MONTPELIER – On at least one point, the two mayoral candidates were in complete agreement. Montpelier is a vibrant place to live, with a strong downtown, healthy neighborhoods and quality schools.

"People want to live here, that's a great thing," said Gary Schy, who is challenging incumbent Mayor Mary Hooper. "My children went through the school system, and when you talk to them, they have good things to say."

Among the best things about the city, Hooper added, are the neighborhoods.

"We started a campaign to get neighbors to pay attention to neighbors," she said. In addition, she said are the green, open areas around the downtown and its neighborhoods.

On a second point, they also agree. The city does face problems.

For Hooper, the threat of flooding is among the more significant challenges, as well as relatively high taxes.

"Taxes and public trust," Schy responded when asked about the biggest problems facing Montpelier. "There's a deficit of public trust. I think the city is taking steps to address it. Right now, that's the issue. And taxes are worrisome."

The public trust issue referred to a 2004 overpayment made to Newport firm Scott Construction Inc., which was discovered by the city in 2006 but not fully publicly disclosed until last October.

"A mistake happened. The big problem was not having a system in place to discover these problems," Schy said. He said the city should not have put the search for the money ahead of public disclosure. "Honesty and openness comes first."

"Clearly a terrible mistake was made, which we all regret," Hooper said of the Scott case. She said she and the council immediately began trying to recover the lost money from Scott, focusing too exclusively on that problem to the exclusion of full disclosure.

"I was so focused on our fiduciary responsibility to this community … and forgot at an appropriate moment we have to bring the community into it," she added. "I think we're very good at that 90 percent of the time. In this instance, we were focused on this (holding up one hand) and we forgot about this," holding up the other hand.

The comments came during a nearly two-hour forum Thursday night at City Hall, hosted by The Bridge, ORCA and Mad Women Advertising. That forum was followed by a more heated conversation between City Council candidates (see Saturday's Times Argus for that full story).

Schy said he would serve full-time as mayor, a job that pays $2,700 per year.

Asked where they would support any budget cuts, Hooper said she would not back cuts at this point.

"We are at the bone. Unless there's an emergency or crisis that causes us to do that, I'm not going to cut the police department, I'm not going to cut out plowing," Hooper said. "We've been there, we've done that." Instead, she said, she would support finding ways to grow the revenues.

"I don't know when it is going to get better, nobody does," Schy said of the struggling economy. He said he would go to the unions and ask for 5 percent pay cuts: "I would at least propose it."

He said the local business community opposes a local option tax to increase revenues, and that tax would not raise significant money. In addition, Schy said, the school budget would also have to be reduced, along with the municipal budget to make a real difference for taxpayers.

Responding to a question about whether non-profit organizations are keeping buildings off the tax rolls, Hooper said that is not a significant problem. And, she added, the tax-paying business sector is relatively strong. But she said the city needs to focus on developing the upper floors of businesses in downtown that are too often unused.

"I was told we need more pedestrians," Schy said, referring to talks he has had with the business community. That, he said, points to the need for more downtown housing. "The other thing we need is to look at the permitting process and create a business-friendly perception."

That raised a question to the candidates about the city's permitting process.

"I've been through the permitting process probably 25 times," Schy said, calling the process "subjective and arbitrary," adding, "There are a lot of issues that are not defined objectively."

He called for the creation of a citizen's advisory committee to help clarify the process and bring other ideas to the mayor and council. "I think we may need another building inspector," Schy said. "Delays cost money."

Hooper said the permits are in place for a reason. "It's to protect the general safety and health of this community … and to help us more toward certain values," she said. As an example, she said Montpelier has preserved many of its historic buildings, which increases the value of all businesses in the downtown area. "I disagree that our permitting process is subjective and arbitrary," although she conceded the design review process can be more subjective.

"It's easy to complain about the permitting process, but we should stop and recognize the value of it," she said.

Asked about the failed city-wide appraisal several years ago, "There was a huge failure of communication; the appraiser also didn't do the job that we expected to be done," Hooper said. She said it was critical that residents had faith in the appraisal figures, which clearly they did not, which meant the entire process had to be redone.

"We tried to do a $250,000 job for $80,000 and it didn't work," Schy said. "Why did that happen? I don't know why. It was more than a one-person job. As the clock started ticking, she (the appraiser) just ran out of time … she started moving with numbers that were wildly off."

The elections will be held on March 2, Town Meeting Day in Vermont.

By SUSAN ALLEN TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: February 12, 2010

Courtesy: Times Argus