Angel Taveras, Democratic candidate for mayor, spoke with The Herald following Thursday's mayoral debate.
The Herald: What do you think are the most important issues facing the city of Providence and what would you do to tackle them?
Taveras: The most important issue is jobs, is getting people back to work. We've got so many people who want to work, and we have an unemployment rate in the double digits and in some of our neighborhoods it's 20 or 30 percent. So we have to focus on retaining the jobs, recruiting, and reforming.
With respect to retaining, having a small revolving loan fund so we can help people get loans, having a tax suspension program to really motivate people or have an incentive to have people improve their property, working on workplace development to keep recruiting as part of our knowledge district. Part of what we need to do is build a place where people want to do business and attract people from not only around the state, but around the region.
And I mentioned the company tonight that we were able to recruit from Connecticut, and we need to do more of that. We're not doing enough of that. We can use some of our natural advantages — arts and culture. That's something else that can attract people here and help us recruit people.
Reforming, I talked to you a little bit about that tonight, with respect to streamlining the process. We're going to have one Office of Economic Development that's going to allow us to really streamline the process, which will allow us to be a lot more nimble and will allow us to collaborate more.
Right now you try to open up a business, you've got to go to all sorts of different places. You should be able to have one-stop shopping. We don't have it, and we should have it. I can just give you a challenge — if you want, try it on the Internet, just from the standpoint of opening up a business, and you'll see how difficult it is in the city of Providence. It shouldn't be. We should have, if you want to do this, you should be able to do it simply. So that's one issue.
The other issue is education, and we touched on that a little bit tonight. I think that we need to improve our schools, and I believe that we can have all of our kids doing well, and I feel very passionately about that. Obviously, it's very personal to me, and we have a plan to do that, which I talked about tonight, from early childhood education to having different options in terms of schools, to making sure we have the best teachers, to parental and community involvement, after-school and summer programs.
The one thing I didn't touch on today is adult education, and that's actually part of it too. I think we need more adult education.
During the Democratic primary, you criticized your opponents for being "career politicians," yet you are running to make politics your career. Do you think your lack of experience in elected public office is an asset, and how would you prevent yourself from becoming like the "career politicians" that you opposed?
Well, I think the most important thing to me is, I look at it as I bring a fresh perspective to this. I've run my own small business, and as a lawyer, I've represented big companies; I've represented small companies and I've done all these different things that have given me a different perspective. I think government lacks that sometimes, when you've been in government for so long. There are folks, and I think that you can make a career out of service, but I think that when you look at all these problems that we have … I said this during the Democratic primary. I felt like basically they've had their chance; they haven't fixed it and I want the opportunity to make a difference and to improve this city.
My perspective is important I think because I have the small business perspective; I've got the public school student perspective; I've got the young child perspective growing up the way that I did; I've got the lawyer's perspective, and I think it will help me bring people together and understand a little bit about what the other side is thinking, what the other perspective is. So I think it will be a great benefit, and my background will be a great benefit.
Could you talk about your plans for reforming education in Providence, particularly with regard to using the Harlem Children's Zone as a model?
We have, for example, right now funding that we applied for for Providence Children's Initiative. It's basically based on the Harlem Children's Zone. It's called P.C.I. And I've actually started to support that already. The P.C.I. would allow us to really start the Providence Children's Zone and take a group of schools or an area to do that. What I'd like to see happen … I talked to you about the Bailey School. The Bailey School is doing that well. There's an article in the July 2010 Providence Journal that actually talks to you about what has happened at the Bailey School, where sports are going on, where kids start school early and they're there until late, where the parents are involved. And what you're seeing is kids are doing better, and we should use that as an example and expand on it into other places.
I think part of it is, I've already learned this as a candidate for mayor, ‘what are your priorities, what do you think is important.' I think people in the city have to know, this is what the mayor wants to do, and I will put people in positions to get it done. I'm going to have to provide the vision and make sure that the vision is implemented, and that's what I plan on doing.
Given the scandals that have befallen the police department, would you be in favor of changes to the police force? Could you give a yes or no answer to whether you would retain Police Chief Dean Esserman?
I'm upset about what's happened with the police department as well, but I don't want to take away from the fact that we have a police department with almost 500 members, and we're talking about a handful of officers who've been charged with crimes or wrongdoing. I want to also point out something else — what has happened in terms of the result of the alleged crimes is exactly what should happen. That is, when you find wrongdoing, you bring it out into the light of day; you prosecute them and you hold people accountable. That's what we're seeing, and that's what we should be seeing.
And we should make sure that it's not more systemic than that. That's why we'd want to do a top-down review of the police department. With respect to the chief, and I said this before, I'm going to evaluate this on a full record. I don't think it's fair, in the middle of a campaign, to make a decision on what I'm going to do. Until you are mayor, and you have all the information in front of you and really have a chance to assess the full record, that's when I think you make the best decision.
What specifically would you do to rein in the city's budget shortfall and to address the unfunded pension liability?
To address this we have to first focus on each and every city department and make sure that we reduce spending as much as we possibly can. That's the first thing. That's not going to solve the problem, but it's a step in the right direction.
The second thing, and I addressed this today as well, is the pilot issue, in terms of payment in lieu of taxes. Non-profits have to be involved and be part of our solution as well. I think what we need to do is go and focus on our labor agreements and not only in terms of our union agreements, but also our pension issues as well. We can't solve this problem without having significant reform with respect to our labor agreements and our pension system.
I talked to you a little bit tonight about the unfunded pension liability. I think a hybrid system, like the federal employment retirement system, is the right way to go. It's a lit
tle complicated, but it gives you an idea of how it's worked. I think we have to have a long-term plan, and we have one now … to pay off or to fully fund the liability, and I think that we have to look at the way that we decide what benefits are overall. So I think that the benefit structure has to be a priority overall because we can't afford what we have now. And I also don't support compounded COLAs, which have been a big part of the problem as well.
