Which qualities make a good mayor?

LACONIA — State Rep. Mike Bordes and Ward 1 City Councilor Bruce Cheney are vying for the mayor’s office. The Laconia Daily Sun asked the candidates, "what makes a good mayor?"

Mike Bordes

For Bordes, 48, the mayor’s position is much more than ceremonial — a good mayor is the public face of the city, and should use their position to advocate for its residents in all manner of public life. In his position, that means using coalitions he’s built in his time in the Statehouse to push lawmakers to help the city with things like the cost of infrastructure resulting from the State School development.

The city manager holds the keys to the city, but the mayor holds the bullhorn. Their ability to influence change, to set a direction, and act as the connection between voters and the city manager to get work done is of the utmost importance, Bordes said.

“The mayor is basically, in my view, the face of the city,” he said. 

Bordes is a three-term representative in Concord, and serves on the county delegation’s Executive and Budget committees. 

For the city’s constituents, the issue of homelessness — which has quickly become a political lightning rod this local election cycle — is the top concern expressed to Bordes, he said, and he’s personally worked with property owners to clean up camps following periods of trespassing and vandalism. 

“Those problems have been going on,” he said. “It was always a problem, but I feel like it’s really amplified recently.”

A four-phase program offered at the county level connects individuals in the court system with services they need, like work release programs, or counseling and treatment, but the judicial system stymies its progress, he said. If elected, he’ll work with the courts to encourage judges to take advantage of programs like that more often.

“My connections and the coalition I have formed at the Statehouse and with senators, I feel that we could get a lot more done for Laconia, with me doing the dual role like that,” he said.

On the development of the former State School property, Bordes said he’d push hard to get the state to assist the city in the cost of infrastructure improvements and expansion that will likely be required when the project is underway. He’ll continue to fight for state money for the cause, and said he was a cosponsor of a failed bill that would have appropriated infrastructure money for the project. 

“It was to give $3 million back to the City of Laconia from the sale of the State School property to build on infrastructure and all those expenses, with a development like that that’s going to occur,” Bordes said. “We’re going to have to increase our fire, police, [department of public works]. That’s a significant increase in population, we need to be prepared for it, so we have to find a way to get the state to fund some of these aspects of this growth in Laconia.”

The question of housing affordability is a difficult one, Bordes said. Market fundamentals make building low-priced housing difficult, but he thinks an effective solution would be to encourage companies with high-paying careers — not just jobs — to move into the city. Tax incentives for new businesses are one avenue of achieving that, he said, and they’ve proven successful in other locations.

“We need to sell the Lakes Region,” Bordes said. “I think that’s really the way to go.”

Many jobs in Laconia are seasonal and, while the tourism industry is a huge deal for the city, “once winter comes around, it’s hard for people to pay their bills.”

Bordes said he would support encouraging other non-taxpaying properties, like those owned by nonprofits, to enter into payment in lieu of taxes agreements with the city, just as the Taylor Community has done. This would also help fund essential services provided to those properties like public works, police and fire.

“Guess what goes up when our tax rate goes down? Our home values,” Bordes said. “This would bring more income to the city, it would help take some of the burden off of the taxpayers' back.”

Bordes said he isn’t a “straight, party-line” guy, and he thinks it’s time for a change in leadership, and new voices in city government.

“I am very proud of the city, I love the city,” Bordes said. “I’m able to work across the aisle very easily, I’m good at building coalitions.”

Bruce Cheney

For Cheney, 82, the mayor “sets the tone,” he said, and can communicate the vision of the council to the public. The mayor should also listen to constituents and bring issues to the attention of those in positions to solve them.

He’d work hard to build close relationships with the others elected to serve on the city council, and to understand where they come from, and where they’d like to see the city go on various questions, and he’d advocate for the interests of the city to the Legislature. 

“It would be my obligation to set the agenda on a regular basis and to make proposals,” Cheney said. “I see the job as a lot more ceremonial than my opponent does.” 

A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Cheney served as homeland security adviser to two governors, created and maintained New Hampshire’s first 911 emergency communications system, and spent 20 years as chief of police in Gilford and Laconia. Cheney was elected to the city council in Ward 1 in 2018, and served four terms. 

A principal problem facing the city in the near-term, Cheney said, is the development at the former State School property, where Pillsbury Realty Development promises 2,000-plus new units of housing.

“The impact of 2,000 houses, I don’t think has registered with people,” he said. “I doubt it will only be two people per home.” 

Referring to presentations made to city councilors over the last year which provided little in the way of details, Cheney offered a familiar remark: “we need some guarantees,” he said. “Put it in writing.”

“The State School property, I think, is one of those areas where we need to hammer those things down,” he said, referring to the widely-anticipated need for improved sewer, water and other facets of infrastructure — things he’d like to get the State of New Hampshire to help shoulder the burden.

On homelessness, Cheney remembers back to his time as a police officer, and later as a leader in Lakes Region departments. In his day, orders for officers to spend time each shift walking the beat helped keep order in the streets, and also assisted officers in better understanding the issues faced by residents on a daily basis. Over the last year, Cheney pushed for the police department to do the same, and it worked, he said, with department statistics supporting the notion. 

“I’ve dealt with homelessness all my life, there’s a lot of these people that need services,” he said, noting in addition to social services, some people simply can’t afford homes, due, in part, to an influx of big-money buyers during the COVID era, who drove real estate prices up. That dynamic also contributes to higher tax bills paid by residents, despite city tax rates steadily declining. 

Solving homelessness isn’t an easy task, and certainly can’t be done in a couple of years, let alone a decade, he said. But there are tangential issues which can be addressed, like economic development, and enforcing laws against trespassing on private property, for example. 

“We can’t arrest our way out of this, there’s no way,” he said regarding loitering. “Police can be a solution for those issues that are criminal. That’s absolutely a place where police can be of use.”

“We need to do something about the industrial park,” Cheney said, noting attracting businesses who can pay higher wages would go a long way for the city. He’d like to work with Joia Hughes, the city’s new economic development and housing director, to “sell the city.”

Of supreme importance to the city, in Cheney’s eyes, is the safeguarding of a good and effective hospital. Noting Concord Hospital’s pledge to remain in the city so long as it's financially viable to do so, Cheney said he’s going to push hard to get hospital leadership to take a seat at the table and work through issues with the council.

“The contract runs out in May, it’s a matter of the full council” he said, noting he’ll encourage regular reporting from the Concord Hospital Health System. “There’s a huge place on that hill that’s wasted, that we need to fix. We have no maternity ward. I think we need to know more about the financials of the hospital. This place will live or die, based on if they break even.”