Whoa! A Debate With All Three Mayoral Candidates

Democratic Mayor Bill Finch, Republican Rick Torres and petitioning candidate Jeff Kohut debated issues Wednesday night in Black Rock. From Michael Mayko, CT Post:

Mayor Bill Finch urged voters to consider his four years of accomplishments, including maintaining a stable taxes, balancing four budgets and cutting $3 million in costs while rebuilding the city through his Be Green by 2020 initiative.

Republican Rick Torres called upon what he sees as a “burnt out” electorate to liberate the city from its Democratic machine and rebuild the waterfront and education system.

And Jeff Kohut, the independent, envisions a city that is the “cradle of innovation in technology with things like a city-wide, Internet-accessible video surveillance system and grid-free electricity.

For the first time in this election campaign, all three candidates appeared, attacked and agreed, albeit seldom, with each other Wednesday night during a debate before an overflow crowd of nearly 100 in the Burroughs Community Center on Fairfield Avenue. Prior commitments kept Finch away from the previous two debates much to the chagrin of his two opponents.

The format involved the audience writing out questions that were read aloud, with each candidate given the opportunity to respond. On several occasions, however, the candidates’ comments were drowned out by cell phone ring tones, forcing them to pause or yell over the various musical interludes that droned on.

Taxes, declining property values, the lack of jobs and the state of the city’s schools comprised most of the audience’s concerns.

“No ones’ taxes went up during the last three years,” Finch maintained. “No other city can tell you their taxes have not increased in the past three years. No other city can tell you their mil rate has not increased in the past two years. It means I’m spending $3 million less than when I was elected … despite oil, gas electricity and everything else going up.”

But Torres, who has attacked the Democratic machine as corrupt in the past two mayoral elections, accused the mayor of painting “a rosy picture. Close your eyes and you’d think we were living in Stamford.”

The Republican said Bridgeport has the nation’s highest tax burden “and that’s before the state of Connecticut increased taxes.”

“All this patronage stuff has to end,” he told an audience packed with supporters from his Black Rock home base. “We’ve got to get rid of the guys feeding off us …”

To lower taxes, Torres said businesses first have to be lured to the city with tax cuts.

Kohut, too, has his sights on bringing manufacturing back, but he would pursue that, he said, by being proactive using such things as petitions to convince companies such as General Electric, once a manufacturing powerhouse here, to return.

“We must use our strength in numbers to get them back,” he said.

But Finch told the crowd he has already done this, pointing to the recent announcement that Columbia Elevator is moving here, with plans also in place for a grocery store on the old Carpenter Steel site and work on Steel Pointe to begin soon.

On schools, Finch touted the construction of five new schools during his administration, including the soon-to-be built inter district science and technology high school which he believes will become a “tourist attraction” for its environmentally green construction.

The mayor, who pointed out his two young sons attend public schools in Bridgeport, explained his reasons for broaching the state take-over of the city school board.

And he added; “I want what Hartford has — public school choice” on where parents can send their children.

What Kohut wants is a chancellor, like New York, to oversee the school system and a mayor who has a seat and vote on the Board of Education.

But Torres believes Bridgeport’s approach is wrong.

He points to the Gates Foundation, which recommends smaller, neighborhood schools, not the mega-schools the city is building.

“They are real pretty,” he said. “But massive schools are a huge, huge mistake.”