Bill Dwight Show

But, I haven’t actually said why I support her yet…at least not during this election.

Part of the problem with putting this off until the day before the election is that the endorsements for Clare Higgins in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Republican and La Prensa have already said much of what I was inclined to say … so I’ll just tell you why I admire Clare Higgins and why I have grave concerns about Michael Bardsley.

I have known Clare for sometime… I first encountered her when I went along as a board member of People’s Institute with the director, Maryann Ryan to lobby for Community Development Block Grant Funds for an elevator. The deal is… you apply for these federal monies that the City allots for qualifying projects… projects that improve the lot of people in need. Before we made our pitch Clare got up to speak in favor of a children’s play structure for Pulaski Park. It’s there today.

We were astonished at her casual advocacy and her command and understanding of the processes. She was a day-care manager who sounded like an uber policy wonk with a compassionate agenda and an amiable style. If you’ve seen any of the debates you’ll know what I’m talking about. When she talks… it isn’t studied or rehearsed… she knows and understands the most complicated matrixes of government and she combines that with clear, considered honest explanations.

Anyway, the director and I were so impressed that we encouraged her to run for mayor then and there. She was modest and laughed and said she was just trying to get a place for moms to take their kids downtown.

A couple of years later when she decided to run for City Council I volunteered for her campaign because I discovered that she was also one of the most effective champions for people who did not enjoy access to wealth and the privileges it brings. She was a social justice activist before it was called social justice. She was fighting and lobbying for not just play structures for kids… but housing for single mothers and the under-employed… and security for victims of abuse… and shelter for the homeless… and above all… dignity for people who suffered from bigotry and oppression. And she did this at a time in our City when there was considerable resistance to those ideals… and she succeeded with grace and humor… where many failed.

That is the way she conducted herself as a Councilor as well… she garnered the most votes in every election she was in … I mean the most votes of every candidate for every office… more than the mayor… more than any other councilor…. because she was thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate and effective and the voters knew it.

I later came to serve on the Council with both Michael Bardsley and Clare. Mary Ford was mayor. I was sworn-in while a fight was brewing over the housing project at Hampton Gardens. The complex was built with federal money from Housing and Urban Development to provide affordable and subsidized housing. The owners were inclined to take up Bill Clinton on his short-sighted decision to allow them to opt out of their loan agreement early and convert their property paid for by you and me… to market rate apartments. Clare and Mary Ford were doing all of the heavy lifting with the negotiations trying to preserve the affordability. Mary Ford was taking an enormous amount of heat from all sides… as was Clare. But, they pushed and persuaded the divided Council to approve a call for rent control… which forced the owners to negotiate a settlement to preserve affordable apartments. It was hard and it was ugly.

Just like the search for a location for an emergency shelter for the homeless. But, Clare was there… she was the firewall along with Mary Ford…fighting to see that it happened despite some of the most vile neighborhood reactions.

She was the same way as the Mayor. She governs from her conscience and her convictions. Clare Higgins has never made a politically expedient choice in her life. She negotiates and compromises and makes decisions for the city…. not for her career or her personal legacy or her personal gain.

Michael Bardsley has very little to show for his sixteen years in public service. He was the Council president for much of the time I was on the Council. And when he was confronted by the councilors for his ineffectiveness he promised to reform and be more responsive and more pro-active… he continued to disappoint until he was voted out of the position almost unanimously.

His offer of change …now…is a platitude. Whatever change he is talking about was never been realized in the sixteen years he has been in office. No one was in a better position than Councilor Bardlsey to arrange, promote and participate in public conversations then the Council President who was also one of two Councilors who represented the entire City.

The discussion about the Landfill expansion started over ten years ago. Council Bardlsey didn’t call for outreach or public conversation or facilitate information meetings. The same is true of every hot button issue on the table now… or that occurred over the sixteen years he served.

David Narkewicz, by comparison, did more in one year than Councilor Bardlsey did during his entire tenure.

But, my greatest concern is the budget and budget management. That’s where everything starts and ends. The budget determines the disposition of every municipal issue from the sewage back-ups on Bridge Rd to the landfill expansion to the school challenges.

Clare Higgins has maintained one the most stable city economies in the state… despite some unique challenges.

Michael Bardsley, on the other hand, has never met with the Financial Director of the City… that means I have had more conversations in the past several years about the city’s finances with the chief architect of the $70.5 million budget than the man who aspires to be the next mayor. That means anyone who has visited Chris Pile… the financial director, only once to discuss the budget has spent more quality time trying to understand the dynamics of the document than the man who hopes to be the guy in charge soon… the person who may very well have to make decisions about this year’s budget because the governor may end up cutting promised money because the state is coming up short.

Michael Bardsley has called for a ten-year plan… except when I asked him what his plan was for a few months from now he said it’s still being played out in his mind. That’s makes me very worried.

Michael has known for some time that he wants to be the mayor. But, it seems he’s never thought much beyond his ambitions for the position. He was always cautious… to a fault… as a councilor… so as avoid anything that might jeopardize his run for mayor and as a result many of his choices were often expedient and without conviction. They were based on a calculus that would lead to this point… to tomorrow .. to election day… to be voted mayor. I have seen no evidence that he has thought much beyond Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009.

Clare Higgins is the exact opposite. Clare evolved naturally into an administrator and a leader…she didn’t aspire to it. She always started and ended from a core of principles that are rock solid. As a result, I too have disagreed with her policy positions… maybe even more than I have disagreed with Michael’s, in fact… but I’ve always trusted her motives because she was working for a city she truly loved because she loved it….and all of its facets and permutations.