to live we have real problems that we need to solve no one can drive our streets and walk our sidewalks and think that things are ok no one can drive through cushing square and see the hole in the ground that has been there for more than five years and think that things are ok no one can see our schools eliminate elementary school librarians and experience increasing class sizes and think that things are ok our current slackman the warrant committee the planning board all have a common vision of what belmont needs but i believe that that there is and is lacking something belmont deserves a different kind of leadership one that seeks to innovate to work smarter and to plan more thoroughly for our communities future through long term planning i have a track record in belmont of proactive creative problem solving that gets things done that track record includes preserving the waverley square a fire station adopting an energy efficient building called code control in storm water runoff to help prevent flooding in the waverly square and wind broke neighborhoods reforming town meeting communication s reducing long term costs to you belmont lights electric customers dislike men that you choose on april first should be a leader who offers creative solutions to the real problems that face us and then follows through to make those sure that those solutions really happen i am that leader and i respectfully ask for your vote on tuesday april first thank you very much thank you ron your sammy your closing  transparency civility collaborative decision making if i am privileged to serve as your next selectman i will govern by these principles it has always been my priority that residents have a voice in the decision making process as a result i have a track record of bringing all sides together to craft practical and realistic solutions with widespread community support among my priorities i will work proactively to sustain the excellence of our schools and address our most pressing capital needs including our roads and sidewalks as both a parent and a forty five year resident i care deeply about belmont and i will be honored to serve you the residents of this great town as your next selectman i will continue to listen be transparent and collaborative seek consensus and unite our community please vote for me sammy baghdadi this tuesday april first thank you thank you sammy and thank you both for being with us today i was an honor to co moderate the debate with danielle and you really are i think you're both really great candidates and people people really have to listen to this maybe replay it a few times maybe they already have their be out my made up maybe it'll change their mind after watching but it's so important people have to get out there and vote are so lucky to have the two of you in this community joe and yes this debate is in addition to the election process i commend you and i commend the citizen harold and i commend you for thinking of this for creating this opportunity  thank you to the studio audience who was with us today thank you for everyone at home watching maybe my children who are watching i love you all getting out i think they are probably going to sleep and remember that you can watch this debate and other campaign programs including my interviews with the selectmen candidates on belmont media center channels eight on comcast and twenty eight on horizon at seven p m on thursdays and fridays and on channels ninety six and thirty at seven p m on saturdays and sundays please be sure to pick up a copy of the latest edition of the citizen herald and visit our website with good local belmont dot com we'll be updating we'll be giving you updates throughout the day on election day and we will have the results first the reality is has a few words to search there is one more thing that we do want to say there are some things that overshadow all actions and while actions are important sometimes he didn't passionate we ask everybody to keep in mind the firefighters that died yesterday in boston when they go to bed tonight and when they sleep there you know we've put together differences it's aside for a little bit and think about the me heroes that sacrificed their lives