Civil contest for city's top seat
This is the first election in 18 years that Scott Avedisian hasn't been on the ballot for mayor
Turn back the clock to April of this year and the race for mayor looked like it would be a tumultuous ride.
Mayor Scott Avedisian’s surprised everyone with his decision to leave the post after 18 years to accept the top job at the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA). Had he resigned immediately, according to the charter, the city would have been faced with a special election. Instead, he chose to wait several weeks, thereby ensuring then-City Council President Joseph Solomon the role of mayor until the completion of his term.
That didn’t ensure Solomon would get his party’s nomination, but it helped.
Rep. K. Joseph Shekarchi, long seen as a possible candidate for mayor, quickly endorsed Solomon. Other Democrats serving in elective posts, including Rep. Joseph McNamara, Senator Michael McCaffrey and Ward 9 Councilman Steve Merolla, stepped aside. Of course, as we know now, it wasn’t entirely clear sailing for Solomon. He would face a primary with Richard Corrente, who was the party’s standard-bearer in 2016 when Avedisian appeared unbeatable and the Democratic heavyweights dared not challenge him; former Providence Journal reporter Gerald Carbone, who aligned himself with the progressive wing of the party, and used car salesman Vincent Ferla. While Ferla’s name would appear on the ballot, he didn’t campaign and announced a couple of weeks before the primary that he wasn’t running.
Solomon didn’t waste time. In the role of mayor and having won the endorsement of potential serious challengers, he quickly solidified his support with what was the largest Democratic fundraiser for mayor since Avedisian held the seat. The take and the turnout, estimated at more than 400, gave him a clear advantage.
According to the latest campaign financial report filed on Oct. 30, Solomon has a total of $164,728 in his fund balance, of which $100,000 is a personal loan to his campaign. He spent $32,606 on campaign expenses between Oct. 9 and Oct. 29.
By comparison, Stenhouse reported total liability/fund balance of $16,995.24. She reported $17,811.95 from loans. Factoring in $5,854.51 spent on campaign expenses between Oct. 9 and Oct. 29, Stenhouse ended with a total fund balance of -$816.71.
Avedisian imagined Republicans would be scrambling over each other to run for the job. That didn’t happen.
Sue Stenhouse, who served as the Ward 1 councilwoman, was prepared to run for mayor in 2006, when Avedisian confided to her he was thinking of not seeking reelection. She had gone as far as preparing signs and campaign material and then, according to her account, stepped aside when Avedisian decided he wanted to stay and complete “unfinished work” including the preservation of Rocky Point.
Leading up to the declaration date other Republican names surfaced. A primary seemed possible. Stenhouse, however, was the only candidate.
The race hasn’t been the stormy ride some forecasted.
Avedisian has remained remarkably silent. He was thought to be a player if not openly campaigning for Stenhouse, then rallying his supporters to work in her camp. When asked about Avedisian, Stenhouse said she wanted to prove herself and not be perceived as riding his coattails.
Calling herself a bridge builder and the candidate who can bring people together to solve municipal problems, Stenhouse has brought her campaign door-to-door and to venues where people gather. She has attacked Solomon on his failure as chair of the Conimicut Lighthouse Foundation to take action to preserve the historical structure, suggesting the lack of action could result in the federal government revoking its deed to the city. As a result of the inaction, Stenhouse said the city lost the prospect of grants to fund preservation work.
There is no lack of issues Solomon has had to face as mayor. He has skirted a showdown over the school budget and the possibility of a suit over the school committee’s claim, supported by an audit, that the department needs an additional $4 million to meet state standards. Closed-door meetings have been held with the superintendent, committee chair and council president Merolla. “Productive” is how the talks have been characterized. Nothing is expected to happen before the election, although school committee actions to trim its budget, as required by law, eliminated funding to the mentor program and resulted in the reduction of school custodians, among other cuts.
Solomon has likewise stayed out of the fray over the simmering issue of pay for unused firefighter sick days. He has ducked calls for an investigation, saying he wants to see the results of a council audit first. Yet he was troubled enough to visit former candidate for governor Ken Block, who has been instrumental in researching unused sick time pay, when firefighters, claiming they were following up on an anonymous call, pulled a safety inspection of Block’s office. The inspection came just hours after Block was on talk radio and after he filed an APRA request to access so-called “side deals” made during Avedisian’s administration, one of which has apparently been utilized as part of an alleged scheme to allow firefighters to accrue excessive amounts of unused sick time.
Solomon said he plans to get to the bottom of the inspection, but again that’s not likely to come out until after the election.
With only days to the election he’s not likely to say anything either about the future of the City Hall Annex, which remains closed since a pipe burst in January forced then Mayor Avedisian to relocate municipal offices into the former Greene School on Draper Avenue.
He is moving ahead to reopen the Buttonwoods Community Center that had housed city human services and Westbay Community Action offices as well as some senior programs. It was closed by Avedisian, who cited costly roof repairs and voiced his intention of selling the property. The council unanimously disagreed with that plan and as mayor, Solomon announced an unnamed contractor would do the work at no cost if the city supplied the materials. He intends to relocate some city offices from the former Greene School on Draper Street that is serving as the City Hall Annex to Buttonwoods. Roof repairs started yesterday.
The future of the annex that was closed in January after a pipe burst remains unresolved. A settlement hasn’t been reached over the city’s insurance claim, yet it appears razing the annex and building a new one is the preferred course of action. The issue is cost that hasn’t been defined.
The uncertainty of the annex further fuels Stenhouse’s contention that Solomon has been ineffective as mayor and if elected to the post would do no better.
Both Solomon and Stenhouse have deep backgrounds in public service. Solomon was municipal court judge going on to be elected to the Ward 4 Council seat where he has served for 18 years. He has held the role of City Council President on more than one occasion.
Stenhouse served three terms on the council representing Ward 1, going on to run for Secretary of State, a post she did not win and then working in the administration of former governor Donald Carcieri. She later worked for Cranston Mayor Allan Fung as director of the senior center. She resigned from that job after a member of her staff dressed as an elderly woman for a press conference announcing a program where students shoveled snow for seniors. The disclosure of the impersonator, which made national news, was an embarrassment to Fung.
Solomon alludes to the incident in a mailer delivered this week in which he says he’ll “never make the city a laughing stock.” The same mailer says he’ll “never quit…Sue Stenhouse has” and he’s “never lobbied for insider deals…Sue Stenhouse has.”
They are the harshest words to come from the Solomon camp about his opponent. Solomon’s message is that he’s “one of us” and that he’s protected the taxpayers, worked to enhance road repairs and focused on the quality of life by expanding senior services and open space. The mailer makes no mention of schools.
Stenhouse’s campaign mailer is shy on specifics and rich on adjectives, including “leadership,” “integrity,” “determination,” “strength” and “results.” She argues that Warwick voters “have wisely fashioned a system of checks and balances” by having elected a Republican mayor to balance a largely Democratic controlled council for the past 26 years.
While late in the campaign, Stenhouse has been more on the attack in the past two weeks. In a release this week, she said that data she has received from the Rhode Island Department of Revenue confirm that the budget approved by the council and Solomon “is the highest tax levy in 26 years.”
She said that under the administrations of Lincoln Chafee and Avedisian, the city had steady, stabile, predictable budgets with checks and balances. She went on to say when Solomon assumed the seat of mayor “we have utter chaos in all fiscal matters including proper school funding; the Annex redevelopment; the selling of surplus city properties; proper management of our emergency rescue service fleet; a monthly loss of income totaling nearly a quarter of a million dollars in the street lighting line item as of November – and none of these items were addressed despite the 4 percent maximum tax increase imposed on our taxpayers – the highest amount allowed by state law.”
It’s a different Stenhouse than the one who talks about her qualifications and ability to bring people together when addressing community groups. Her criticism of Solomon surfaced during the single debate of the campaign (a link is available on the Warwick Beacon website), but by and large she has promoted herself as having the experience to do the job and have the right vision for Warwick.
Likewise, Solomon promotes his experience as a community leader, emphasizing that he is always looking out for the city’s best interests and the taxpayers’ dollars.
This has not been the hard fought campaign either for party nominations or for the peoples’ vote imagined when Avedisian decided it was time to leave. It is an outcome of the Democrats, who have united behind Solomon, giving him manpower and the money and, in Warwick anyhow, a nearly non-existent Republican Party with a well meaning and sincere candidate who has worked to get out her message.
