City Council Candidate: Keith Bona
Married for 24 years to Anne-Marie Puricelli, and have two children, Alexander and Elizabeth. Currently hosting a foreign exchange student from Italy for a year. Served on numerous boards and committees for city, business, health and human service boards, social, and art related. Past Exalted Ruler (president) of North Adams Elks. Professional background includes: art and design, computer graphics, printing, marketing, teaching. Own Berkshire Emporium and Antiques on Main Street and graduated from McCann Tech and Rochester Institute of Technology.
Why are you running for City Council?
I'm running to bring a unique element to the City Council. People should look at the council as individuals, but as one entity made of many parts. We need to work together with a mission to do what we feel is best for the city. Each councilor should bring their own perspective and experience to the seat, but hopefully not all have similar resumes. Right now we have a diverse group. We have councilors in real estate, engineering, technology, education, health, marketing, business, and city government. We have councilors of various ages, a mix of city natives, and newcomers.
While I may have the most years on the council, that doesn't make me more qualified than a councilor who was elected last term. Our opinions and votes are treated equally. Of all the years I have served on city council, this last term was still very challenging when it comes to working out the finances, but it was one of the more peaceful terms when it comes to bickering and wasted arguments. We still had disagreements, but they were civil.
If elected, what issue in particular would you push the council to address?
Some issues I'd like to work on next term center around neighborhoods and properties. A couple of things I'd like to see worked on in the next term are: tax incentives for homeowners purchasing and renovating dilapidated properties and investing at least $20,000-30,000 into the property. This can be done with an assessment freeze for a certain number of years. For example, someone buys an eyesore for $20,000, they put $30,000 into the house, which could bring the value up to $70,000 to $100,000. The city could keep that assessed value at its original value for 3 to 5 years. Just by improving the home, the surrounding houses will go up in value.
It doesn't cost the city anything, and helps out those making serious investments along with eliminating blight; I'd like to review Eric Rudd's ideas of live/work occupancies allowing for more types of businesses to be operated out of homes. This idea has been discussed before, but never fully looked into. Not as simple as it sounds, but it's worthy to study more. Many times the home is the best incubator for small businesses and we should encourage more startups.
A third deals with crime and properties — making apartment owners of repeated drug busts responsible for the tenants they rent to. Part of this means the city should notify the property owners when a drug related act took place on their property. After the first notice, the property owners could face fines, or other charges. The idea behind this is to make landlords more responsible for the tenants they rent to.
What experience or perspective would you bring to the council?
While the council is mostly young as in terms served, I have served seven terms, not consecutively. Its good to have some longer term councilors that may remember items discussed in the past, but that doesn't mean their vote or presence is any more valuable then the newest councilors. Each of the councilors bring a unique element to the table. My strongest attributes would be marketing, and local business knowledge.
North Adams has a "strong mayor" form of government. How do you see the council's role in governing?
This last term has been pleasant compared to other years I have served. We still disagree, but it stays civil. The council has had much more involvement in the past few years then those prior. Even though we are strong mayor [government], the current administration allows the council to be more involved with the budget and considerations while in the works. The mayor sets the tone, and we have our say. We have a good meld of members, who ask lots of questions, research, and want to keep the public informed.
The current commercial tax at $36.07 per thousand is more than double the residential rate. Should the city rethink the current tax rate shift? Why or why not?
Yes. Besides crime, people say they want jobs, jobs, jobs. If they truly want jobs, they have to accept we are not attractive with a high commercial rate. It's a hard pill to swallow, but the commercial rate 2.5 times the residential rate, and most cities and towns in Massachusetts have single rates. In my opinion this separation occurred more to win political votes, then to benefit the city. People voted for lower taxes over attracting and keeping businesses.
There have been claims that blight — abandoned or unkempt properties — is increasing. Do you agree? How do you think the council can be more proactive in addressing this issue?
Here's one idea I mentioned above: I'd like to work on next term center around neighborhoods and properties. A couple of things I'd like to see worked on in the next term are: tax incentives for homeowners purchasing and renovating dilapidated properties and investing at least $20,000 to $30,000 into the property. This can be done with an assessment freeze for a certain number of years.
The proposed bike path, skate park and Hoosic River Revival have been touted as community development projects. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Absolutely. I was recently in Turners Falls and saw them constructing a new skate park and saw the support they had from their community. Sadly so many of our good projects have become political pawns in this election. Things we should be proud to be getting have been ripped apart for the wrong reasons. Almost all of the funding for these projects comes from federal and state grants, and other private sources. When built, it can dramatically change how our community attracts new home buyers and prospective businesses. If we don't use the grant money, another community will take it, so if our state and federal taxes are paying for it, I'd rather see the skate park or river project here, than out near Boston where it doesn't benefit us one bit.
Should the city continue to try to resurrect the Mohawk Theater or is it time to turn the project over to a private or nonprofit venture?
I'd be happy to give it to private group or a co-operative effort between the city and another venture. Former MCLA President Mary Grant had interest in the idea of making it part of MCLAs arts programming, and I hope that concept will be something their new president will consider also. The city took it from the North Adams Community Development Corp. 18 years ago after the NACDC did the first phase of abating the inside, new roof, and the marquee. The city then purchased the front building and did facade work. Its been with the city and NACDC for 23 years. I personally don't believe it will resurrect the downtown, but it will be another amenity to add to our cultural menu. However it needs $20 million to make it happen.
Plans for the private redevelopment of Western Gateway Heritage State Park have recently fallen through. Would you support another attempt at privatization?
Yes. The city simply should not be commercial landlords. We have enough to worry about with are public buildings, we don't need to be concerning ourselves with renting to retail stores. Leave it to private investors, get it on the tax role, and be done with it.
How would you reach out to constituents? Do you use Facebook or other methods?
Many ways. I use a lot of social media. Also owning a store on Main Street makes it easy for people to find me. I shop in many of the local markets, so the middle of the produce isle is a common place I get approached too.
I believe in being accessible at all times, and using social media to communicate with others.
Heroin and opiate addiction have been related to increasing crime. Should North Adams focus on more policing, on getting addicts help or a combination of the two?
The council advocated strongly the past few years to not cut police officers, even though many cuts were made through other departments. The city instead added more officers and went from 19 to 24 in the past six years. Heroin is so much bigger than a local problem. The state and feds need to step in with more support. Small communities can not compete with the corporate size drug trade industry happening all over. Thankfully, we get a lot support from the state police and sheriff's department. Our officers our doing raids and busting dealers every week. The council has no control over most drug laws or how the courts will handle the cases.
Do you think city government is transparent enough in its processes? Could it be better? Would you support an Open Checkbook system?
It's far better then it was a decade ago, and I expect technology will continue to improve the logistics of making information easier and faster to receive. Our city website is chunky and cumbersome and needs a major overhaul, but its a costly investment that quickly goes obsolete, so its being done in pieces. Open checkbook makes sense, but to do it fully it requires a half million dollar software investment. It would be nice if a technology grant became available to cover it.
A thriving community requires a diverse population, yet the city and Berkshires overall are seeing a decline in its younger population. What initiatives might the council be able to support to attract young people?
Home-buying tax incentives, business [tax increment financing] which help attract new businesses, and expanding ones, and working with groups like the chamber to better market the city.
Adams and Williamstown recently developed economic development committees. Should North Adams do so as well?
They made a formal committee. We made a master plan made up of hundreds of people attending many meetings. That master plan is a blueprint that can do a lot of what their committees will work on. Not against one, but we have done a lot of the same work without one.
Tags: candidates, election 2015, NorthAdamsElection,
