Candidate Q&A: Bob Bryant

CANDIDATE: Bob Bryant, seeking a three-year term on the Salem Budget Committee

AGE: 59

ADDRESS: 8 Clinton Street

LIVED IN SALEM: Since 1971

OCCUPATION: Sales account manager for Xerox

FAMILY: Married, five children, five grandchildren

PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE: Current Salem School Board member, served the last eight years.

Q: Why are you running for Budget Committee?

A: I feel that I still have some energy to give and some experience with the School District that leads me to believe both the district and the town can survive and get their projects done without pointing fingers at each other. We need some sort of cooperative effort and I'm hoping somehow we can get that started. We had tried that in the past and it hadn't worked out that well. Now it becomes, "Well, the School District has to fix their schools so now our roads can't get done." 

It's all the same pockets, it's all the same taxpayers, it's all the same town. I don't know what that's all about but I'm hoping somehow we can get both done and be creative on how do it and afford both.

Q: What's the most important issue facing the town and how would you address it from the Budget Committee?

A: I would say it's the manner in which we get the infrastructure repaired...I know there is a road program out there and it can go to $5 million or so this year, but there is still a dire need for a respectable-looking and a functioning police station and a good, solid upgrade to some of the fire infrastructure in the town. So having seen all that, I'm hoping I can work to make all of that a reality without being too easy with everybody's money. I'd like to have a plan.

The problem we've always had in the past with the School Board is you sit there and you listen to the Budget Committee tell you that you don't have a plan. It's constant. And the only other term they know, and they know really, really well is, "It's not a good time, it's not a good time, it's not a good time."

Well, we've dealt with that for 15 years now. Long before the recession started, long before there were people in government where we had a surplus, and we still didn't get anything done. It gets a little old and it becomes more and more expensive the longer you wait.

I don't want to do everything tomorrow. I don't want the high school and the Woodbury to be brand new tomorrow, and I certainly don't intend to add a pool or anything else to the property. I think it can be done, and the high school will probably have to be done in phases of some sort because there are just too many kids to just leave out in the parking lot.

I think all of this can be done with a little thoughtfulness and a little creativity. Hopefully I'll bring some of that to the party.

Q: What are some areas in town where maybe the town can invest more and where maybe the town can scale back?

A: I'm not necessarily a first believer in every individual cut we made from a staffing level. I think in order to get to where they wanted to be, in order to afford the upgrades to the roads and all that kind of thing, people were essentially let go but people will tell you that's not the case, they were let go and they would have been let go regardless.

But it seems rather obvious to most people that it was, "Well, we'll take X amount of people and once we have this X amount of people and services have dropped a little bit," (and I would imagine people would agree things aren't quite what they used to be), "Now we're going to work on the roads." 

I don't know if that's the correct way to do it. I felt like some of the services were being cut a little too thin. But it's been done. It's over. We're working on the roads and hopefully we'll get into some other things like the buildings, like the police station, the fire stations, the things the DPW needs to keep our roads safe and secure. We'll see how that all turns out.

Q: Where do you stand on the $21.5 million bond to renovate the three remaining elementary schools?

A: I honestly believe that the people should pass the school bond, just like they did with the last one. If you look at it, in reality, with the $7 million we saved on the first go-around by the staff and the School Board working together to get those zero-interest bonds, you basically got one of these schools for nothing.

So if you look at it as being, "OK, we're going to do three but we really saved the money for one of them on the first go-around," I think they all should be done. 

And to put the whole Haigh plan to rest, there was not any Haigh plan. It was a thought Mr. (Bernie) Campbell has and although I support him and everything he does because he is an outstanding School Board member, that was one of those times where he and I just disagreed a little bit.

He is a great guy and has nothing but the best interests of the town and the taxpayers at heart but in that particular case I think he erred in not looking at three, four, five years out and saying, "OK, what happens to the race track? What happens if the economy turns around, and older people finally have a chance to move out of town to the Arizonas, the Floridas and retire?"

Those homes are going to be sold to younger families moving into town. They aren't going to be sold to 75- or 80-year-old people again. They're going to be sold to up-and-coming families...If you take the Haigh out of the picture, where are you going to put them?

If you look at the $7 million we saved and then the over $4 million we gave back the last three years on the unreserved fund balance, we've saved the town $11 million the last three years...I think this is the perfect opportunity and it won't be cheaper next year...

The maintenance was never deferred. We put through a facilities audit that said X amount of dollars needed to be spent every year. So if you look at the $60 million in buildings we had, the people that came in and did the audit for us said we should be spending at least 2 percent to 3 percent of that every year to keep your buildings up. That would mean $1.2 to $1.8 million.

Every time we put forward a CIP that was over $1 million, it was chopped at least in half. So we got into the habit of doing at least $500,000 ahead of time and getting that approved and saying, "OK, this is all the town is comfortable spending."

We certainly didn't defer it. We still take the top item from the top of the list, the most dire need, and work our way down. We're not deferring anything. If you look at the last 40 years, we've deferred fire protection for these kids. It's about time.

Q: Where do you stand on the curbside trash pickup issue?

A: Vote "no" on curbside pickup. I have curbside pickup right now, I have a private contractor and I had a private contractor when I first got married. The guy used to come by the house and take care of me and I never had to worry about it. A lot of people enjoy going to the dump. I don't understand the fascination with it...

I just think they're going to sign a contract and there's no denying the contract will go up every year. There's no denying somewhere along the way when gas is $4, or $4.50, or $5, when it gets that high they are going to adjust their cost to us. They're going to put up fuel surcharges and it's going to increase. There has to be a way to cap this number...

I'm not willing to sign anything that is going to cost me $500,000 more than the transfer station and locks us into one particular company whereas you might have four or five in the town working right now. I'm not happy with it.

Q: Do you support the move to an SB 2 form of government? What do you think it means for the future of the Budget Committee?

A: If SB 2 passes, and the Budget Committee was dissolved or retired, I'd go home.

To me, SB 2 works. It works well for the School District. It doesn't allow anybody with private interests to come in at the end like they did last year with the road program, for that one neighborhood it cost the town $2.5 million.

I think we have consensus now with people in the town and most of the elected officials that SB 2 would work. There may be one or two holdouts in that but you can't deny that it works. You get one bite at the apple...

I think as an overseer of the numbers and the qualification of those numbers and the approval or disapproval of those numbers as a voting body, I guess that is always a good thing to have another check and balance on things.

Q: How do you feel about approving a multi-year union contract with one vote, and what is your position on the contracts voters will take up next week?

A: Unions for the most part were foreign to me when I came on the School Board. I think they have a place and I believe as a group they have a benefit. Having said that, my reason in supporting multi-year contracts is very simple: You go into a room and you bargain in good faith. You go in with the idea if you give me something, I'll give you something. Both parties end up better for it and then you take it before the taxpayers and let them vote.

If you don't make the taxpayers understand what it's about, then you've failed. But my belief is, you've bargained in good faith. Let it go to the taxpayers and let them do their thing.

I think it's a good thing. I think it stabilizes your accounting function for that purpose, for looking at what your numbers will be for the next two or three or four years if you're lucky enough to get a fourth year. It allows employees to also plan...I think it works out for both parties in the long run.

Q: Why should voters vote for you on March 13?

A: People have gone through the last eight years trusting me with their kids. I believe, contrary to popular belief, that's the largest asset we have in this town. They grow up, they live here, they come back, they have families here, they keep this economy rolling.

You've trusted me for eight years with your children. I think, in all honesty, it should be relatively easy for people to trust me with the roads and the schools and all of those things now. I won't be directly involved in the teaching or instruction of kids anymore. I won't be involved in approving or disapproving new courses but I'll be more focused on just the financial situation. And I think that's a good thing.

I can look at it objectively. I don't have kids in the school system and I'm on a street that's been repaired in the last 15 years. So I can look at it all and say I don't have any axes to grind with anybody. 

I'm in a good place to be a little bit objective, so hopefully it'll work out.