Two more debates will be held next month.
EASTHAMPTON – Three people seeking to be the city’s second mayor answered questions about the importance of arts, road repair and business in the first of three debates Thursday night in the studio of Easthampton Community Access Television.
David Ewing, who has been in corporate management for Yankee Candle, Karen Cadieux, Mayor Michael A. Tautznik’s assistant, and School Committee chairwoman Nancy L. Sykes and former dean of students at the now Western New England University, all described why they wanted to be mayor as well as their vision for the city.
Herbert Glazier, of Everett Street, also took out nomination papers this week for mayor but has not yet filed them and did not participate. They are due Sept. 17. The city election is Nov. 5.
Tautznik is not seeking reelection as mayor but recently became a candidate for state senate. He was the city’s first mayor, elected in 1996.
Bob Flaherty of radio station WHMP-AM moderated. With limited space, just eight family members and friends of the candidates were in attendance.
Tautznik announced his support for Cadieux last fall when she announced her candidacy. She said, “that the mayor and I have worked as a team. We have worked effectively together.” She said she knows how the city is run.
Sykes, 71, said she believes that people haven’t felt heard in the current administration and wants people to know she will really listen.
Ewing, who tended to be brief in his remarks, said he believes his corporate experience would help lead the city. He also said he’d “do something rather than talk about it. The mayor’s job is to be a leader.”
The candidates agreed on many issues but parted on what the city could do to repair roads and whether people feel heard when they come to City Hall.
When it comes to the city’s ability to repair the roads, Cadieux said the city has limited state money - $700,000 - and with the increasing costs of oil that barely touches the need. She asked residents “to be patient with the DPW.” If elected mayor, she said would fight for more money from Boston.
Sykes said the city could get more money from Boston by bringing in more jobs because the formula is based on people and employment. She also said “there are creative ways” to bring in more money for roads. She believes people in the “community can come up with some solutions not be dependent on the state.”
Ewing, 64, said he would make sure “to get the most efficiency out of the public works (department.)”
Cadieux, 59, rebutted by saying the department is down two men.
Talking about resident access to City Hall, Cadieux said the mayor’s door is always open and she is known as “Karen in the mayor’s office.
“People come to my desk. They know me as the go to person. They know I help them out.”
But Sykes said after talking to 200 people, she has found people don’t feel City Hall is accessible to them. They feel “they’re not necessarily heard. They don’t feel they are necessarily taken seriously.”
To make the office accessible, Ewing said he’d hold monthly meetings with residents.
All three supported the continued promoting of the arts, but Sykes said she wanted to promote “all the other aspects of Easthampton” that the city is more than the arts.
All agreed on the importance of bringing more businesses to the city. Cadieux said she would “throw open the lines of communication” and hold a business roundtable inviting everyone.
Sykes said the “mayor has a role by setting the tone of how business is viewed.” She suggested encouraging new business by giving special services or allowing new businesses to pay lower taxes.
Ewing said he would “promote the creation of new small business in town.”
The Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce will hold the next mayoral debate Oct. 8 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Eastworks and the Easthampton Democratic Committee will hold one Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at Easthampton High School.