Teixeira, Contente face off for Bristol Town Administrator

The candidates for Town Administrator state their cases in Tuesday’s forum

By Patrick Luce
Posted 10/27/16

After a cordial beginning during which Antonio Teixeira presented Steven Contente with a 20-year service coin for his time as a Bristol Police officer, the candidates for Town Administrator got down …

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Teixeira, Contente face off for Bristol Town Administrator

The candidates for Town Administrator state their cases in Tuesday’s forum

Posted

After a cordial beginning during which Antonio Teixeira presented Steven Contente with a 20-year service coin for his time as a Bristol Police officer, the candidates for Town Administrator got down to business.

On a variety of topics, including taxes, school funding, the town’s business climate, and management style, Contente and Teixeira differentiated themselves, presenting voters a clear choice between the two during a candidate forum Tuesday night at the old Bristol State House on High Street.

Moderator Scott Pickering, general manager of East Bay Newspapers, led the forum, which was organized by the League of Women Voters and co-sponsored by East bay Newspapers, Full Channel Communications and the East Bay Chamber of Commerce. 

Mr. Pickering posed questions submitted by audience members to each candidate, followed by a rebuttal. Each candidate also was allowed six wild cards, which could be played at any time to extend an answer or further rebut an opponent.

The questions and the two candidates’ answers follow:

What do you say to someone who complains about their tax bill?

  • Teixeira: “So do I. I have to pay the taxes as well.” Teixeira mentioned the school lawsuit that forces Bristol to pay more to fund the regional school district than the town previously had, to the tune of more than $2 million a year. “There is always room for improvement. We need to look at more ways to increase revenue.”
  • Contente: “I hear that complaint. Their frustration is when there’s a reduction of services, and that’s what they’re seeing.” Content pointed to potholes and sidewalks in disrepair. “The tax levy went up 17 percent in the last four years. You can say it was the school budget, but that still makes it 10 percent. We have to start really sharpening our pencils.”

 

What is your position on the $17M bond referendum, and what are your priorities within that:

  • Contente: I would prefer to have seen us voting on each individual project rather than all at once. Infrastructure is important. We have to maintain what we have.
  • Teixeira: I certainly agree with the bond. There are many ongoing projects we need to continue. Road paving for the next three years. Drainage. Tanyard Brook.

 

What can be done to address the school funding issue that’s driving up our taxes?

  • Teixeira: The judgement that was handed down to us was out of our control. Going forward, we need to look at how we can engage in further discussion. When the judgement is handed down, you just have to abide by that. Otherwise, there would have been a zero increase.
  • Contente: Warren has agreed not to collect the retro years (after a judge deemed Bristol had not payed its fair share). We need to be up front and have a really good discussion as we did in the early 90s when we regionalized. That will be a theme of my campaign.

 

What specifically will you do to reduce town spending?

  • Contente: I would start with our departments. I worked for the town of Bristol. I think morale and productivity go hand-in-hand. The Department of Public Works are some of our finest people; they’re taxpayers. They want to be empowered to be able to do more work. I think we can get more done with what we have. It’s a magagement style.
  • Teixeira: We have reduced spending. Every year when I meet with department heads, I tell them we have to reduce the bottom line by 1 percent, and that’s the start of the conversation with the departments. We need to dip into all the resources we can to keep costs down.
  • Contente: One thing we can do is keep our footprint small. Everything we purchase, there’s an expense associated with it. I’m not seeing collaboration with department heads. I don’t see collaboration when we purchased Azevedo (two dilapidated buildings on the Thames Street waterfront); I didn’t see it when we purchased the Prudence Island Ferry dock - we didn’t collaborate with the island residents.
  • Teixeira: The owners of those properties came to the town and asked if the town was interested. I think I would be a fool to not act immediately in order to purchase those properties. The main thing is control of the waterfront. We have made gains. We are collaborating. We are in negotiation to create a public/private partnership there (at the Axevedo property).
  • Contente: $1.67 million to repair the Prudence dock. We need to do our due diligence.

 

How do you plan to help small businesses in town?

  • Teixeira: One thing is we hired an Economic Development Coordinator to help us with that. We merged two positions at no extra cost to the town. Go out and begin to work with the current businesses. We need to strengthen the businesses we currently have. We’re always meeting with them to see what we can do.
  • Contente: I’m glad it took someone running against an incumbent to get someone talking to our businesses. They just want to be a part of the community and need basic services met. The main thing is reaching out to our businesses and bringing them into the community.

 

Can you describe the duties of the Town Administrator?

  • Contente: It is the chief executive officer who runs the day-to-day operations. Ensures all the rules and regulations are being followed. Declare state of emergency when needed. Prepare the budget.
  • Teixeira: Check in with departments to see what’s going on, what’s happening. Be there for our department heads and meet with them regularly. We meet as a group regularly to address any concerns they may have.

 

I live in the downtown. Since 2005 taxes have gone up. What would you do to reduce taxes without sacrificing the quality of life that brought me to town in the first place?

  • Teixeira: I don’t see that there’s an impact on the services anyone has. We haven’t cut back. I don’t see any reduction in services. To the contrary, we’ve done some additional work.
  • Contente: In order to decrease property tax, we have to increase our revenue. I’ve learned by talking to our businesses. All we have to do is put the pieces together. When a business is looking for property, help them find it. Tourism is great, but it’s seasonal. We need to get back to what we were. 

 

What would be your highest priority the next two years?

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  • Contente: Minimizing our footprints; maintenance is an issue. Maintain our roads and sidewalks, and I don’t mean repairs — I mean general maintenance. The maritime industry will be a main focus. And public safety. If you don’t have a safe community, it’s not worth living here.
  • Teixeira: Continue the on-going projects — Tanyard Brook, road repaving, the Maritime Center and marina. Continue negotiations on Prudence Ferry property and Azevedo property.
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