Prior to Primary Day on Sept. 18, the Dutchess Beat asked City of Poughkeepsie mayoral candidates Nancy Cozean and Fred Knapp, who are both seeking the Democratic nomination, to answer several questions. Each provided answers for the same four questions, while the final question was taylored to each candidate. Their responses are below.
DB: What do you see as the three biggest challenges facing the city, and how will you work toward overcoming those challenges?
NC: 1) Inadequate employment opportunities that force our promising local talent to relocate. We need to encourage developers to provide job training and employment opportunities with economic expansion throughout our city. The Cottage Street Enterprise Project I initiated should be a model for taking opportunities into our neediest neighborhoods.
2) Reducing crime by discouraging it before it occurs. Provide enhanced youth programs and after-school activities to create positive alternatives to youth gangs and criminal behavior. At the same time, we must continue to support our Police Department as they fight crime every day on our streets.
3) Ensuring that gentrification does not displace our residents by pricing them out of their homes or denying them the availability of affordable housing. Broadening the tax base to lessen reliance on property taxes, providing inducements to encourage property upgrades, and enforcing codes for tenant safety.
DB: What other goals (not discussed above) do you intend to work toward as Mayor?
NC: 1) Continuing citywide revitalization by more aggressively marketing the city’s retail properties;
2) Improving city services by providing our workers with improved equipment and training;
3) Improving communication between City Hall and our citizens.
DB: Why should Democrats vote for you in the primary?
NC: I have a clear record of positive results that Senator Schumer recently said added up to “Poughkeepsie’s remarkable revitalization.” As a lifelong Democrat, my efforts to better this city have been inclusive and have not strayed one bit from the Democrat Party’s fundamental goals of social justice and fairness to which I will always be highly committed. And, voters can count on my honesty and frankness.
DB: If you win the primary, how do you plan to unite Democrats to win the general election?
NC: Primaries are part of the democratic process, and I believe that the Democratic Party as a whole will rally around whomever we select as our candidate. This is one of the reasons I have strived to run a particularly clean, positive campaign. We must remember that our common ground is stronger than our differences.
DB: Republican candidate for Mayor, John Tkazyik, is campaigning with the slogan, “Poughkeepsie needs a work horse, not a show horse.” How do you respond?
NC: The slogan amuses me since it is meant to compare me with someone I am told has never held a full-time job. Mr. Tkazyik would do well to demonstrate his own capacity for work to his constituents in the 3rd Ward, not to mention the city as a whole, before he tries to belittle me. Besides, any woman my age and as hard-working as I am would be flattered to be called a show horse.
DB: What do you see as the three biggest challenges facing the city, and how will you work toward overcoming those challenges?
FK: First and foremost, we need to improve our schools. For far too long, City Hall and the school system have operated with little coordination of goals. City Hall must commit to assist and support the School Board and the school system’s outstanding staff to improve graduation rates, better prepare our students for the job market and assist those who want to continue their education. This will eventually serve to reduce crime, enhance property values and most importantly provide our youth with a solid foundation from which to build a future.
Second, we need to expand youth recreation and employment opportunities by working with city vendors and developers who benefit from our city taxes.
Third, we must unite the community around a set of common goals that will serve to address the needs of all city residents. Decisions made in City Hall must become more transparent and we need to encourage greater citizen input into the decision process. City Hall is less effective when it seeks to divide instead of seeking a community consensus.
DB: What other goals (not discussed above) do you intend to work toward as Mayor?
FK: Our bus system is disgrace and needs to become more user-friendly. We need to expand the availability of Dial-A–Ride and provide early evening and weekend senior recreation services. We need a comprehensive housing strategy that will address the homelessness issue, the need for transitional housing and affordable workforce housing. We need a development strategy that will deliver tangible community benefits and is grounded in sound environmental planning. We also need to embrace and recognize not-for-profit service providers as economic contributors to our community and not a burden to the city.
DB: Why should Democrats vote for you in the primary?
FK: Democrats will vote for me because they know that our city is in need of a new direction and a new set of priorities which will address the social and economic divide in our community. They know that for far too long we have failed to address the growing gap between those who have benefited from prosperity and those with little hope of realizing the American dream. They know we can do better and that my approach as mayor will serve to unite our city, not by burdening the prosperous but by creating and offering hope and opportunity to those who have been excluded.
DB: If you win the primary, how do you plan to unite Democrats to win the general election?
FK: When I win the primary, we Democrats will be united, first because my candidacy has been one of ideas and solutions, void of personal attacks of any kind. We will be united because we Democrats will reject the out-of-step rhetoric of the Conservative/Republicans and embrace a progressive platform of ideas, grounded in fairness and openness. We will be united because we will offer the voters a clear choice as to how we will govern.
DB: Critics say that your work on countywide issues as a legislator has not necessarily prepared you to lead the city, or has not supported the city (for example, you opposed the sales tax that is a major revenue source for the city). How do you respond?
FK: Critics who make those claims do so with limited knowledge or disingenuous motives, especially when addressing the issue of sales tax. I welcome any of my opponents or critics to endorse raising the sales tax but would hope that in doing so they would acknowledge who pays that tax – we do! I am proud to have led the fight to eliminate sales tax on clothing. The sales tax is an unfair, regressive tax that hurts those who can least afford to pay it: families and the working poor. I am just as proud that this past fall, I authored an alternative county budget proposal that would have eliminated the double-digit property tax increase proposed by the county executive and reduced spending by over $1 million, with no reductions in essential or public safety services. I believe that is the kind of leadership our city residents want and need.