Ward 5 Concord City Council Candidates Talk Trash, Taxes, Engagement

CONCORD, NH — For the city’s municipal election cycle for 2023, 13 of the 15 seats have competitive races — the most in recent history.

In the Ward 5 race, Noemi Wierwille is challenging incumbent councilor, Stacey Brown, who is finishing her first term. Both women have experience in education and volunteerism. Brown is a native of the state who also served in the U.S. Army and moved back to New Hampshire to raise a family with her husband, while Wierwille grew up in Minnesota and settled in the West End with her husband to raise a family.

Both women were asked about Mayor Jim Bouley's exit, the addition of at least four new city councilors, possibly more, and the instability that might come with such turnover.

Brown acknowledged Bouley’s long service to the city and held fair meetings, allowing everyone to speak. She hoped the next mayor also practiced the same ethos and was “excited” to serve with new councilors.

Wierwille called 2023 “a once-in-a-decade election” and said voters needed to work collaboratively, take in all the divergent views, and build consensus on major decisions. She also hoped turnout would be higher than in the past. Wierwille also called for reestablishing the city’s board of ethics to address concerns by residents.

While the city has consistently kept annual tax increase rates around 3 percent (it was nearly 4 percent this year), the upcoming solid waste contract will be as much as 8 percent on top of the normal increase. Wierwille called the potential sticker shock “a really critical issue for our community over the next couple of years.” She said it was a combination of things that needed to be done, including expanding composting to reduce costs and educating the city about waste and what residents could do to reduce it. Wierwille said funding was a good opportunity to listen to the public because everyone pays a little, and then, the more a person throws away, the more bags they must buy.

“That’s really a question about values,” she said. “Who should have the cost of the trash and trash usage? So, I think it’s important that we really engage the public in that.”

Brown agreed with Wierwille’s points.

“I love the composting piece,” she said, adding that the promotion of community gardens was also important.

Brown called for more civic involvement on the trash issue and all of the city’s committees, some of which don’t meet. She said the public safety committee had not met in 13 months, and those line items were some of the highest in the city’s budget. Brown said committee meetings, too, were chances for residents to air concerns.

“I would like to see more meetings, more outreach,” she said.

Brown was one of eight votes to preserve the pay-as-you-throw program and increase the price of the bags. She struggled with the vote, but going without bags and the sticker shock would have been too drastic.

Wierwille said she did not know if she would have voted to extend the program but liked the idea of incentivizing throwing less away.

Wierwille was also asked about her employment with Teach For America after a Patch reader claimed the org, despite its benevolent sounding name, had long worked to “promote privatization of public schools, undermine teachers’ unions, and generally disparages public school teachers.” She denied the comment and said when she was a corps member teacher, she was also a union member, and the educators taught in public institutions, in diverse communities and in low-income schools.

“I don’t know where that person got their information, but I would encourage folks to ask me about my views on public education in New Hampshire,” Wierwille said.

Brown was asked about her request for sensitive information like membership at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course and attempting to gain access to a city contractor’s files on job applicants, a violation of the city charter. Brown said she liked to “verify information.” As a former intelligence officer, teacher, and mother, she wanted to ensure accuracy.

“So, when I’m hearing about costs at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course,” she said, “I want to know who is playing there.”

On attempting to gain access to the city’s job applicants, Brown said she called the company, and they gave her general information and “I was totally fine with that.”

The candidates were also asked about economic development and increasing the tax base, the exploding homeless crime problem in the city, housing issues, and whether councilors should be paid more, considering the suggestion childcare and transportation be paid for councilors.

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