Tuesday the voters of the city will be asked to take part in the biennial ritual that is called Election Day for the purposes of selecting new leadership for the coming two years. This election is a pivotal one in the life of the city in a way not seen for some time.
To say the city is in desperate straits is in no way an understatement. Burdened by a tax base that has stagnated for the better part of three decades, homeowners and small businesses now make up the lion’s share of the levies collected, with large businesses and mercantile outlets no longer dominating the economic scene.
Add to that mix a poorer and less educated population than was here in the 1980s, as well as absentee ownership of much of the housing property; thus, you have a recipe for financial problems that never seem to get better.
That is the situation the city and its potential leaders have going into next week balloting. An operating deficit discovered in 2005-2006 has wavered from its original $10-plus million to a low of about $4 million, only to balloon to more than $16 million due to budgetary figures that never did – and probably were never intended – to balance out. Indeed, the city has seen budget deficits in every year Mayor Edward M. O’Brien has been in office.
It was in this backdrop that former Seventh District Councilwoman Nancy Rossi announced her candidacy earlier this year. Rossi, who fashions herself a financial expert due to her status as a certified public accountant, has been highly critical of O’Brien’s handling of city finances from the outset of his administration some four years ago.
Rossi, originally a supporter of O’Brien who made balancing the budget the keystone of his run for the mayoralty when running against former Mayor John M. Picard, soon became O’Brien’s biggest critic and has continued that criticism into her campaign for mayor.
Rossi has been a bit of a political gadfly over the last decade or so, coalescing with one or the other of the three factions that make up the city’s Democratic majority party. Siding with the warring factions has made her the object of suspicion to many, who see her as a political opportunist.
Meanwhile, Republican David Riccio took a page out of his party’s playbook from the 1980s and began a run for the mayoralty almost two years ago. His campaign, which hopes to put a Republican in City Hall for the first time in 28 years, has been one of “the other.”
While the factions within the Democratic Party continue their internecine bickering and backbiting, Riccio is campaigning as a reformer, who will bring the residents of the city together to solve problems, rather than worry about which group is in power.
Mayor O’Brien, who was upset by Rossi in the September primary, is hoping a write-in candidacy will allow him two more years to complete some economic development plans, particularly the Haven along Water Street. Write-in candidates are seldom winners, though Picard almost picked off O’Brien four years ago, losing by a handful of votes.
Whatever the outcome of Tuesday’s balloting, the winner will have serious problems to address, none of them solved without pain. The state is offering an $8 million bailout, giving the city the grants-in-aid it was promised before the budget battle, just ended.
With the dollars come a review board with supernumerary powers still not fully announced, but sounding more and more like the review board the city had in 1991-1994. It is unclear whether the mayor will sign off on the deal, but if he does, his successor is wedded to it, regardless.
Voters have to make an important decision, one that will come with many variables and many unknowns. It can stay the course and re-elect the incumbent, hope a financial expert can use that knowledge to change the course, or chart a new course with a party that hasn’t seen political power in most voters’ lifetimes.
It will be an interesting – and important – vote on Tuesday.