Dover Election 2023 Transcript

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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our candidates forum hosted by New Hampshire listens. And the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce. I'm Don Bryant. I will serve as the moderator for this evening's event. Bill Baber from Dover listens will serve as our time keeper for this evening. We want to thank all of the candidates for their willingness to run for public office. And thanks you, everyone who has turned out this evening. And also those who are viewing via channel 22. And Please note that tonight's session is being recorded and will be played back numerous times before the Tuesday election. As you know, Dover is having the 2023 municipal election on Tuesday, November 7th. Please visit the cities municipal elections page at www.dover.nh. Dot Gov for all of the polling, locations and times. In addition to City Council, we are also voting for mayor, school board and the various positions in each ward that manage the elections, including the supervisors of the Checklist, select Persons and moderators. This is indeed an important election, as always. Now for tonight's forum. This year there are contested races for City Council in Wards 123 and four, as well As for the at large seats. Candidates in each of these contested elections will have the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves. They will be asked to respond to several prepared questions and if time permits, we will pose questions that you submit. There are cards available in the back of the room for those who are here to submit those questions. In writing. The candidates will have two minutes to respond to the questions that we pose and one minute to respond to the questions that are posed by audience members. We start this evening with our candidates for the ward three City Council race. Please welcome Tony Retrosi and Eric Sperling. And I will ask that you hold all applause when the candidates are responding to questions. Please hold all applause until we are done with this particular ward race and then have at it. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you. We will start with Tony Retrosi. Please take a minute to introduce yourself by answering the following question. What is something you thought that you knew about city government but later learned? You were wrong. 

It's a big list. I'd like to thank Don and Bill and certainly the Chamber for hosting this. My name is Tony. I'm on the ethics Commission for the City of Dover. My wife and I own Atlantic gymnastics here in town. We've had the business for 29 years. During that time, we've had about 30,000 different families that have come through. My I have another business called Jim Momentum and through that business I've been able to travel around the world coaching and working with Olympic gymnastics teams and World championship teams. We have two children that both went through the Dover Public School system that now live in Colorado. The thing that I I learned the most, I've had an opportunity to meet with the heads of nearly all the departments in town, and I realized I woefully underestimated the complicated nature of city services, the fire, the police, public works, the school system, the libraries. As residents, we see the finished product. It's like going to a restaurant and seeing the the food on the table, but we don't see what went on behind the in the kitchen. 

Thank you so much, Eric Sperling. Same same question. 

Yes, thanks. Thanks for putting. The other quick introduction I've been in Dover for 20 some odd years raised in New Hampshire myself and. Toronto, about the country a little bit before I settled back here to raise my family. I have two children who've gone through Dover, raised them both here and really, I think that the thing that I thought and knew about city government that I I learned even more about was the complexity of the government itself and how difficult it is to change. Things you know, quick example would be thinking about just the number of commissions and committees that are out there are over 19 commissions and committees. You know the seven different unions within Dover as well. So change is hard. It's actually harder than I thought it might be. So that's a quick highlight all. 

Right. And I will. Stay with you for to answer this question as you look ahead to the next 5 to 10. In years, what in your opinion will be the biggest challenges for Dover and its citizens, and what can we do to successfully navigate those challenges? 

I think there's really two things that I kind of boil things down to, and obviously there's a lot of intricacies to to each one of those. The 1st is really kind of managing the growth within Dover. Dover is a great city. That's why many of us live here. But the word is out and the demand for housing in Dover is is pretty. Great. Along with that comes a lot of complications and it becomes very difficult to to manage that growth in an effective way that doesn't ruin kind of the the characteristics of Dover that taxpayers have come accustomed to, the rural nature of Dover and those types of things. The second thing that I think is pretty critical is. Keep them. Dover, Dover. Affordable. You know, there's a lot of talk about affordability within Dover and really one of the things that comes down to. Is putting taxpayers first. And making sure that in general, we're able to keep taxes low to keep the current residents in Dover being able to stay within Dover. Themselves, there's a lot of talk about making more affordable housing, which I believe starts with a lower tax rate overall. So managing spending and growth at the same time I think is a really challenging for Dover as a home. 

All right, Tony, same question well. 

Affordable housing is a keystone issue. It ties back to so many other issues in the city. Employers like my wife and I, we're having a difficult time bringing bringing staff in. If they can find housing, it's often unaffordable for many people, they're paying more than 50% of their monthly wages in into housing. That leaves little expendable income to spend in the local economy. We need, we need to fix the housing crisis, we need to continue to find ways. To use market forces and local incentives to grow the housing stock in all areas, not just high end homes, not just small homes, but everything in between. So people of all careers can find a place here. Our firefighters, our teachers, the police, they all deserve to live in the city that they serve. And right now that's unattainable for a lot of people. The Planning department is ahead of the curve in negotiating with large scale developers, whether they're working on with, with private developers in the permitting process. To get projects online instead of a project just sitting and waiting also working that in new projects that there are some affordability requirement. But we do need to manage that growth. We can't outgrow our infrastructure. We have limited resources. I support what the current Council is doing with the Community Housing needs Committee that's going to provide feedback to the town, but also recommendations we need to continue thinking of new and innovative ways, much like the cottages that went up on Back River Rd. That looks to solve a problem without creating unwelcome issues. That's going to burden us in the future. 

All right. You've both spoken about the challenges for Dover and its citizens. As you look ahead to these next 5 to 10 years, what, in your opinion will be the biggest opportunities for Dover and its citizens, and what can we do to take full advantage of those opportunities, Tony? Ask you first. 

I I I've been fortunate that my work has taken me. All over the world, I've seen beautiful countries and I've seen beautiful places in our country. But Dover's my home. The natural beauty that surrounds us, the forest, the rivers. With the ocean close by, it makes Dover unique. Like in real estate, it's all about location. And as my my wife and my mother-in-law always told me, it's location, location, location. We are in a desirable area on the rivers that we can use close to the mountains. Close to the sea with easy access to the highways that can get us to to airports. If we have a plan with the mix of residential and commercial locations, downtown Dover can be a destination for shopping and dining as well As for people to live. Whether it's people that are living in in the Boston area and stopping in Dover on their way. To the mountains. Or people that. Live in Dover using our downtown area is a huge asset. It's a walkable town. If we follow the plans that are in place for growth, we can truly be the city that people can afford to live, work and raise a family. 

Eric, same question. 

Absolutely. I think there's a lot of opportunities in place. I think the foundation of what has been put in place in Dover is fairly solid. You know, if we look a lot of the work that's been done over really the last decade or so, things like bringing the down Easter to Dover, the Children's Museum to Dover, the community. Trails, even the downtown revitalization that the efforts have been going. Going on, there's been a lot of effort put in. I think the real opportunity lives for citizens in Dover is to really finish these projects right now, you know, with Dover's growth, there has been a growing homelessness issue. There's a lot of problems in accessing a lot of these investments have been made previous like. You know, people are afraid to use a community trail. You know, there's needles being found by the Children's Museum. I think the opportunity in front of us is really to kind of finish and protect these projects that have invested in the foundation is there. It's really kind of starting to Polish this up and and really finish it and have citizens stand up for what is right for Dover and what is right for everyone else. The other piece of it is really just again. I'm back to to rein in spending a little bit. You know, I don't think Dover has a huge issue with spending, but it needs to be watched closely. We need to start thinking about things like, you know, starting a zero budget for each each department. And that basically means every year they their budget starts at 0 and we need to go through line item by line item and there needs to be a justification. In the commercial world, this happens quite frequently. You know what may have been right for one year may not be right for the next year and it becomes to prioritizing spending. You know, if we need things like wastewater treatment and sewage, it's very important that we reprioritize funds towards that infrastructure. So in short, I think a lot of it is really just kind of finishing what we started and protecting the investments that have already been made within Dover. So people can enjoy the community that's been built. 

All right, staying with you, Eric, as you look around Dover today, what programs or policies give you the most pride or hope and why? 

Yeah. So a little bit of a different take. I think one of the things that makes me really proud and I know this is a little bit controversial, but is the new high school. I think the new high school is an anchor for our community. We are a bedroom community and I think we need to recognize that my daughter has had the opportunity to go through and graduate over high last year with a kind of a focus on sports medicine. I think the vocational opportunities that are afforded. And then the the high school are are real important and it's not to say that the high school doesn't have issues. Certainly there's a lot of struggles and a lot of housekeeping that needs to be done within the school system as a whole. But I'm very optimistic towards the schools and towards quite frankly a lot of the enthusiasm that the team. Have within the schools themselves this some issues that definitely need to be figured out. I think we get great value out of the school system. That being said, I think we can be more effective on spending the money that's in the budget currently. 

Well, there, there's so much as I stated, I've been able to work in some wonderful place. But I'm so proud of Dover and. I've picked up a. Little bit from every place that I've been and when I come back over what I see is our schools are are consistently rated some of the best in the state, our libraries, a beautiful resource and the downtown is on the verge of being such a vibrant. Area we have one of the best recreation programs in the state and in the town we have indoor and outdoor swimming pools as well as ice arenas. There are places all over the world that don't even come close to this for a town of roughly 33,000 people, we have something for. Or nearly everyone. It's a it's a great start. We do need to manage the growth so that as we go forward, people can still use the things. Around town, people will still have the pride and still be able to use the school and enjoy the the recreational areas that Dover is so proud of. 

All right. And staying with that, we know Dover has so many. Things what is missing? What does Dover need and why is it important? 

Well, as a gymnastics coach, I'm often asked to plan 12 or 16 years in the future, and then I have to take that plan and I have to manage it and I have to tinker with it and make adjustments as time goes on. So I stay on the right course. There's always going to be room for improvement in adjustments. That's just the that's just the way it works. We're a city. That's 400 years old. We have an amazing history, but we can have a brilliant future if we have a plan that we can. 

Check with. 

The A creed that I have that. I use in the gym often is when you have a. When you give a dream a timeline, it becomes a goal. When you give that goal a path, it becomes a plan. We have goals and we have dreams in Dover. We have planning that's already going on. I want to be able to contribute to that plan going into the future. 

Eric, same question. 

Yeah, I think the the, the one thing. That I look. At Dover, is is missing. Is really just a a budgeting process that's much more like a commercial environment and then starting being able to prioritize spending again. I go back to the the $0.00 budget within within the department. I think we really need to rein in the spending a little bit. We need better fiscal responsibility as a whole to be prioritized projects. You know, the hot topic right now is obviously the the run off and starting to look at. You know what's done with rain water? You know, a lot of that is because of the deferred maintenance over the years. You know, if that was budgeted properly, you know, years ago since of our fathers, we might have a better opportunity to keep, to keep taxes a little bit. 

Lower this is a question that was submitted by the audience and. You will have. One minute each to respond. And Eric, what have you done to explore the current budget process and how the city actually spends funds as versus the perceived and what are your top three recommendations one minute? 

Yeah. No, absolutely, that's that's actually a great question. I have actually looked past not only this year's budget, but previous years as well to have an understanding of where the greatest rate of change is is starting to be seen within. In there, the school system and the school tends to be the hot button because it is the majority of the spending that's within the within the city as a whole. However, if we start to look a little bit deeper in some of the spending and administration as opposed to people that are actually out there fixing our streets and doing those things that right that has raising. Quite a bit faster than the rest of the budget percentage wise, so there's an absolute an opportunity to look at, you know where hiring is being made and you know where we should be spending money. 

All right, Tony. 

I I've learned a lot from the budgeting process when I met with Mike Joyal and and different department has about what each one does looking at the budget. It's such a complicated issue because it's the the goal is always changing. If we look at the fire department right now in. 1970s, there were 13 full-time firefighters, and in I think it was 1972. During that year they had 700 fire calls that they went out on. This last year, there were over 7000 calls. There are still only 13 full-time firefighters. It's not as simple as just saying. Here's where we need to make cuts. Here's where we need to buy. It's a very complicated issue, and it's impossible to give the information necessary in 30 seconds. 

All right, another question posed by an audience member, Tony, this is directed to you. First, what is your stance on the Central Ave. improvements that were proposed in 2019? There were a lot of markers put on walls and landmarks around Pine Hill Cemetery and the intersection with Stark Ave. but nothing else has happened. 

I I'm honestly just stuck with that one. I don't have enough information to get give a coherent answer. 

Eric, you know this is kind of comes back to one of the things that I talked about a little bit earlier and that's Dover starts a lot of great projects and I think they're they're very well-intentioned but never finishes a number of the projects. You know, I think a lot of the markers that were put up, I did see quite a few actually vandalized and destroyed, which is saddening, you know, and I I do, I don't know the reason why it was stopped, but I do believe that if we cannot keep things in working order and looking decent. That maybe it's not the best best spend of money to keep those markers in place. 

All right. Eric, question from the audience. How do you think climate change is going to be affecting Dover in the future? What are your solutions to the coming extremes? 

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. The climate is changing as, quite frankly, it has since the beginning of time. It is real. It is something that's happening. You know, I think we've all seen winters become much more milder. Obviously storms are getting a little bit more ferocious as well. Once in 100 year Storm seem to be almost in the annual event. At this point, you know Dover's responsibility I think is just to be a good steward of the environment and and manage these as they. As they happen, so I'm not sure there's any specific action items that I'd have other than we we got to buckle down and and. 

Tony well there. 

Are a lot of things that citizens are going to have to do if we look at just what we're going to consider public works, what they have to do as far as managing the snow and ice cleanup by by using the brine to pretreat the roads in the winter, they're able to use tons. Less salt. By doing that, it means fewer trucks have to be out there spreading salt and clearing snow that's going to have an effect on our on our environment. Also what how much the city is paying as our climate changes that we're going to have more. Of these hundred year storms and having met with each department, had they realized that they look at that and they're already budgeting for that going forward, so that it's going to be more than what they've had to deal with in the past. 

All right, one final question and this one is posed by me and I'll start with Tony. This is not a question that is specific to ward three or to the City of Dover, but how should the Dover City Council be responding to the homeless population and the increase? In that problem. 

You can't deal with the Unhoused population without also dealing with the opioid crisis and mental health. This is this is all one thing you can't deal with one without the other. It's a bigger problem than any city Councilor can do, or the City Council as a whole. We need to be a squeaky wheel and push the county and push the state. And push the federal government so that the needs of all of our citizens are made. Our citizens aren't just. Who own houses? Or that that live in permanent structures. Our citizens are each and every person that's inside this city, and we have a responsibility as human beings to help them. 

Eric. Yeah. You know, it's a it's a really complex issue. You know, a couple things that I've read about the homelessness issue, which is something that's absolutely heartbreaking to say. I think there is a a very big reality. This cannot be solved on a local level. And quite frankly, I don't think Dover has the resources to. To start to address this, so a lot of it's going to be more triage and and and helping where we can help, you know, just looking at a you know something I read recently that talked about, I may have the numbers a little bit wrong. On this, but if we look back in the 60s in mental health institutions, there were roughly 900 beds for 100,000 residents in the United States. That number is down to 14 right now. So there is a big gap in mental health that needs to be addressed. Quite frankly, it's not going to be at the local level. I think a City Council has an obligation to advocate at both state and federal levels to get funding. To address this, you know, to be real blunt over, can't afford to even begin to to address. This issue. 

Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. Tony Retrosi and Eric Sterling, candidates for City Council in Ward 3. Thank you so much. We now move on to our race in Ward 2. Unfortunately, Robert Warwick could not be with us this evening. He is out of town for work. He was able to record his responses to the candidates questions ahead of time. We will play that recording. Then we will invite his opponent, Tim Casey, to introduce himself and answer those same questions. 

Good evening everyone. My name is Robbie Borak and I'm the current city Councilor in Ward 2, seeking reelection to a second term. Some of you may know me as Robbie Hinkle, but I was recently married. This past July. I'd like to start by thanking the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce and Dover listens for hosting this forum and allowing us to share our visions for the city and to Don for being our host this evening. I'd also like to thank the residents who came out tonight. Those are watching on TV or streaming online and to my fellow candidates for their interest and engagement in the process of making Dover a great place to live and work. I hope my answers to the following questions help to give you an understanding of my vision for the city, and I hope to earn your vote on Tuesday, November 7th. And just a reminder of Ward two now votes at the Dover Ice Arena at 110 Portland Ave. What's something you thought you knew about city government but later learned you were wrong about? When I first ran for office, I thought that city government had the ability to directly address some of the critical issues we face. But I later learned that cities and towns do not have certain legal authority unless that authority has been expressly granted by the state government. For example, I thought we could address the affordable housing crisis by offering property tax incentives to developers. In reality, we can over we can only offer tax reductions on buildings that have been designated as Community revitalization projects, which is typically limited to historic or older buildings being rehabilitated in an effort to revitalize downtown areas. Locally our. Best chance to advance affordable housing is limited primarily to two things. The 1st is making zoning changes, which can increase building density and the overall housing stock, but it isn't guaranteed to bring more affordable housing units. The second is that the city can enter into public private partnerships with developers, where the city offers a non tax incentive in exchange for the developer promising a certain number of affordable housing units. If elected, I plan to pursue both of these options, but it's important that we also advocate to our state legislators to make the needed reforms at the state level. As we look. Ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what, in your opinion, will be the biggest challenges for Dover and its citizens, and what can we do to successfully navigate those challenges? Dover is one of the fastest growing communities in the state and has one of the lowest median ages. As I look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, one of the biggest challenges I see for Dover is the ability to continue to grow sustainably while. Maintaining our ability to attract young working families. And keep our existing families and their homes. This is a three-part issue in my mind. The 1st is ensuring that our budget and capital improvements program are drafted in a way that addresses the need to repair and replace aging infrastructure like roads and water and sewer lines, some of which are from the 1800s. The most effective way to do this is to proactively undertake these projects and not reactively wait for something to occur like an emergency pipe replacement. The second part of growing sustainably is to address climate resilience locally. We can do this by setting a target date and creating an action plan for moving the municipality away from fossil fuels and onto renewable energy. This also has the added bonus of saving taxpayers money on city operating costs. Through cost savings generated by the new Community Power Coalition will have the ability to build renewable energy generation projects, such as a solar farm, which will increase the amount of renewable energy powering municipal residential and commercial properties while reducing our carbon footprint and further lowering energy costs. The third part of growing sustainably is ensuring that we have the right mix and volume of housing available for people at all income levels to ensure that young working families just starting out can raise families here and that seniors are retirees on fixed incomes can age in place. We can change our zoning regulations to allow for greater housing density, particularly around the downtown core and on public transit lines. We must also continue to prudently pursue public private partnerships for housing development, ensuring the agreements include the development of mixed income housing with a focus on affordable units. If we plan and take action in these three areas, we can successfully overcome the challenges to sustainable growth and create an affordable community where all residents can thrive. Next question, as you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest opportunities for Dover and its citizens and what can we do to take full advantage of these opportunities? As Dover continues to grow, one of the biggest opportunities we have is to increase public engagement in civic life, giving residents more of a voice in decision making. While the city has a robust website and great e-mail communication channels to alert residents of what is going on in city government, we need to adapt our operations to take advantage of advances in technology and communicate with residents in ways that work for them. Not everyone has a computer or access to the Internet in their homes, making our website and e-mail channels and accessible. However, in 2023, almost everyone has a cell phone, so the city should look into investing into a text messaging alert system that can be used to advertise public events and notify residents of things like public hearings on proposed city policies and programs. This will increase awareness. And give people the opportunity to participate in the decision making process. We should also use technology to create short videos that explain different city functions, policies and programs in an easy to understand format. And lastly, we should create a mobile device friendly online portal that allows people to submit feedback on any of these items I just mentioned. So that their ideas can be heard and considered, even if they're unable to make it to a public meeting. As you look around Dover today, what programs or policies give you the most pride or hope and why? Dover is a progressive community and we are leading in both the state and nation on many programs and policies that improve the quality of life here. And there are two in particular that give me pride. The first that I mentioned earlier is our membership in the Community Power Coalition. Not only will it lower energy costs for our businesses and. Residents it will. Increase the amount of options customers have available for receiving renewable energy. I'm most excited about the ability for the program to generate funding for future energy generation projects, allowing us to create our own renewable energy. The second program that gives me pride in our community is our community oriented policing program. Our officers are required to go out into the city and engage with members of the community in a non law enforcement capacity just for the purpose of building relationships, helping the public to see police as partners in our community. I also take pride in the fact. That our department now includes 2 social workers who can help to address emergency calls that don't necessarily require a police response, like a mental health crisis. It also allows us to divert nonviolent drug offenders from incarceration into substance use treatment programs. In terms of what's missing and why it matters. I think the primary focus is a city LED action plan to address homelessness. The Tri-City Task Force created a plan, but we need to bring back another task force to review and revise the plan as needed, with the ultimate goal of developing a new action plan and a timeline for the development of transitional housing and a permanent full-time low barrier shelter to replace the will and warming center. There are federal grants available to help with this work, and there are social services agencies in our community with the financial means of supporting these projects as well. We should be. Applying for these grants and partnering with those organizations to truly make progress on this issue. Thank you again to the Chamber to Dover. Listens to Don fellow community members and candidates for allowing me to share my ideas and vision for the success of the City of Dover. I encourage any community members to reach out to me with questions, suggestions, or other feedback, and I hope I've earned your vote for City Councilor of Ward 2 on November 7th. Thanks and have a great night. 

I'm well. How are you? That's good. So if you. Would take a minute, introduce yourself to our audience and to the voters. Answering the following question, what was something you thought you knew about city government but later learned that you were wrong about? 

Oh, my name is Tim Casey and. I'm running for. I've been a Dover resident since 1995. One of the things I've learned about city government. It's harder to do. It's harder to run than you think. There are all kinds of INS and outs that until you're in. You don't know. You know, and there are things going on in city government that. Even if you look at the website in Dover. You can't find out. So I'm running on a. Transparent government. And fiscal responsibility. That's my. That's pretty much where I'm at. 

All right. As you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest challenges for Dover and its citizens? And what specific policies and initiatives would you recommend so that we will be able to successfully navigate those challenges? 

In Dover affordable living. On its own is a problem. I knocked on doors throughout my. Ward and. Most every door I knock on the answer is always the same. And I asked what is the biggest problem in? Dover right now. And the biggest problem in Dover is taxes. And that's what everyone says. Every single person I've talked to property owners, renters. Their rents go up when the taxes go up. You know, my mortgage goes up when the taxes go up, so. Getting spending in line. You know one of the. Things that we need to do in Dover. And I think departmental fiscal responsibility and getting the eliminating the spend. It or lose it. Mentality that's been in government for. For ages it's been there and it's hasn't gone away. All you know, if we don't spend it all, we're not going to get the budget next year. That mentality has to stop. 

All right. As you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest opportunities for Dover and its citizens? And what policies or initiatives would you recommend so we can take full advantage of those opportunities? 

I'm going to say that. The biggest opportunities for Dover citizens in Dover, and I wouldn't separate them because Dover citizens aren't over. And the biggest opportunity is the citizens. We have to get the citizens more involved. This room should be, you know, it is standing room only. But this this room should be huge and there should be hundreds of people here. OK. Right now we're looking at 50. And you know. Using what we have in Dover. Is what we need to do. We already have everything we need. I believe. It's all the citizens that. And that's what we need. And what we need. 

All right. 

As you look around Dover today, what programs of policies give you the most pride and hope and why? 

Well, we're sitting in one of dovers. Many one of Dover's best. Kept secrets and best run. Places the McConnell center. OK, I may be a little. You know. I sit on the committee, but. The McConnell Center is self-sustaining. And more of Dover more. Dover should be, you know. The recreation department is the one. One that I have, you know, I've used plenty of it and I hope everyone does. So that's where I'm saying the. Is the best policy. 

All right. And what do you think is missing in Dover and why does that matter? 

What's missing in Dover? I would say fiscal responsibility. I hear even my opponent just in his video spend he wanted to spend more money. Well, why don't we find? Out is there are there areas where we can save? You know, where can we make cuts? What can we do? Yeah, I know. Not popular make cuts. But we we have to tighten our belts. You know, we're making there the the city of Dover is making it hard to live in Dover. And I keep turning to you to answer and these are the people I'm talking to. 

It's quite right. 

OK. 

How would you or how, as a member of the Dover City Council, would you help Dover's Council work towards solving, if possible, the homeless population? 

I think you have to ask the right questions to the homeless and ask the homeless. You know, has anyone asked them why? Why are you homeless? And then find them and then point them in the right direction. If the if a police officer stops a homeless man for, you know, well for being homeless. 

Just stop. 

Ask him why are you homeless? And maybe he can help him find what they need. Whether it be through mental health. Opioid or drug programs? Or maybe it's even just helping them introduce them to someone in town that could give them a job. 

All right. And I will ask this question which had been posed by the audience earlier. How do you think climate change is going to affect Dover in the future and what are any solutions to these coming extremes? 

Climate change is there, and I was a merchant marine engineer on the ocean for 25 years. I've seen it the storms getting worse. No 25. Foot waves. But here in Dover, we're a little isolated. From that I don't. Yes, we're going to see more winter storms and we'll see more. You know more hurricanes that might come up the coast but locally? It's up to every citizen. To do their part, not. It's not for the government to mandate things, it's. You know, as far as mandating electric cars or something like that, you it's not. It's not up to me to do that. It's up to ask. I asked the citizens to help. I don't demand that they help. 

All right. Thank you so much for your time. Tim Casey, candidate for City Council, Andovers Ward 2. 

Thank you. 

We are going to take a brief pause for 5 minutes and then we will come back with our candidates from Ward one. Stretch your legs. And welcome back. We continue with our candidates for moving to the candidates from Dover's Ward. One, please welcome to the podium candidates Jesse Davies and April Richer. Welcome to our candidates. We will start with Jesse please, if you would take a minute to introduce yourself by answering this following question. What's something you thought you knew about city government but later learned that you were wrong about? 

Excellent. Hello, my name is Jesse Davies. I live in Ward one and I'm a father of three. My wife and I've been married 15 years. We have 2 girls, 5 and three, and a three month old boy. Our blessing called Dover Home. We've lived all over the world in our early 20s we decided to globetrot lived all over the world and experience a lot of places and decided to settle back home. I grew up in central New Hampshire, very familiar with Granite State and all that. Has to hold, I think as it pertains to something I learned about city government is really a distinction for most people's understanding. The Council manager system of government. And I have a neighbor that moved here from Colorado and he was. Saying hey, why? Why? Isn't why? Isn't anyone else running for mayor? And he didn't necessarily wasn't necessarily familiar with the the system of government here, and that was different where he comes from. And so that was something that I learned not too long ago and. 

Thank you, April, same question. 

Hi, I'm April Richard and I'm running for Ward one election I live. I hope you guys don't get offended, but I live in on the greatest St. in Dover on Florence St. Some of my neighbors are here. Thank you all for coming and thank you for the citizens in the Chamber and Don for and Dover listens for hosting this. I'm also married mother, I'm a teamster and my children are here to support me today. And something that I learned about government that I didn't know. I'm 47 years old and I've been a registered voter for just about 30 years and without a doubt, my the greatest misnomer I had about city government is that it was something that other people did. I have proudly warned the I voted sticker. I have instilled the importance, privilege and duty of voting on my children as I've dragged them out to vote with me. And we have served campaigns by canvassing as a family together. What I reluctantly thought about was that I would hold an elected position. And fortunately for my children, they will know that they too have the power and the responsibility to be involved because they have parents who are civic minded and politically active. 

All right, staying with you, April, for this first question, as you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest challenges to Dover and its citizens? And what specific policies or initiatives would you recommend so that we will be able to successfully navigate those challenges? 

Well, challenge is, as my new friend Robbie had posed the question the other day are sometimes opportunities as well. And Dover has a very long history, 400 years of settled history, and it has evolved many times. Obviously, we have been a mill city. We have produced things. And at this point, the challenges that we face are some of the same challenges that are faced all across the United States. We have the challenges of housing, health, mental health and drug addiction. It's all crisis is that we face all over the country and and Dover's community is no different. However, we are known as the Garrison city, which means that we. Have the ability and have through a history to rise up as a community and set the pace because we are the first established settlement in New Hampshire and growing up northwest of here. I was raised in a community where community members came out to support other community. Members I was not raised in a very affluent town, but when something needed to be done, the community stepped up and quite honestly, when I when I graduated, I was out the door. I was out of New Hampshire because there was bigger, better things to see in the world. And then I realized that New Hampshire has. The greatest sense of community out of anywhere that I've ever spent, and so. I spent the previous three weeks walking through Ward one and speaking to many people and within the community. Dover is very distinct. Everyone that I spoke to wants to keep community in Dover, wants to be a part of the Community from Mr. Charlie Lewis on Whittier. Who wanted sidewalks for 74 years and wrote letters? Almost weekly, who is also a male man, and we shared a commonality because his brother worked at UPS, which I do. And to Kaitlin on Grove St. who wants to have speed bumps because. Wants her children to be a part of the community as much as she's a part of the. Community. So I think the challenges can be large, like the housing and but it also can be small, which is keeping community so that. As we evolve and we grow in our prosperity, we also foster community to our children so that we can raise little Bob. Carriers who want to go on and be mayors and. 

Your your time is up. Thank you so much. There is only one Bob Carrier. Just. 

Thank you. 

Jesse, same answer. 

So really over. The next 5 to 10 years where challenges we're going to face, well, we're facing some unique challenges that kind of dropped in our laps pretty quickly. You know, COVID introduced a surge and work from work from home or work, remote work opportunities and migration patterns. Patterns changed. You know people that maybe been locked into Boston or locked into Connecticut or wherever. Across the country, we're able to migrate and move around and people were able to sell a home in an expensive area, buy a home here. Real estate has gone up very expensive and you know the. Kind of slow progression of growth over time has changed a lot, right? It's like a sudden like shock to the system. And I think understanding things from housing and education, it's a really big deal because if we have a good school system and continue to promote that, families want to set up. Still here and remain here and be integrated into the community if we have a transient community, we will be less invested, right? The thing that's tough is how do you promote growth and development and utilization of resources more broadly? I think the stress that people feel around taxes is very significant. That people that. Called over home for so many decades, oftentimes or almost in every case, on a fixed income. Kind of being pushed out. That's a real serious. Matter, right? My wife and I are very fortunate to have very respectable incomes and we feel strained ourselves. And we don't want to. Don't want to see that happen. I do think transparency and clarity and communication from the city government to the citizens. The taxpayer is absolutely vital. Yeah, there is this looming rain tax proposal, right? The e-mail that went out had a very obscure title, stormwater proposal, discussion forum. Whatever it was it said, hey, rain tax discussion, more people would have shown up to be involved, right? I think we need to. Do to. Do our it is clearly responsible. 

All right, Jesse, this next question directed to you. First, as you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest opportunities for Dover and its citizens? And what specific policies and initiatives would you recommend so we can take full advantage of those opportunities? 

So Dover is so awesome. We all agree. I don't think anybody would be. Sitting in this room. Here, right now, and the audience are tuning in. We didn't really appreciate where you live, right? And no one's like, man, I really don't like Dover. We have, we have a lot from the ability for tourism. Good schools we have. Commercial availability. One of the things I tell people I. Love about my neighborhood is like I have. 2 minutes from Hanford. That's amazing. How they gotta believe, right? I think the vibrancy that we have, the attraction we have that we can continue to capitalize on that when it comes to policy that would say how are we protecting the uniqueness of Dover without necessarily hampering growth overall. You know, right now I think they're multi dimensional issues from housing, homelessness, drug issues and. I feel like there's attention being given in certain places which will lead into a question a little bit later. That I'm not really sure everybody's on the same page. I think I'll. I'll pause there. 

All right, April, same question. 

So I think that our growth is an opportunity to implement programs that are beneficial not only to the citizens, but also encourage sustainable practices and things specifically that I think about are public transportation. Bike lanes and more trails. I absolutely love the new skate park, but it was recently brought to my attention that it's difficult for someone in my neighborhood on off of Broadway to get to the skate park without having to go through town and. Love to bike with my children. We spend a lot of time on our bikes and we find trails to go on. We love the Dover Trail. But it would be nice to have more availability to bike downtown, most oftenly we walk downtown because it makes me nervous to have my children on Broadway. On a bike because people are distracted while they're driving, so having more trails and more availability for more foot traffic and bike traffic and encouraging the the availability for people who want to live a greener life or the possibility for people who are. May be elderly still maintaining the same neighborhood, but being able to take the bus or or even walking paths or biking at A at being safe for them. I met a woman on New York Street who wants to walk to Wentworth Greenhouse but doesn't feel that it's safe. And again, this would allow for, you know, sustainability. It would be able for people to take advantage of the commerce in the town without having to worry about parking. I mean, I work at UPS, so I connect global enterprise everywhere. I mean packages are going everywhere, but I would much rather be spending my money and see my community spending the money downtown and more. Availability for public access. With us. 

To those things, all right. 

As you look at Dover today, what programs or policies give you the most pride and hope and why? 

I have to say that for me, housing is absolutely something that I worry about, not only affordable housing, but as Ryan Pope and I discussed the other day, attainable housing for people, whether that's renters or buyers and. I've moved to Dover 13 years ago. And my rent was $600 a month, and I lived right behind my school and it was lovely because I could walk everywhere in town, but it's not something that is is necessarily obtained in Dover right now. And I think programs like having a housing navigator, I see the passion and energy that Ryan. As and I'm excited because I feel like he's going to make some. He's going to be able to move the needle with some of the things that he's looking into. I'm also really excited about the project that Maggie and John Randolph put on back. River Rd. I think it's wonderful. I think the opportunity that they have provided is fantastic. So I like the idea of of that project specifically because I it's community members stepping up to see where they can help out. And I think that is something very unique to Dover, is very unique to to New Hampshire as a. And the other thing that Robbie had also mentioned, which I think is great, is adding to social workers to the Police Department. I think that's fabulous. I mean, it's something that we need. We know that that the Police Department is doing more than just what they were trained to do. They're now managing social issues that were beyond their training. So. Having a social worker and or and now too is fantastic. 

Programs or policies. I think that around the development sphere of everything is. Yes, we need housing. This is a this is a national crisis. I think there's been contention over how space has been used or buildings have been used. Lots have been used to. There I think there are places where properties were not being used and developers were encouraged to come in. I think there's confusion from the citizens or taxpayers side about how those incentives are structured, what the benefit is and the nature of the of the quality. Of the buildings going in, a lot of these. Units, I think the majority of people would not be able to afford your long term. Resident Dover would necessarily be something attainable or even necessarily desirable. Is that what you want and need in Dover? I think the things that so there's, I realize there's a criticism in there as well as I hope like hey move forward providing something is it ideal? There's always room for improvement. I really do love the community engagement like it's amazing to have people moving to the area that you meet and. Hardest day? What's that like? Let me tell you. Right how you get to participate. If you Tim Casey mentioned McConnell center, what a great resource. I kids use the library. Constantly we did the thousand books before. And that was 11 books a day for 110 days by the. Way that was. Insane. So but great to connect with the library. All that's available to us is fantastic and where I'd like to continue to keep you to call home. What's missing? I think. As somebody engaged in real estate and I feel like I really pay attention to what's going on in the city, I don't think I necessarily understand. What is being done to really solve the housing issues right? Like I've built housing here currently, have places being completed on 4th St. and it's been quite complicated, right? It's not something I necessarily want to continue doing myself and I don't know who necessarily want to. Take that on themselves. 

So you already answered what's missing. That was the next question I was going to ask you. That's quite all right, April. What as you look around over what is missing and why is it important that we have? 

Apologize, apologize. 

Of what we don't have. 

I I already addressed the public access transportation trails, bike paths, but in conjunction with housing I met with a a lovely couple at Apple harvest and they were saying, you know, we love our neighborhood, we love our neighbors. We would welcome additional housing solutions. In our. Side problem is, there's cars all over our street. It's already congested with with street side parking. So what's the solution to that? If we're going to add more housing, if we're going to add more apartments if you know homes are now going to be multi units, what, how can that happen? And again that is with adding more public access there. You know there is an aging population in New Hampshire. We need to find ways to address that by having opportunities for young people. So you know, a lot of younger people want to have a greener environment. They want to ride their bike to work. They want to take the bus. We are lucky to have Amtrak, obviously right here where you can hop on, go to Portland. To Boston, but having the availability for them to get to those places would allow for. You know, carless households, greener household, multi generational neighborhoods, which would give access for elderly people to move about the city to do their shopping, to go to their appointments, to have to go to entertainment spots in town. So I would love to see again more public access through trails. And buses and the other thing that I would love to see is curbside composting. Composting accounts for 24% of municipal waste, so if we could reduce that and use that food waste, I'm, I'm. Sorry, food waste. Is 24% of municipal waste. If we could use that food. Waste. And then turn it into something beneficial, such as composting. I just think that would be lovely. And I know Dover has been trying to encourage residents to compost. I just think that would be the next step to really take over into a, A, A community that people want to live in. 

All right, this is a a question that was submitted by an audience member. So you'll each have one minute to respond to this question. April, we asked this first and you mentioned the trails. What should the City Council do to oversee the new walking trails that we have drug use and suspicious activity have been seen? 

You know, that's something that. Has been brought to my attention as I've been talking to people about running for City Council, is that they don't want to use the trail and they're nervous about it. And quite honestly, I have a different experience on the trail, my children and. I and three other of the kids in the neighborhood took the trail this. I don't. I don't notice it. I'm a runner in town. I'm not. I am not ever in a in a situation where I have have encountered any suspicious or unusual activity. I'm not saying it's not happening, but how City Council addresses that, that's something that I don't know at this point because I'm not a city. City Council member is something that I would love to address because I think it would be wonderful to have more people use the trail. 

Jesse, my restating question. 

What should the City Council do to oversee the new walking trails, drug use and suspicious activity have been seen frequently. 

So just just in regard to Community trail or or anything in general with homeless homelessness or drug use, I really think feeling that there is that there's action taken. There's a response that if there is a legal activity happening that should be addressed right like. If we break a law using drugs, we're not supposed to be, there should be consequences for that. I think if, like there's a proliferation of this happening, I have been, I think at half a dozen locations can can a community space across Dover with my children that I've encountered needles, right? Like I've encountered that. I've never yelled at anyone in public, ever. I had a homeless person ramming their head into my window. My window was an ATM. When would have this year? 

Over here. 

Like to say, get away from me, right like that is that is an experience and I think enforcing those laws is important. But well, we also have an understaffed police. Or 12 open positions right now that's. I mean, that certainly needs to. 

Be addressed. All right. How do we address the homeless problem back to me. Back to you. 

I think this it's there's so much that's layered into this. I don't feel that I have a full grasp on exactly what the interplay is between different available services in the area. I think. I'm going to. Pass. Thank you. 

I think we all agree that it's a it's a layered cake, right? The homeless population is not homeless. I know at one point. It was addressed that maybe we should ask them, and sometimes I just don't think that people know what they actually need, and that includes me. And I'm 47 years old and have been adulting for a long time. So I think addressing the homeless population becomes something that is. Something we all need to be concerned about, not just bothered by so often. People want me to tell them when I knock on their door. With that, I don't want to do anything about the homeless population when in fact, at the end of my life, the only thing that I hope I can live up to is that I've done the best that I can and that I've loved as many people as I can. And that's the that is the lesson that I'm going to give my kids. So if there's somebody who has something that they need that they're not getting. And I'm able to address that and help them. I will do that. I do think that people deserve to have a roof over the head and food at the end of the. Day and and clothing on their back. 

Final question also posed from the audience. Dover spends the fourth lowest amount of per pupil expenditure in the state of New Hampshire. Do you believe that Dover public schools are receiving the proper amount of funding and would you increase, maintain or decrease the school budget if you had a say as a member of the Dover? City Council, April. 

I live in a household that very firmly believes in education, and I think that the school system has a huge responsibility on their shoulders socially to develop the next generation. So generally, if I'm going to. Have the question posed would I increase the budget for education? I would say yes. I think the state of New Hampshire does not fund education enough. In fact, my husband worked at U&H and he worked in admissions and 94% of the budget at U&H is based upon tuition and the state was supporting 6% now. I'm currently a student at the University of Iowa where I'm getting in state tuition and it costs me pennies compared to you and H and. I and I. Didn't choose Iowa. Over U&H it was just the program choice. But the state needs to be doing more to fund education it it's the most important thing we can do for the future. 

So I think when it comes to the school, I think right now the number of students is. Gradually decreasing year over year, the last few years, you have more kids going to private schools, more kids going to charter schools. Home schooling when I was being homeschooled, they're about 100,000 known home schooling children in the United States right now, it's estimated somewhere in the 6 million. Range rate. I think the cost per pupil, that's a great thing when it comes to increased spending is I think having transparency and understanding where is this money going, what is it? What is it being utilized or has being utilized? And there are a lot of concerning things being reported. I don't know if anybody heard of Facebook right people. Was in there trying to be glib. I have a neighbor that he's saying that sharing all things are going into the school. I think we have more and more administrators going in, not necessarily more staff, you know, even reports of students to be able to use certain restrooms. I don't know if that's been. Is a reality exactly, but just concerns of how that money is being utilized in the 1st place. I would say at the very least maintain. 

Thank you so much to our candidates for City Council. In Ward 1, Jesse Davies and April Richard. Thank you. 

Thank very much. 

We would like to invite up to the podium our candidates for City Council in Ward 4, Deborah Hackett and Dennis Grenier. Welcome to both of our candidates. We will start with Deb Hackett. Please take a minute to introduce yourself answering the following question. What's something you thought you knew about city government but later learned you? Were wrong about. 

I'd like to thank the Chamber of Commerce. David listens for hosting the Forum for Don Bryant for moderating and to Bill Baber for time manage. A resident of Dover, I am the mother of two adult children and two adorable grandchildren. After 43 years of teaching, I retired three years ago. 37 of those years were in Dover. I have over 2 decades worth of financial work as it appointed, elected or even volunteering. When it comes to fiduciary. I currently serve on the pool and the. Arena Commission. I am on the Board of Directors for my friend's place. Now, a typical organization flow chart is pyramid shaped. That's not true in Dover. In Dover, we have more like a a wagon wheel. The hub of the wagon wheel is the City Council. All the spokes are made-up of the city manager, the city attorney, the department heads, the chairs of 20 plus committees and all of whom provide the data and the input. Needed for the Council to move forward. With the wheel. 

All right. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Dennis, same question. 

Thank you. 

My name is Dennis Grenier. I'm able to communicate in three languages fluent and two, and English is my second language. Six months after the 911 attack. Terrorist attack on our country. I was one of 16. Employees, law enforcement that was recruited for a new mission. A few weeks later, I reported to the my new office in Washington, DC, 1 block away. From the White House. This is where I went to work on establishing. A new and. Single goal. A new office with a. Single goal to. Interdict possible terrorists. And other travelers whose intent is to do harm to our country, our citizens and property 15 years later. And after 34 years of service, I retired as an assistant director where I had managed over 500 employees and contracted. And had multi $1,000,000 budgets that I was also managing my wife, my disabled son and I moved to Dover. And always thought that the state government was a controlling factor in attracting retirees. But I quickly learned that a city government with issues with controlling their tax info. This has more of an impact on its population, especially on the retirees. Lastly, today is my birthday, so I trust that you will treat me kindly. 

It's my grandson's birthday as. 

Well, happy birthday. Can I just was that the Department of Homeland Security that that was established? 

No, that was a well, it's a, it's a. 

Oh, OK. 

Relatively sensitive department, but it was under the department. It became under the Department of Security eventually. 

If it's one of those, can't talk. 

I want you to talk about this next question. Ohh as you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest challenges to Dover and its citizens and what specific policies or initiative would you recommend so that we would be able to successfully navigate those challenges? 

Well, someone touched up on on this issue earlier and I'm going to emphasize it again and. 23 Dover was the fastest growing cities in New Hampshire. One of the. Fastest growing and in the homeless population, add in immigrants. Driving the impact of this growth will further string all of the major departments, all of the services and budgets in the in Dover. Easiest thing to do in any is to just raise taxes and throw money at the problem. My answer is to. It's a lot more challenging to manage your money, so I'm challenging the City Council. The city manager. The department heads Dale have the responsibility to take on this challenge of managing it, not just spending it. I'm ready to take on this challenge and I have background that can I can use to take on this challenge so. I'm hoping that we just don't throw money at a problem that we actually work our way through it and then and manage it. 

Deb, same question. 

We need to create a sustainable community, allows for modest growth both in residential, commercial industrial development. These must be compatible with our master plan, yet maintain our historical character. These include providing a safe environment for via our police, our fire and community services. Providing A challenging, adaptive, and safe educational program for our youngest citizens and providing A balanced housing market for individuals of all ages and incomes. We can accomplish these by utilizing common sense, fiscal management, adding to our tax base by attracting businesses with our quality of life and applying for and utilizing grants, whether it's state. Federal or private? 

All right. Staying with you for the. The next question, as you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest opportunities for Dover and its citizens? And what specific policies and initiatives would you recommend so we can take full advantage of those opportunities? 

The long-awaited waterfront development will eventually become the city's greatest source of tax revenue. In addition to providing housing, retail, and recreational opportunities for the citizens of Dover. We can take advantage of this. Of opportunity and others with continued public private collaboration business support with the city's Business Development Commission creating zoning variances and negotiating and impact fees from developers for developers that will provide infrastructure and recreational improvements. 

Dennis, same question. 

Well, I have a. Vision, that of a vibrant downtown to where the residents, the residential and the commercial businesses are just thriving. And the way that's going to be accomplished is that it's not going to be spearheaded or controlled by the city government. It's going to the city governments. Input is going to be in work, in partnership with those people, any unnecessary ordinances and regulations. Should be removed in order to maintain this vibrant and successful thriving downtown. More social social events than I did go to the Apple Harvest day such as Apple harvest with enhanced social interaction or go into details a little later. Why I'm emphasizing this between people, different cultures and ideology. Vibrant and diverse downtown can only be. Unifying for the people of Dover, it will help create an Ave. where the residents have come, they they talk to each other neighbors and sometimes they're just people from other other towns. But it's a it's a good way to do it is to just concentrate on your Midtown. And to get the government. To kind of lower off. The throat of the businesses. And then let them do their. 

Work as you look around over today, what programs or policies give you the most pride and hope and why? 

That for me, OK. 

That's for you. 

Well, as a rule. My pride or hopes do not rely on programs. Or policies they rely on people. And I'm most proud of the Police Department, the fire department. I have had. Positive interactions with them experiences with them. Both officials were very professional and they were very polite and they were courteous, so I'm very proud of them. Now, if you tie that into a policy, I guess that's a policy, but that I prefer being hopeful. And proud, proud of people not of programs. Most respond the most important responsibility of any city government is to keep its residents safe. And the in the last two months I've spoken with hundreds of Dover residents and spent more than 60 hours walking my ward. Sadly, I've noticed a lot of irate people. Many feel that they are not heard by their city government. Their concerns are not addressed. This has led to what I feel is a very divided community. I plan on unifying unifying the people of Dover. A good place to start would be to encourage. And promote civic. Volunteerism I'm already leading to taking the lead on that, and I'm convinced that people from both sides of the fence volunteer for a common cause, would lead to more unified community and that would be my, my biggest goal would be to unify this community. 

Deb's same question. 

I have a slightly different perspective. Dover's results on the 2023 National Community survey indicated that 89% of residents felt that Dover was a good or an excellent place to live. While 87% they would recommend living here to others. We received high praise for our public safety, our schools, our library, our Parks and Recreation, and our water cleanliness. Often Dover is the place that other communities come to for ideas and ways for them to improve their own communities. 

So what is missing? Dover? What would you like to see Dover have? And why is that important? 

Do you want me to do OK? Referencing the same survey, two areas of concern were noted. Meeting to address housing and a cost of living joining the nonprofit Community Power Coalition. 

That is you. 

Will help lower individual and municipal energy costs, promoting affordable housing via incentives, can provide lower rent and or more. Changes our yearly scrutiny of budget line items, shows us how to assess cost increases. My first term, I underline every single line of the budget in yellow or pink. I didn't have red and then I used that to guide me as we went through the process. I don't arbitrarily go in there and just spend, spend and spend. By hiring a consultant to examine statewide municipal salaries. We were able to provide a fair yet competitive wage scale funding within a tax cap is a challenge when our three-year averaging formula is often less than the current CPI, the City Council was able to pass the 2024 tax CAP compliant budget of less than. The allowable 3.8%. Even though the CPI was 7%. Two of our neighboring communities were able to use that 7% their budget. They get accolades. They're lauded for doing it, when in fact we. And doing it 2 or 3% of the actual the CBI is going to gauge what we're going to have to spend the cost of items. So it makes a big difference when you look at it, we had we we smoothed out three different areas to come up with a 3.8 the year before was only two point 1%. Even though the CPI was 6.5%, so you're working in a situation where constantly being. That we're not being mindful of the tax cap when we have so many other factors that we deal with for the record amount of time. 

You're out of time. For the record, you're out of time, Dennis. Same question. What? What do you think that's missing? 

What's missing? What's missing? I say two things, transparency and. And when I say accountability is I'm talking about. There are managers, city manager, all these managers. The school department has. Principals and superintendents. They need to be accountable for their expenditures. The transparency is at the. I went. I sat in this room and there was a lady that spoke in front of the school board. And she had very valid comments. About the schools and then so forth and the school board literally just stared through her. She they never commented on her on her concerns. Not that not, I don't know what you had for 5 minutes and that was it. I'd like to see where people have the ability, both on school board and town council, City Council, to ask questions. To be able to ask questions where the people who are sitting here. Have an obligation to answer those questions now. They may not be able to answer them on the spot, but answer them later. Get on, you know, find out what the answer is. I'm not talking about legitimate concerns and questions that the public has. So there's your transparency. Get the people to. Feel like they're being listened to and accountability? Well, you have top heavy managers that get paid a lot of money. Let them earn their money. 

All right, this is a question from the audience. You'll have one minute H to respond. And Dennis, you get this question first. What more can be done in Dover to ensure that we are a welcoming community for immigrants, people of color, and LGBTQ plus community members? 

I I think that Dover. That's why I moved here is is a welcoming community. I just think that we need to. Eliminate the barriers. Some of it is that people are being driven out their borderline of going homeless, their homes are. So they they can't afford housing first of all. But prices keep going up. I would say that. I mean I have. I have neighbors and. I've I've dealing with people. That are from different culture and. I feel I feel that. They're very welcome. So that's not. Are concerned that I have. 

OK. 

Same question. I think we're starting to address some of the concerns. About inclusion in our community, having taught in the schools, I have to tell you it wasn't that unusual to have kids from all over the world. When you have two students show up from Nepal and end up in Dover, you have to wonder where is this connection? I know there are ESL teachers. Dealing with not one language. Not 2. Not three like you, but with multiple languages. Trying to get kids to be activated. I like what I'm seeing with some of the festivals that we're having that show that there is a welcome we have, the land acknowledgement that was recently set up in Dover. Just talking about who we were before. The European settles. Come in. I think there's a lot of work to do. I'm not sure that everyone does feel completely welcome, but I think there's a true effort and working towards that goal. 

All right, Deb. And this will be the last question. And this also from an audience member one minute response starting with you. Dover spends the fourth lowest amount of per pupil expenditure in the state. Do you believe the Dover public Schools are receiving the proper amount of funding? Would you increase, maintain or decrease the school? 

I'm pleased that we've gone up to 4 because we were third lowest and this is a hard question for me. Actually it's an easy question. I've spent more than half of my life in the classroom. I know the difference between fluff. And stuff that we need. It's important that we support our schools in the best way that we can. We had someone talk about that, our population is going down. Yeah, more kids are going to private schools, home schools. But our actual popular. Of children. Is going down, however. Their needs are increasing the types of services that they have you. If you haven't in the classroom and you have a student who's nonverbal, non mobile and you are still required to give them an education that to your best of my ability. Or the teachers ability. That is a challenge. I'm unapologetic and my support for schools in Dover. That's who I am. That's what I support. If you're not in favor of that, then I'm probably not your candidate. 

And Dennis, the same question. 

Well, fortunately I no longer have children. In school. So that's that's a good start. I would go back to. Looking at first of all. The school board budget is a mandate, so. There's this. Council doesn't have a choice in it. I would, at least at first, for the next few years or next year or so. I would like to say where everyone has to tighten their belts. We just went through COVID. I've met a lot of people that are experiencing hardship due to inflation. And some are borderline of losing their homes, retirees and so forth. And I would like to see. The managers of these departments. Take the bull by the horn and hold on to their spending for a little while so that the people can get a breather out here. They're they're having a hard time. Some of them are making decisions, whether they they should buy groceries that week or that particular day or. But fill up their gas tank of gas so we have to be accountable to the taxpayers. 

All right. Well, thank you so much for your time and best of luck to you, our candidates for City Council in Ward 4, Deborah Hackett and Dennis Goody. 

Thank you. 

Our final group of candidates this evening are the candidates who are running for the two at large seats on the City Council. There are 4 candidates for those two seats. They are Brett Carmichael, Daniel Furman. Lindsay Williams and Linnea Nemeth. We welcome you. And we will start with Brett. Please take a minute to introduce yourself answering this question. What's something you thought you knew about city government but later found out that you were wrong about? 

Alright. Hey everyone. Brett Carmichael, long time to over resident about 15 years. Good to me. Thanks for listening to me. Sorry for my items and odds in advance. I have a daughter in the Dover Middle School and I I own a local business here, so I'm a member of the Dover Chamber of Commerce, which I think is awesome. I serve as a board member of vouchers for veterans and nonprofit, where we provide veteran about food vouchers to veterans to spend. At farmers markets. I served on serve on the Energy Commission and I serve on the Utilities Commission. The reason I got involved with how the city works and joining commissions was. Because I attended the Citizens Leadership Academy and the thing that I learned was going. Into that I. Have like a super cynical view of government based on what I saw on TV from national government. What I found is while people disagree about stuff, it's really just mostly about doing the work. And I I do think the intents of everybody are good. I'm actually. Lot of super people working with the city so and that's why I've been on those like the Utilities Commission so long and stuff. 

So Daniel. 

Same question. 

Good evening, everyone. Thanks, Don, Bill and fellow. Candidates for being here this. Evening. My name is Daniel Furman. I go by Dan I've. 20 years of military experience in the US Navy as a submarine guy. 12 years experience the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. My wife and I moved here with our adopted son in 2012. I've been a resident here for 12 years. What I learned here about the government. There recently is that. I don't know. A lot about the local. But I can assure the folks out there when elected, I am ready to go to work for you. I am ready to be a problem solver and a communicator for the citizens of Dover, and I will be there for you when you. Need me both the most thank you. 

Thank you Don, for for having us here this evening and the Chamber and over listens as well. And thank you to everybody here this evening. My name is Lindsey Williams. My husband and I are homeowner is in Ward four, and we've been homeowners there for just over 8 years. We are also the parents of two children in the Dover Public Schools. And when I first ran in 2017, they were very little. They're not anymore. They're now elementary and middle school. So it's been interesting to see the evolution of the perspective on community as your kids. Get older as well. My personal background is in biology and environmental policy, and I'll come back to that in a minute. I currently work at UNH and I'm also small business owner downtown. I first got involved in our local government here in Dover through one of the master plan chapter updates. The stewardship of resources, and I was just so intrigued by that that I ended up running for City Council and I've thoroughly enjoyed my opportunity to serve the Community in that way and and hope to continue to do so. One of the things that. I thought I knew about local government. From what I had heard from folks was that it was really hard to get attention on environmental issues and I was pleasantly surprised when the very first workshop that we had was all about was. Water storm water, drinking water, wastewater. And so it just it sort of made me really want to jump in more and get. Involved, so thank you. 

Well, thank you. Thanks for allowing me to introduce myself tonight. I'll give a brief background. I grew up in New Hampshire and the White Mountains area and graduated from Keene High, and I moved to California for college and then was one of the rare or now more common young people moving back to the. Right, because I found the the sense of community here to be really likable, and we chose Dover as our home in 2015 due to the sense of community and the blend of amenities of small town living and some of the things that I missed living in a larger city in California. One thing that I learned about city government was that not everyone is a. Government or civics nerd, as myself. And so I think you can ask any of those current school board members or city councillors. I was the most enthusiastic person at orientation that day and probably the only one who read the binder ahead of time. What I discovered in that was not everyone knows how to easily interact with local government and so trying to make sure that people know how to be able to do that is really important and was something that I learned because that was not the case for myself. But I have learned that very quickly through. This process. 

All right. On this first question, I'm going to start with Dan. Then as you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest challenges for Dover and its citizens, and what specific policies and initiatives would you recommend so we will be able to successfully navigate those challenges? 

Thank you for the question. I believe that keeping Dover affordable. All of our citizens is a necessity. I believe that taking care of our citizens are the. City Council's number one priority. I believe that we should start, potentially with some tax reliefs for our folks that are on fixed incomes or elderly people that are looking to potentially have to move out of Dover after living here in a lifetime or moving into some apartment or something that is. Necessarily, what they really intend to do. I believe that one of the ways I could successfully help navigate these challenges is that for the last 30 years I have been a problem solver in the military facilitator for the US government. I've been able to walk into rooms and hostile environments. The people that don't really have the same viewpoints or the same priorities and been able to bring them together come to a common solution that's good for all of the citizens, and I believe that Dover should have the ability to have representation to all citizens, not just portion. 

Of the city. 

Thank you. 

Lindsey, same question. 

Yes, it was really great to be here earlier this evening and and here are some of the other topics that were highlighted for this question with the three that keep coming to mind for me are dealing with climate change, addressing our aging infrastructure and housing affordability. So while there there's many areas I think we could be working on, those are the three. That that most closely align with where I have something to contribute, and I think when we're thinking about climate change, I think there's a lot of opportunities to plan ahead and I think we have really amazing city. Staff that are working really hard in this space to use science based resources to understand what might be coming and how we prepare our things, like the stormwater and flood and resilience utility, both from a climate change perspective but as well on addressing aging infrastructure and thinking about how we might think about mitigating the potential effects of climate. Change more specifically on the aging infrastructure, I think there's a lot of really important work that's begun within the city to make sure that we're mapping out our infrastructure. We're planning ahead that we're, we're knowing where all these folks have mentioned, where some of these really, really old pipes are in the city and and being able to plan ahead for that and use our investments. And wisely so that we're not dealing with some of the emergencies, we are still always going to have the emergencies, but planning ahead where we can. And then I think as it pertains to the challenge of housing affordability. And I'm really excited for the new Community Housing needs committee and the ability that they're going to have to bring a broad perspective of different folks from across the community to bring together ideas for what Dover can do, where we have a lot of great steps going forward. But I think that there's more we can learn from our the residents and the ideas that come forward. As well as being part of the regional collaboration to think about what might be possible to address that challenge. 

And Madame. 

Can you just restate the question again just because it's been a? 

As you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest challenges to Dover and its citizens, and what specific policies or initiatives would you recommend that will be able to successfully navigate these challenges? 

Thank you. I appreciate that. So I start with this question for a little while and try to think about how. Or to predict what five years from now would look like, and it's about to be 2024 and looking back to 2019, we never would have imagined what 2024 would look like. So it's interesting when you take that perspective to think how do we plan for the future these days, because it seems like things change on a daily basis, whether it be geopolitical situations around the world, how we're impacted. Like climate change in our own community. And so I think the way. That this, that itself is a challenge and how we address that is by sticking to our vision and our Community sense and making sure we don't lose sight of the things that are truly important to help us navigate these future challenges. So one exercise we just went through at the city was updating our vision and that's looking ahead to 2035 and saying what do we want to be at. Look like as a community and that's not necessarily like what roads do we want to pave and what should the budget be? But it's what do we want to maintain as a community and look like, you know, 10 years down the road. And that's maintaining this welcoming community and that's making sure that we do address things like climb. Change and providing public transportation and it's remaining really focused on what those larger goals are of the community that aren't at that detailed level. But make sure we have that road map and we stay you know looking forward on what our Community vision is. 

All right. And Brett, same question. 

All right. So five years from now have some Gray hair. Additionally, per the USN, per the US Census, the median income is $75,000. Per Redfin, you need to earn $115,000 a year to afford an average home. Those numbers, as you probably have done the math, I'm not a mathmos agist, and I know that's not a word. But those don't really those don't really fit together. So to me, affordable housing is an absolute imperative. One thing I think that taxpayers are aligned on is. We don't want to see tax. We don't, we don't want to see tax growth. We have, we have a lot of infrastructure here with high fixed costs which are like people to maintain the buildings, the building like if fewer people use City Hall, it won't get less rain, stuff like that. So the only way to and these costs are always rising cause salaries you know weight wages go up and stuff like that. So the way to affect that. Is to increase the taxpayer base and the way that we do that is through adding, adding housing, affordable housing at high density. I'm in a huge. Advocate of mixed-use buildings. You have residential units on the top business units on the bottom you you do good for you do well for small businesses by actually building a customer base in for those businesses. Those people tend to do smaller purchases at any one time, but they go back and purchase. More over over. Time. So the way to the the levers that we have to to solve housing and taxes in parallel and to serve the social and economic interest of the taxpayer is through is through building more and building for density in the downtown areas. 

All right. And Mathml Agist is a great. Thank you, Lindsey. This question is directed to you. As you look ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, what in your opinion will be the biggest opportunities for Dover and its citizens? What policies, initiatives would you recommend so we can take advantage of these opportunities? 

Yes, thank you. So looking ahead in for five to 10 years, it actually brings me back to some things that have happened over the last, last couple of years that I think set us up really well for the future. One of those things has been the really greatly improved relationship between City Council and school board in terms of dialogues about how we have these difficult conversations. About what are the appropriate resources? How do we make sure that our schools are supported while not overburdening our residents paying taxes as well? But I think we've gotten to a really important space between. To boards where we can have that shared voice when we're talking to to state elected folks to the federal government as well. To say this is what Dover needs as a community and I see that really paying off over the next two 5-10 years so that we can make sure. That that our schools and our and the children and and staff are are well supported there. Another area that I think is really excited about, and I think there's huge opportunities is the amount of federal resources that are available to build climate resilient communities over the next, again, 2510 years. And I'm so impressed with over staff and volunteers and their ability to seek out other people's money. And so I think there's really, really great opportunities for our community to take advantage of those resources and build a stronger Community going forward, stronger and climate resilient Community going forward. And then lastly, I currently serve as chair of the Appointments Committee. So this is where all the folks that would like to serve on our volunteer boards and commissions come to, to share their interest. And I just I I cannot gush enough about the opportunity that we have in the passion and our volunteers and our community members who want to be part of Community. And bring their ideas forward for what our community can do differently as well. And so I just think we have a continued great opportunity for the current folks that are volunteering in that capacity, but also for other new folks that didn't know that they could get involved directly in these boards. So I'm just really excited about the opportunities that that presents as well. 

I will, I think one of our greatest opportunities speaks to a lot of the challenges and other things that people have spoken to this evening, which has to do with the waterfront development we are have been building up towards what that will look like for, for decades. I think at this point and there's going to be some commercial. Availability there. There's going to be more connection to public access to the waterfront, to parks, and then there's also, you know, bringing in more housing there. But then what's our going, our community going to look? Like as we grow coming out of the waterfront development, are we going to be able to bring more businesses in? And there's also the challenges that people spoke to on, you know, the cost of living here and our taxes. And I think there's connecting that to an opportunity to diversify our tax base further from putting so much of A burden on residential. And we've been trying to. You know, we have groups that work with businesses to try to continue to recruit businesses to come here and increase that base and and that's also why we see Dover as maybe the 4th contributor per people is that a lot of these other communities are able to get larger contributions to their tax base from from other business, from commercial. Rather than just residential and we have seen some increases there, commercial assessments went up a little bit higher I believe recently or at least at the same rate as some of residential. So we are seeing that start to actualize in the community. But I think as we continue to grow as we see that Dover is a one of the fastest growing communities and we see that steady 1% growth every year. Making sure we're taking advantage of that from a commercial perspective to diversify that tax base because as we've all said, it comes down to money in a lot of these things and we need it to address a lot of these issues. And so having that resource will be a huge opportunity for us. 

Right. 

Yeah. So, so as we grow, I think one thing that will be a challenge for Dover is transportation. So we say that people cannot. We I think there's some broad consensus that housing is unaffordable right now, motor vehicle travel is also pretty unaffordable, especially given high interest rates. The average cost of a passenger vehicle is 48,000. If you buy an EV. 60,000 so it's hard to tell somebody who can't afford a home to say we'll go and get another mortgage payment for this vehicle. So even if you do have a home and job placement, how do you get there? Now I'm going to talk about buses for a second. I think the buses are great and coast is great. I should never be allowed to drive one of those ever. Are, but what's what's hard? Like when we're building? Those are great in areas where density is high, but where where we're moving those and we're traveling to the outskirts. The marginal cost of adding taxpayers increases because you have to go so much further to get each driver and there's scarcity among to get each passenger and the scarcity among passengers. So to do that like you can't, you can't tell people to make to spend money. There needs to be. There needs to be economic incentive. One way to do that is by making the downtown areas with more dense populations. Be more biker friendly now. There's there's logic behind this because with the with the advent of E bikes and the A new E bike cost between 1:00 and $3000 right? And with assistive pedaling physical fitness is not a prerequisite to travel anymore. So high cost and high marginal cost services. Public transportation are awesome, but making the city more bike friendly to those downtown is what's going to let that workforce, the people who are living in the. Housing get get to their jobs and without, without, without a taxpayer burden. And lastly, just I think in terms of attracting business, specifically looking to attract industrial and scientific and with with more deference to large companies that are knowledge workers, the two most expensive. The two largest expenses of a business are their. Payroll and their. Property my time is expired, but they'll sell the. And then they. 

And Dan, same question. 

Thanks. Well, I I believe we need to continue to work on the existing projects that are that are undergoing we're undergoing. Now here in Dover, the waterfront expansion is is a great opportunity to bring revenue to the city and to bring other folks to come to our city to visit and hopefully potentially at some point maybe relocate. Here, however, as a as a leader and a communicator, I believe that. We need to reach out to our. Citizens in Dover and ensure that. Everybody's on the same page. I believe that some. May or may not want to grow with the rate that we're currently growing at. There was some talk earlier about having issues with potentially infrastructure and things of that nature. Well, if we don't. Provide or or come up with the infrastructure changes as we are growing, we are just going to make it more. Difficult down the road. To be able to do continued development. So again, I believe we need to reach out to our citizens, get them actively involved in the decision making and the City Council should be making their decisions based on what the citizens of Dover. Would like to see that what collectively as a group we believe is the. Best for the. 

All right, Linnea, this question is to you. First, as you look around Dover today, what programs and policies give you the most pride and hope and why? And secondly, I'm going to tie these two questions together. What's missing and what would you? Like to see. 

So when I look around and hear feedback from our citizens, I hear almost nothing but positive feedback for the services and the staff that we have within the city. We've touched on it a little bit, but we have award-winning staff members, we have award-winning services, people look to our community for. For what we're doing and being on the forefront, and so I continue to congratulate our our city and and the community for what we're able to get. I know taxes are are something that none of us ever want to talk about or or really go into, but we get a lot for our taxes. We really do. When you look at it at our recreation services and the the great. Contributions that we're able to make, so those things I I am extremely proud of on some of the programs and policies from just go right into the second question. 

Right. 

Yeah. OK. That I think there's continued opportunity for we've made some really great strides on improving our budget process, but I think there's an opportunity to improve on some of the tools and the language and the and the the way that we communicate with the Community on how that project process goes. I think it was actually just recently today. Where I was talking to somebody about the budget and they said, but but we're not involved in that process, right. And I said, oh, my gosh, I'm doing something wrong. You didn't even know that there's public meetings that you know, that that take it's a four month process where you put things out and somebody asked how they they know about that and so. You know, we also get caught up a little bit about the, the tools that we use, like I'll, I'll say the word that no one has said so far, maybe once or twice the tax cap word that we always try to avoid a little bit and how we tiptoe around that. But we get so stuck on these certain numbers and where we really should just be looking at what is best for the Community, what are. We prioritizing here and. I think one of the things that I was so focused on this last budget round was. Being mindful of the increased expenses that the community was seeing and what was the the number that we were ultimately putting out there, not whether it was over the tax cap or under the tax cap, but what was the number we were putting out there is a budget and what was that impact going to be to. The average citizen and I. Think continuing to put the focus on that. Of what the impact is actually going to be, it's we know we can talk numbers all the time. What is you know, what is that looking like it's a 5% increase to the you know to our community rather than just saying is it over under the tax cap I think is something that we can. Continue to improve on. 

All right, Brett, same. 

All right. So one thing that gives one thing that I really like in Dover is the school system. My daughters in 8th grade and she she loves school, she she enjoys it. So I I think one of the most important things that a teacher can teach is is a love of learning I. Detested school when I, I mean, I didn't learn to read till I was in my mid 60s. But but so I think that that's like a a testament to the Dover school system that, that that gives me hope additionally like the small business community in Dover, small small business like a diverse diverse types of business create economically stable communities. Since I've joined the Chamber of Commerce. I started mine. I am a huge fan of the Chamber of Commerce. 2nd in terms of in terms of what's what's missing? I think some. Communication and I don't think that there's an absence of communication. I sometimes this I I think that there's too much information density. So you when you throw a ton of information at folks, it's very hard to actually synthesize that information and get the what's in it for me out of it. So I think breaking things down in terms that people have. Time in a demand constraint when we're attention is demand constrain. Point well in providing multiple multiple vehicles to access information will be will be hugely beneficial. 

Dan, thanks. I I believe that Dover has has done the City Council. Done a great job over the last 10 or 15 years to revitalize the downtown and the community, along with bringing outdoor activities, it's actually. One of the. Reasons that I relocated my family here 12 years ago when I retired from the military. I I saw I. 

Right. 

Saw the plan online and I saw the ratings of schools and then 2011. It was actually a little it was it. Was better than it. Is looks on paper today, however, so when we moved here our. Grader. You know our son. We thought it'd be. A great place to sports. Outdoor activities, the climate schools. What better place to come to? I believe I agree with Brett with what's missing in our communications piece. Having been a veteran and being the vice chairman at the post State American Legion and the Child and Youth Coordinator at the post Aid American Legion, I believe that we could do a better job reaching out to our groups that are out there in our Community specifically. Veterans groups, the Odd Fellows, DAV, the American Legion. If I missed some, sorry. But I think we could do some see what they need, what are their needs? Do we? Should we be hosting any? Forums or anything to get them the assistance that they need. Are there issues out there with some of our veterans? Are they? Are they homeless? Are they? Do they have mental health issues? Can we point them in the right direction to get assistance? I believe that it is that that is necessary and should be a part of this the the overall. Thoughts and use of monies because. Are the folks that volunteered? To allow everyone of you to sit here and be free and do what you want to do with yourself every day that you're alive and I believe. Then we need to good place to start. Our veterans. 

Right. And Lindsey? 

Yeah, I think there's just so much to be proud of and and give us hope here in Dover and a couple of the ones that come to our top of mind for me, one and it's echoing others here is our schools. And I think I'm the product of New Hampshire public schools, myself also, UNH grad for my doctorate degree. And sort of seeing what is possible in our community and and sort of the the opportunities that are there and in particularly, I had a kindergartener and 2nd grader when when COVID hit and watching the skill of the teachers within our community pivot to do things that none of us would ever imagine, like watching a kindergartener try to learn to read. Zoom like like laying on the side and just the the the grace and patience of the teachers was just amazing. And so that has continued with me and I think we just have so much to be proud of and just creating space for our teachers and for the staff and the schools to do what they're good at and and serve our community well. It's just something I am so hope gives me so much. Hope another thing that gives me a lot of hope is that. I won't use the acronym here, but they they municipal alliance for Adaptive Management which is a group of communities around the Great Bay working together to address water quality concerns, including stormwater, including a run off and these other issues. And Dover is looked to as a leader of that effort and this means that we're not doing things alone. We're we're benefiting from the collective. Knowledge of the region, but also moving the whole region forward from both an environmental and a financial standpoint, and I think Dover has so much to be proud of in the Community members that have pushed for that as well as the city staff who are part of of making that. And another area. And I was thinking is it's not necessary a. Policy or program, but the opportunity to be involved in boards and commissions, as you've heard from from folks up here. But one example that really drove that home for me is the other weekend going to the skate park ribbon cutting that has been a labor of love by. Citizens within our community, as well as the recreation department, as well as many other folks for. Sort of 1520 years and just seeing the passion and the willingness to roll your sleeves up, be involved, stay involved and make something happen was just so rewarding then to see behind us while everyone was speaking, little kids on 3 wheeled scooters, folks older than me skateboarding. But everybody sort of in this space collectively together on taking advantage of this resource that that exists because of community engagement was just so gives me so much. So and then the last area that gives me hope before I go to one thing that I think is is missing or an opportunity is as a small business owner seeing the life downtown right now is just like I can't even begin to talk about it. So the people coming through the doors so excited whether they're Dover residents who haven't been downtown in years because they didn't know there was anything downtown that are coming back downtown. People from other neighboring communities that are coming to spend their money here in Dover because they hear it's the place to go to go out, to eat, to go to our breweries, to go to our small shops. There's just so much potential and hope there that I'm really, really excited. One thing that I do think is is missing. And and I was thinking about it this evening and this evening is actually one of those examples. Is space to engage across difference. We have a tendency to sort of talk with people that are very similar to us. And I do think that there's more opportunity to to connect across those differences as well. 

All right. Thank you so much for your answers to those questions. We're going to start back with you, Brett, on this next question. I know 2 minutes to answer this question. What do you see as the most important aspect of the role of the City Council and also the most important role of the individual counselor? 

I think the individual counselor, I think it's sort of the same as the Council, is to represent the the common interests of. The City of Dover and by that I mean Dover residents and the taxpayers that that includes going out and talking to people. That includes, like frequenting, frequenting Facebook groups and things where you may get feedback that you don't like. That includes hearing challenges to ideas and and answering them. Sometimes those challenges may even be like. And worded in a way that you don't like, but those are all part of the role is getting that feedback because that feedback is actually super instructive. And if you have a position or an argument to make or a case that you want to advance to the city, it helps you better understand your own argument and position and what you're actually advocating. This there's no, there's nothing that solves. That creates comprehension like somebody disagreeing with you and challenging you on your assumptions. So. I'll go with that. 

All right, Dan, same question. Question please. What do you feel is the most important aspect of a role of a city Councilor and the most important role that the City Council has? 

Could you, could you repeat the? I think the most important role the city. Council is is to make policy. The citizens of the city are looking for. As the individual City Councilman or council person. Again as the. 3030 plus years of being. Leader, communicator. Facilitator. I've had to deal with conflict resolution between folks. Couldn't figure out how to come to a conclusion or yeah. A decision that was good for good, not. Good for all but. Willing to accept and to be able to. To the people and say yes, I agree with this position regardless of my personal thoughts. It's up to the City Council to debate each other at the time that we are. Policy to ensure that as a majority, we could come to a consensus. That's that. The City of Dover to move forward the way the citizens. Would expect us to. In an adult and civil manner. 

Yeah, I think some really great points have been raised. I think for me, the role of the counselor and and for me actually the role of an at large Council councillor, I view as a little bit different than some of the word counselors as well, which is why I've run for this seat a couple Times Now is I view the role particularly an at large Councilor as. Sort of trying to look across all of the different challenges that different wards might be facing, different perspectives that. Coming up, so while it's also important to be a resource for residents, for for businesses, for for taxpayers and and and all the folks that are connected to Dover sort of collecting those various perspectives, understanding the different concerns, doing our own research, it is also that role I think of sort of looking across the words, looking out into other neighboring communities. Well, I do think it's also a role of city councilors to be willing to change their minds. And I think that ties to what I think the role of the Council is, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to serve on Council to be in a space where we have a really respectful dialogue and share different perspectives. We have nine different folks on the Council and sometimes we have nine different perspectives. Sometimes there's there's fewer, but sometimes there are. But there's also a little nuance, even when on the surface, it might look like we we agree there's different perspectives that were each. Bringing and so I do think as others have mentioned, it's really important for the Council as a body to be there, to listen and learn from each other, to collaborate to under work, to understand the different perspectives and then ultimately so come to what what is the best decision for the community. And in that while we're discussing as a Council, it is still incumbent, I think, on the Council. Others to then vote as they feel sort of where they're at the end of the day and they feel that they, they stand and I don't think it's necessary to have 100% agreement, but to have the space to have. Those discussions. 

And Lenny? 

So I think the I would agree with what most I think everyone said, we're all fairly on the same page here. I think the role for a city Councilor is is to represent the community, but we each individually bring something different. We bring our own perspectives, we bring our own background and I think that's really important that each Councilor does bring that individuality. Because we're representing a very wide group of people, and so we should have that. I was think I thought a lot about that when I was deciding to run for City Council was that. But something a lot of people don't know is that 26 to 35 is actually the largest age demographic in the city over the age of 18. And as of Election Day, I will just barely be still speaking into that age demographic. So. So working on those feelings of of migrating out of that demographic there. But that was a really big. For me to make sure that at at large we had somebody representing that that group that maybe not necessarily also isn't always voting in these local elections, but it's so important that we are reaching out to this group. And then I think also. The role of a Council is to work cooperatively and work towards a common goal, and I think we've seen in a lot of unfortunately neighboring communities where you don't have that cooperation or that kind of working together, things don't happen, you don't have the ability to get things done or approve that you need to get done. And that's at the detriment of the community. And so I think the most important thing for the. Council is to be while you might not agree, but work collaboratively and work towards that shared goal, and I think we've been very lucky this last session that even though we don't agree, we have, we have respect for one another and we've all been able to work towards what we see is the shared goal for the Community. And so I think. That remains to. Be very important for us. 

Thank you to our candidates for the at large City Council seats, Brett Carmichael, Dan Furman, Lindsey Williams and Linnea Nemas. Thank you so much. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being with us this evening in person and on channel 22. Thank thanks to all of our candidates who have put their names on the ballot. Don't forget we vote on Tuesday. November 7th vote early. Vote once but vote. Thank you so much. I'm Don, Brian. Good evening.