Ward 5 seat on the line on Tuesday

LACONIA — A split City Council appointed Steven Bogert to the vacant Ward 5 seat in July. The term Bogert was tapped to fulfill expires at the end of this year, and next week, voters in Ward 5 will decide if he should remain in the seat, or if they would be better represented by Bree Neal.

In a sense, this is an appeal of City Council's decision. Bogert, who represents Laconia in the Statehouse as a representative, was appointed to the seat following the death of longtime Councilor Bob Hamel. Bogert was selected over Neal, who founded and ran a barbershop downtown before selling the business earlier this year.

The Daily Sun asked the candidates for their views on several issues that are likely to come before City Council in some form or another.

Flying of flags

The question of which flags could be flown from city-owned poles came to a head in June, when a proposal to fly the Pride flag during Pride Month failed to gain support on the council. Since then, the council’s Government Operations Committee has been working with the mayor’s Committee on Human Relations to establish a policy that would detail the process for displaying flags on city-owned property.

It’s still in negotiation, but the current proposed policy draws a distinction between flags flown on flagpoles — only flags for the country, state and city, as well as the POW/MIA flag, would be permitted — and so-called “banners” hung from other poles, such as light posts.

Bogert said he likes the direction the policy is headed. “I’m all for that,” he said, adding he agrees the city should only fly specific flags from its flagpoles, but that the public should have access to a process which would allow them to fly banners from streetlights.

He said that Pride banners should be among those permitted.

“I don’t take issue with citizens being able to fly banners for a certain amount of time,” Bogert said, adding that outside groups should pay for their banners, and cover the costs associated with having the city install and remove them. “Our society is made up of all types of people, we have all nationalities, all personalities. As long as it meets the criteria, as long as it’s not rude, lewd or lascivious, everyone has a right,” Bogert said. “As long as they’re tasteful, I don’t have a problem.”

Neal also favored the proposed flag policy. She said that city-owned flagpoles should only fly specific, approved flags, but other banners, including the Pride banner, could be appropriate for lamp posts.

“I am for any kind of creative way to represent any group, marginalized or otherwise, as long as it’s peaceful and welcoming and inclusive,” she said. Regarding the flag policy, she said she would like clarity.

“I would like to see a lack of a gray area. Remembering both sides of an issue, there are going to be people that are for something and against others, it will have to be a policy that can be applied across the board,” Neal said. “I am not a fan of last-minute exceptions; it has to be thoroughly thought out before it can be implemented.”

Housing

Both candidates agreed the city has a shortage of housing, but were measured about what, if anything, City Council should do about it.

Bogert said there were other boards in the city — planning and zoning, specifically — that dealt directly with land use and housing development, and the role of City Council was to “provide them with a 10-year plan of guidance. ... The boards should be autonomous.”

“You have all these people you appoint, you provide them with the rules and allow them to do their jobs,” Bogert said. “The city council needs to stay neutral, it’s not trying to influence one way or another. I’m not on the [land use] board, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to start a bandwagon for or against to try and influence the boards and apply undue pressure on them.”

However, Bogert said city council can establish city ordinances that would “encourage development and growth and provide guidance for the boards to work within.”

Neal noted that “we’ve always had a problem in the Lakes Region with low housing stock. I find that it’s been magnified over the past few years.” She noted that she and her husband are caught up in the market, as they are trying to purchase their first home.

“We used to have to compete with people buying second homes from the Massachusetts area; now it’s competing with people paying hand-over-fist, exorbitant amounts” from farther-flung parts of the country, she said.

“From a long-term standpoint, you have to have a balance of all sections of your citizenry, because without that your economy can flip upside-down and you’d be in trouble,” Neal said, listing a possible scenario where there would be more people in local nursing homes than there would be students in schools. “That would eventually create a very bad tax situation.”

State School

When it came to the former Laconia State School property, a sprawling tract of land owned by the state and had been used as a school for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, and later as a prison, both candidates preferred to see it developed.

There’s currently a deal, yet to be finalized, in which a private developer would take control of the property to do just that.

“I would like to see a mixed-use arrangement, a little bit of something for everyone,” Bogert said, adding that he’d like to see some affordable as well as some luxury-level housing built there. “There are some opportunities there. I would like to see some business put in there, because the property is far away from the city.”

Tax cap

The city’s tax cap, which limits spending based on the previous year’s figures, plus some additional money based on cost-of-living increases and new building projects, is something that both candidates favor keeping. The existence of the tax cap means there is a finite amount of cash available for the city to invest in its programs each year.

Bogert said his preference would be to look first at infrastructure, if there’s extra money to spend.

“If we don’t stay on top of our roads, then they are going to become deteriorated,” and a road that needs to have its base rebuilt is considerably more costly than one that just needs a fresh coat of asphalt.

“There are expenses that are going to have to be met to keep a vibrant city going,” Bogert said, explaining that there’s a balance between containing costs and encouraging growth. “If you want to stagnate and deteriorate, you can keep taxes the same. If you want to keep up with trucks, if you look at the buildings the city owns, they all need some love, and it takes money to keep them up.”

Neal said the city has a means, in the form of its Tax Increment Financing districts, that allow for investment targeted at certain neighborhoods.

When it comes to the overall budget, Neal said the city should keep an eye on the labor market. Several years ago, City Hall helped the school district to boost pay to stem the loss of teachers to neighboring districts, and the same might be necessary for city departments.

“I do know that the surrounding town police departments are becoming more competitive with their pay rates. As we did with teachers, we need to stay competitive with our pay rates to continue offering top-notch services to our citizens, which is very important,” Neal said.

Vote on Nov. 7

Laconia’s municipal elections will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“If Ward 5’s willing, I definitely look forward to helping to maintain,” said Bogert, adding that he’d like to host a town hall-type meeting in his ward once per quarter.

Neal asked voters to recognize that “no problem in our city can be solved by a headline. There are no easy answers, because these aren’t easy questions. All these things are complex, they have minutiae, the solutions will be as complex as the problems.”