LYNN – The city’s community television station hosted an online forum on Monday evening for candidates running for councilors at large in the Nov. 2 election.
Six candidates took part in the forum: incumbents Brian Field,Brian LaPierre, and Hong Net, and challengers Nicole McClain, Jose Encarnacion, and Marven Hyppolite. Mukala Kabongo, news director at Lynn Television, moderated the event. Incumbent councilor at large Buzzy Barton will be seeking reelection as well, but was unable to attend the event.
All candidates took turns answering a series of questions.
First, they had to list the three pillars of their campaigns. Net said that his pillars were public safety, business development, and senior issues. He would like to work with the police to set up a training course about each country and culture represented in the city. He would like to lift seniors from below the poverty line by providing some rent relief to them.
Hyppolite replied that he wants to improve city services, give voice to all residents, and create opportunities for all by negotiating community benefit agreements with developers and big businesses. He would like each councilor to have a diverse staff who could reach out to the public year round and hold rotating meetings all over the city so that residents could share their ideas and thoughts.
The next question was about a vote they regretted for the incumbents or a policy to change for new candidates. LaPierre said that he regrets that the City Council adopted a new policy to inspect all apartments in the city every five years. He said it came from a good place because people were calling about roaches, rats, and overcrowded apartments. However, the good intent was not implemented in the right way, said LaPierre. It puts a fee burden on the residents and needs to be revisited.
Encarnacion suggested changing small-businesses permitting. He said that entrepreneurs sometimes wait too long to open their businesses, which makes them lose money. Encarnacion would like to make the process faster.
When asked about public safety and litter, Field said that public safety needs to be properly funded, because cuts affect the effectiveness of community policing. He would like to see more work done around mental-health issues and addiction because those issues contribute to the levels of crime.
Being on the litter committee, Field said they have already been doing investments into equipment and hiring new Department of Public Works (DPW) employees specifically to address the issue of litter. He said that volunteer cleanups will be back in spring; however, it is going to take every resident and every business to keep the city clean.
McClain said that she was proud of participating in bringing police body cameras to Lynn. If elected, she said she would work with the local government on how to support police better in what they do and also provide more social work and practice de-escalation.
In terms of litter, McClain said that DPW needs to hire more staff because her constituents told her that their streets were not cleaned regularly.
Speaking about transportation improvements, LaPierre said that in the recent past the city had put up a big fight with the MBTA over idling. He suggested the city needs to put more pressure on the MBTA to come up with a capital improvement plan and advocate for ferry services subsidized by the state.
McClain would like the city to utilize more local organizations that have feet on the ground and could provide better insight for more informed decisions.
“We need to start communicating better with our residents,” said McClain, proposing to revamp the city’s website to post decisions and agendas to reach more residents.
All candidates agreed that the city desperately needs new schools.
Encarnacion said that new schools should have new technologies and staff should reflect the student population since 80 percent of children in Lynn schools are people of color.
With one of the questions, Kabongo asked the candidates to pick subcommittees that they were most interested in.
Hyppolite said that he would like to be on the housing and elders affairs committee because he is the only renter among the candidates and added that something needs to be done for young people like him, who have a college degree but struggle to afford rent.
He also said that other communities treat seniors better and have great programs for them.
“They have given up so much for us. We should not be turning our backs on them,” said Hyppolite.
He said that he tries to understand the meaning of both a “yes” and a “no” vote and thinks about how the outcome would influence not only his family but all the residents.
A member of the audience asked the candidates who the councilors at large serve and take into account when they make decisions.
Net said that he knows how it is to be underrepresented and that people need sincere leadership.
“I listen. I learn from people every day,” he said.
“We serve you; we represent everyone with compassion,” said Field.
Alena Kuzub can be reached at [email protected].
