Selectmen Candidates Debate

Belinda Brewster consistently said she loves the town and would make informed decisions.

Mike Jones said the town has to stop wasting money on consultants and voters should not expect new results without new leadership.

John Mahoney, completing his first three-year term as selectman, said he’s ready for the job day one.

Dicky Quintal, long-term selectman, said necessary change is good when balanced with experience.

The candidates gave opening and closing remarks. Debate organizer John Patrick Minerella asked them to respond individually to several questions posed to the group. Members of the audience posed questions to individuals and the group.

Quintal emphasized his accomplishments - Plymouth North High School and the new senior center, successful negotiations with town employee unions, establishing a new emergency operations center. He said he lives on the land his grandparents built on and runs the produce business his father started. He said he would fight to increase commercially zoned land in town and increase the height restriction on buildings to bring more tax revenue to Plymouth.

Mahoney said he knows first hand the difficult times people experience today. He said the town has to do a better job of determining the appropriate level of services to residents. He emphasized his efforts to improve the DPW. He said the health care expenses for town employees is out of control at 18 percent of the budget.

Jones said he opened a business, On the Rocks Tavern, in the worst recession since the Great Depression. He said he wants to modernize government and balance the budget by eliminating waste and increasing revenue through more small businesses. He wants to require town managers reside in town. He told the audience, with a large contingent from The Pinehills, that the village is over-assessed and under-appreciated. He said it’s time to shake up the town.

Brewster said the biggest challenge to selectmen is to maintain town services with shrinking revenue. She wants to revitalize Downtown and make it the Newport of the South Shore. She said she would use her MBA and experience as an economic researcher and writer to do deep analysis of the challenges facing the town. She would explore new ways of doing things, such as increasing buying power by developing a purchasing co-op with neighboring towns.

Asked which they considered more important regarding the safety or increased revenue to the town, all four chose safety.

“I would prefer to be safe than rich,” Brewster said.

“At some time the town will stop relying on revenue from the power plant,” Quintal said. “The (spent fuel rods) will be there whether the plant is relicensed or not.”

“If something happens there, you’ll get out, but you won’t come back,” Mahoney said.

“Of course safety takes priority,” Jones said. “But, that license is a license to print money. I don’t think we need consultants to guide us through the process of renegotiating the deal with Entergy.”

They had varying definitions of leadership.

“It’s looking people in the eye and finding out what they need,” Jones said. “I’ve had leadership roles in the Republican Party. Nobody ever gave me anything.”

“You have to have vision,” Brewster said. “A good leader excites people about that vision. I would be a leader who listens and builds consensus.”

“A leader makes decisions for the community as a whole,” Quintal said. “A lot of the time, that’s not an easy thing to do, not a popular thing. I’m always willing to sit with any group of people and I never hold a grudge.”

“I want to be a good leader, not a politician,” Mahoney said. “When I first took office, I got a call from another town official who told me how to vote. I ignored that. I’ve played it straight for three years.”

They had conflicting views on term limits.

“I’d endorse it if it went for everyone in town government,” Quintal said.

“In Plymouth, we don’t need term limits,” Mahoney said.

“I believe you can limit at least one term by voting for Mike Jones," Jones said.

“The people already have that power,” Brewster said.

Kevin Doyle, a Town Meeting representative from Precinct 6, listed the many town boards on which he serves or has served. He asked Jones what town board he has served on.

“The Republican Town Committee,” Jones said.

“And you feel confident running our town having not been on any town committee?” Doyle said.

“Absolutely,” Jones said. “I’ve talked with the people in the neighborhoods.”

Pat McCarthy, a Town Meeting representative from Precinct 5, asked all four if the proposal for car dealerships would come back to Town Meeting and would they support it.

“We will see it come back,” Quintal said. “It will be in a different location. I will support it again.”

“The town should do everything it can to increase revenue,” Jones said. “There’s no evidence it would do harm to the aquifer.”

Jack Lyons of Great Island Pond asked all four what they considered their most significant contribution to the town.

“I went after the Goldenrod Foundation with facts and research,” Brewster said.

“Community service,” Mahoney said. “I coached Little League baseball, was a Town Meeting representative and served on the Advisory and Finance Committee before being elected selectman.”

“Within two years of first taking office, I worked with 11 unions,” Quintal said. “We decreased the town’s share of health insurance. That’s saved the town millions of dollars a year.”

“Opening a small business,” Jones said.

Brewster has said she's exposed the Goldenrod Foundation not as an environmental conservation group, but as a couple from San Fransisco who own two houses on Plymouth Beach, take income tax deductions for donating to their foundation, don’t pay property taxes and intend to end public access to the beach.

Jones led one of the efforts in recent years to replace the Town Meeting form of government with a mayor and council.

When Mahoney said he knows how people feel in difficult economic times, it’s because he’s had to find a new job twice.

Quintal operates Quintal Brothers Produce, a wholesale company, and established the town’s Sept. 11 memorial.

The town election is this Saturday, May 14.

Click for a full list of the seats and candidates on the election ballot.