Time for another Selectboard Candidate Interview, this with Dora Bouboulis, who is a candidate for the three year seat. Read on for Dora's questions and answers.
What made you decide to run at this time? In what ways do you think you'd be helpful on the Selectboard?
I am a visionary, but a realist, I am an optimist, but skeptical and I have the ability to see the whole without losing sight of all the pieces. In addition I have an innate ability to understand people and make connections. These traits combined with all my educational, professional and volunteer experiences have allowed me to work with diverse groups, find common ground and build bridges. As I move further up the learning curve for town government, I will be able to continue to use these assets in even greater capacity.
My reasons for running this year are much the same as in previous years. I believe there is still a lot of work to be done to increase participation and improve democratic process in town government. I still feel that there is a large segment of the population that is under-represented.
I love Brattleboro and I believe in the resiliency, optimism, ingenuity and creativity of the residents in my adopted home and I relish the unique sense of community that we all share. If elected I will continue to work to set up systems to increase citizen participation, make use of the local resources and people available to us, make Brattleboro a center for sustainable and socially responsible business and provide resources and systems to encourage local businesses that produce the things we need. I will also work even harder to reach out to citizens to hear their concerns, ideas, problems and solutions and to incorporate what I learn in the work of the town. By making use of all the creative resources available in our community and welcoming their input, I believe the level of debate will be raised.
The process of building real community and true democracy can be difficult and time consuming, but allows you to accomplish greater more long lasting results. It is time to stop viewing governance as only a top-down endeavor. When government views all citizens as valuable partners, the foundation is then laid to bring about necessary change with minimal growing pains.
With regard to the budget, it has been said that if the town does not want to raise taxes, it will have to cut services. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, what services do you think should be cut? If not, what would you do instead?
I was talking to John Leisenring, our finance director, a few weeks ago and he suggested that we do some strategic planning something that had been done in other towns. This is a town wide process in which community needs, town assets, revenue streams and current services are assessed and identifying what services people want the town to provide in the future. I spoke about this at the Thursday breakfast two weeks ago, and there were questions that came up during the discussion about how this would be different from the Town Plan or the Charter Review. These are both driven by specific statutory requirements around land use and government structure respectively. This will hopefully bring forth community wide agreed upon long and short term goals for the town.
This was followed by a conversation with Lorie Cartright form the Town School Board and I discovered that they are thinking of doing the same thing. If we could pool our resources and work together we could reach the whole populous in a way that has never been done before. The resulting plan could truly reflect the essence of all of Brattleboro not just those with money, education or access. This would serve to guide the direction of town officials in a way that would not be so subject to political might of a minority of people or change each year with elections.
With goals in place the process of identifying resources, funding streams, lobbying the state and federal government become much easier. More importantly the citizens know what to expect. Then we place in the budget a cushion for capital expenses a practice that was neglected by boards prior to my tenure. This will help to keep our debt service steady, which at the moment is very high. The budgeting process could become more holistic and proactive, rather than the reactive piece meal manner in which it is currently done.
I have become acutely aware of how difficult it is to reduce expenditures. The budget is pretty lean and there is not much extra to cut. Each service is vital to someone and no one wants to lay off workers. If you cut services it can have a negative effect on the economy and if you cut staff it can ultimately affect the quality of service, both of which are counterproductive. Staff salaries and benefits are tied to various union contracts, which cover a portion of the staff. Then you run into a fairness issue for non-union employees. Also there are things that are falling through the cracks like personnel because we have lost or never had a dedicated staff person to fulfill those duties. That being said, many residents are struggling to pay their taxes so we have to make the budget more sustainable.
One thing we can do is increase our use of interns and service volunteers to do some of the extra things like doing research for boards and committees. These bodies in turn will accomplish more, which may eventually result in more revenue for the town. Although this will add some supervisory responsibilities, the extra help will hopefully make understaffed departments more efficient.
Decelerating capital spending is the most obvious place to find reductions. The-ten-year plan is going to have to be spread out more and prioritized according to real need. At the top of the list will have to be repairs and upgrades, required by law and necessary for safety. We can still find savings in energy efficiency measures and we can work on implementing sustainable sources of energy to run our systems. As far as the infrastructure is concerned, we need to implement measures and practices that will reduce wear and help to preserve roads, buildings and bridges longer. These would include such things as rain gardens, riparian buffers, erosion control plantings on hills and around roads and bridges, and use of permeable pavement. We also need to create requirements for green building techniques, such as low flow showerheads and low flush toilets to reduce the stress load on utilities.
We need to get creative and find alternative revenue sources ourselves. There are grants available for funding all kinds of things. Adding a dedicated person to the staff whose job it would be to do grant research and writing and whose salary could be funded by a percentage of the grants s/he brings in, would be beneficial. I have advocated for starting a resource committee, whose responsibility would be to catalogue resources in the community and research funding mechanisms. In addition we need to think about using volunteers and service organizations to do some of the minor projects, which would free up capital for the bigger jobs.
In the current economic climate, people are feeling the pinch. What can the Selectboard do to make things easier for residents to get through these tough times?
The town should work with human service agencies to identify community needs, facilitate development of programs that can provide those services and funnel funding. One very important role of the town is to lobby the state and federal government for aid. Solving these problems will require creative thinking, pooling of resources and working together as a community, for which the town can provide leadership. The town should serve as a clearinghouse for information on all services available to residents.
One project I am currently working on is creating a street outreach program for downtown. In Burlington there is a program that employs outreach workers to work with the homeless, mentally ill and youth in the downtown district. They collaborate with businesses and police and coordinate efforts with human service providers. It has been very successful in reducing and deescalating incidents and clashes. This has proven beneficial to all the stakeholders involved. Businesses, patrons and visitors feel safer and there are people paying attention to folks whose needs are often not being met by traditional human service organizations. Ultimately, this kind of program improves quality of life for all involved and will free up the police to do crime prevention and traffic safety. This, in turn will save the town money.
Affordability in Brattleboro was an issue before the economic crisis, but is now being exacerbated by the recession the whole country is experiencing. The costs of housing, energy, healthcare and food have made daily living a struggle for an ever-increasing number of people. This will probably get worse before it gets better. As a community we have to become more independent and self-reliant, so that we are not as affected by the political will of the federal or state governments or global economics. This will be a slow difficult process in which we'll have to rethink how we do things or in some cases return to the way things used to be done. I personally have worked on projects related to local energy and food production. The idea of change can be unsettling to many people, but if we work together we can do it.
One example of this is the Time Bank Project which has been supported by Post Oil Solutions. The time bank is a mechanisn in which people exchange skill sets in time trade. The pilot has been successful and they will begin expanding it to the larger community.
What can the Selectboard do to help businesses that are already here, as well as to encourage new businesses to start?
I definitely think we should be looking into ways to facilitate setting up a mechanism for low interest micro-loans. These can be particularly useful for home cottage industries. People may need a small amount of money to buy supplies, a software package, etc., but would need more time to pay back the loan. Traditional banking is not conducive to this kind of lending, but it has proven to be a great economic driver in other places.
There needs to be a dedicated economic development person on staff. This is a standard part of staffing in cities and even towns much smaller than Brattleboro are so served. Whether or not you think the existing business organizations are doing a good job, their purviews are very specific. Also they are not responsible for, nor answerable to the citizens of Brattleboro. As with the strategic planning, we need a long term economic development and marketing plan for the town.
We need to build on what we do best: socially-responsible, sustainable, creative business. By encouraging growth from within, and marketing ourselves as a center for this kind of business and the arts, we will be in a position to draw or develop new businesses that will pay a livable wage. Thus, revenues for the town will be increased in way that is truly sustainable.
I have been advocating for a green technology research center in Brattleboro. If you set it up so that there are proprietary agreements in which discoveries are either produced or implemented in the region or a percentage of the profits go back to the center, then it will stimulate growth of new local businesses. Then we create a whole tourism industry related to bringing people to visit our cutting edge facilities both new and the great ones that already exist.
I have pitched this to Bernie Sanders and he is actually working something for the region. I have also gotten verbal support from both Matt Dunne and Peter Shumlin. Now we just have to make sure they put it here and not up north. I think our chances of this have probably increased now that the VY decision has been made.
Respond to the following "true or false" statements:
- The driver of Brattleboro's economy is money.
- The driver of Brattleboro's economy is people.
I actually view it as circular. The driver of the economy is people, but our economic system requires capital.
Tell us about your ideas to help Brattleboro thrive despite the larger economy.
Part of the Rubbish Challenge is calling on businesses to do economic development around processing and reusing waste. There are some good opportunities there. Also, composting for energy production is something that is being discussed by the Planning Committee for the Windham Solid Waste District. I am also working to get a reuse store for things other than building materials.
There is an entity called Green Wave in California that is a collaboration of a number of divergent businesses and organizations from a yacht manufacturer to green technologists. They are about to begin production of their first product a street light that is powered by both wind and solar. The yacht company is expecting to bring back most of its layed off workers. This would not have happened had not diverse groups worked together with a common purpose. That kind of concerted effort can be duplicated and improved upon in Brattleboro.
I have worked on and supported the district energy projects. Local energy production and making use of waste heat to heat homes will allow more stability in energy costs. I want to see the rail system used for local commuting and not just interstate travel. With the infusion of funding for the high speed rail this becomes more probable. By using the trains for main routes the bus services can be expanded to more rural areas.
Pay As You Throw — are you for it or against it, and why?
I have consistently voted against PAYT. I believe it is a cost shift and will ultimately cost most residents more. It will increase illegal dumping a practice for which there is no real enforcement and even if there was it would cost more money. It is unfair to renters, punitive to families and will add to the ever increasing stressors on working people.
Until recently the town has provided little leadership on this issue. We did not even have recycling containers in town offices. If we put in place the systems and do the education and outreach to enable people to recycle, reuse, reduce and compost directing some of the savings toward a specific project in town they will gladly do the right thing. I believe this will create another wedge between the town and many of its already disaffected and citizens. Instead why not use the opportunity to do some community building and strengthen our town.
One of my regrets from this past year is not really getting the Rubbish Challenge implemented. My intention was to make it a regional campaign, but I could not get the Windham Solid Waste District to support it. Then in the fall my dad passed away and life happened. That being said it was not entirely unsuccessful. Part of the challenge was calling on businesses to use compostable containers. Many restaurants and food related businesses are now using those containers. Now we just have to provide composting facilities. I still believe the challenge can work and I would like the opportunity to try.
Do you feel it's the Town's role to own and manage certain public properties such as parks, museums, and other recreational spaces? Would you be in favor of more or fewer such Town-owned facilities in the future?
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, having publicly owned spaces is key to the vitality of the community and necessary for the sustainable economic development we want.
Do you currently support relicensing of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant?
I believe Entergy should honor the original contract. I understand that this may mean loss of livelihood for a number of our residents and I am sorry. Unfortunately there was no plan in place to address this possibility, either locally or statewide. There should have been. The town has survived losses of businesses before and it will again.
We definitely need to advocate for decommissioning to take place right away, both for jobs preservation and for the obvious environmental reasons. We need to make sure the state pumps some money into our community to make up for those losses. We can start with the green technology research center. Also, the VY campus can house various kinds of renewable energy production making use of the existing infrastructure.
I think we should look at this as an opportunity. There is potential economic development that would occur only with VY gone. We have to accept that there are people who have left or will not come to our community because of its existence.
What's the most impressive thing you've read recently?
A book my dad wrote entitled, I Was a Child Spy. It chronicles the latter years of his childhood in Greece during World War II and the few years that followed. It is a great story. This is a part of that history that has never really been documented in our history classes. Except for telling funny stories (he was a bit of a prankster) when I was a kid, he never spoke much about these times. I never realized how many years this lasted or how difficult life was for him and his family. He was always so good natured and full of life you would never have known he experienced such hardship.
Thanks for participating in the iBrattleboro Selectboard Candidate Interviews.