Candidate forum gets personal
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and challenger Albert G. Brien both go on the attack during forum
WOONSOCKET – Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and election challenger Albert G. Brien were both on the offensive at Chan’s Fine Oriental Dining in a candidates forum that occasionally devolved into openly personal attack.
In an hour-long forum sponsored by radio station WNRI, the two-term incumbent and the former City Council president sparred over the issues of commercial tax rates, economic development, crime, urban blight, RISE Prep Mayoral Academy and other topics that have been in the news. WNRI Programming Director Jeff Gamache moderated the back-and-forth before an audience of more than 100, including family members and supporters of both candidates.
The sometimes prickly tone of the combatants was established rather quickly, after Baldelli-Hunt made an opening statement touting her record on rebuilding the city’s finances and roads after a brush with bankruptcy in 2012.
“We are getting the job done,” Baldelli-Hunt boasted. “Let’s not turn back the clock.”
But when Brien’s turn came he disparaged Baldelli-Hunt for bragging about delivering “the most basic services” of government. On the traits necessary for leadership – honesty, trust and a willingness to collaborate – Brien said, “these are qualities the mayor lacks.” He said the weaknesses were on display in her failure to close negotiations with the Woonsocket Teachers Guild and prevent Landmark Medical Center from switching to non-profit status.
“I don’t believe she’s getting the job done,” said Brien, urging spectators to “be honest” and “stop pretending we never had paved roads or streetlights” before Baldelli-Hunt took office in 2013.
A recent story in the newspaper about crime rates was the springboard for another question from Gamache, triggering a spirited rhetorical volley from the candidates.
Brien said he supports a public safety study and, as a member of the council, had supported legislation setting aside funding for one, but it never materialized.
“Why hasn’t that happened?” he said, posing the question to Baldelli-Hunt. “We ought to be embracing it.”
Contradicting the premise of the question, Baldelli-Hunt said violent crime – including homicide, rape and robbery – have declined since 2014. The mayor told Brien: “The facts are very important when you’re going to talk about crime in Woonsocket.”
Baldelli-Hunt also chastised Brien for failing to push through the public safety study as a member of the council, calling it “a legislative function.”
“You sat on the City Council. Why didn’t you get it done?” she asked Brien.
“Because you took that money out and spent it on something else,” he shot back.
The mayor took another swing, accusing Brien of “spewing lies.”
“You’re the authority on that,” Brien snapped.
Baldelli-Hunt got her most audible groan of disbelief from spectators during a tit-for-tat with the challenger of the issue of RISE Prep Mayoral Academy, for which she serves as chairperson of the school’s governing body. Baldelli-Hunt said she supports more choice for parents in the types of educational settings available for children. Brien says he would pull the plug on the school, charging that RISE Prep has siphoned $4.5 million from public schools since its inception in 2015.
“We can’t afford it,” he said.
Responding to an inquiry from Baldelli-Hunt, Brien
said he graduated from Mount Saint Charles.
“So you had options?” she pressed.
“No I didn’t have an option,” Brien said. “My uncle was a Brother of the Sacred Heart.”
“So you had a benefit?” “You may say it’s a benefit,” Brien retorted, clearly suggesting it wasn’t.
It was the mayor’s last word on the topic that went over with a thud. “At the end of the day,” she said, “it’s about the children.”
Brien and the mayor both seemed to land a couple of punches on each other when the debate switched to commercial tax rates as a tool for fostering economic growth. Brien said hiring an economic development director is a waste of money as long as the city has the third-highest commercial tax rate in the state. Again, Baldelli-Hunt chided Brien, “You need to get your facts straight.” Commercial rates have dipped three years in a row, she said.
While the administration is “business friendly,” Baldelli-Hunt scored Brien for blocking retail development to protect friends who were worried about neighborhood congestion or traffic. She cited his lack of support as a councilman for a Dunkin’ Donuts on Providence Street and a restaurant on Park Avenue as examples.
Perhaps the most surprising – and personal – attacks of the night came during the closing statements – a portion of the debate that neither candidate could rebut. Baldelli-Hunt used those three minutes to portray Brien as unfit for the mayor’s office. She repeatedly called him a liar, questioned his ability to manage his personal finances and claimed Brien had approached her family more than once in the past looking for help. “This is all truthful,” the mayor said, vowing to “share the facts so people will know who you truly are.”
Most pointedly, she accused him of professional fraud, resurrecting allegations in a lawsuit several years ago involving the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation – operators of the state landfill in Johnston. She said Brien was paid $440,000 for a willfully inflated property appraisal.
Baldelli-Hunt got a hearty round of applause after the tirade, but what she failed to mention was that Brien was dropped as a defendant in the litigation and the state never bothered to try proving the allegations.
Earlier, Brien rebutted a similar attack from Baldelli-Hunt, during a portion for the debate when she had an opportunity to ask him a question of her own crafting. How could he be entrusted with a budget of $144 million when his own personal finances were in disarray, she asked, alleging that Brien had let his home go up for tax sale three times.
In a tone of dry understatement, Brien told the mayor he had no idea what she was talking about. Scolding the mayor, he added, “Know your facts, Ms. Baldelli-Hunt, before you make those kinds of irresponsible statements.”
The two also hit each other on the issue of Barry Field, which could be abandoned as the gridiron for the WHS Villa Novans. Baldelli-Hunt said she supports relocating the football field to a new park next to the high school, but she wouldn’t say what she intends to do with the parcel. Baldelli-Hunt was criticized earlier this year for launching a petition in Superior Court to nullify deed restrictions on the use of Barry Field for education-related purposes, doing so without obtaining the required consent of the School Committee.
Baldelli-Hunt said she obtained verbal consent for “freeing up” Barry Field from members of the school committee before she appointed them, adding that any member who denies having done so is “not truthful.”
“Am I to understand the School Committee took a vote?” Brien intoned.
“I didn’t say that,” the mayor said.