Candidate Q&A: Paul Huard

CANDIDATE: Paul Huard, candidate for a three-year seat on the Budget Committee

AGE: 65

ADDRESS: 11 Justin Avenue

LIVED IN SALEM: Since 1973

OCCUPATION: Retired teacher

FAMILY: Married, two daughters, four grandchildren

PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE: Incumbent on Budget Committee, served the last two years

Q: Why are you running for Budget Committee?

A: The first time I was kind of coerced to volunteer for the selected year. Then when you get into it and you do so much work, you just don't want to waste that year of learning. So I decided to run for that one-year term.

As I got into it more and more, it got to be interesting. I have a serious concern about the town...

Years ago people asked me to consider it, but I didn't have the time and I was teaching. So I finally had the time and I was looking for something to do with my retirement so I said I'll try it. And I liked it despite the hours and the work. 

It's interesting to see the town and the school district in a whole different way. I'd never seen all of those numbers before. It's kind of amazing, what it takes to run a district and what it takes to run a town. I learned a lot about people that work in town and I have a tremendous respect for those people that do it, especially year after year, without any kind of reward financially. They've been plugging away and it's been years for some people.

I know the argument out there is that a lot of people haven't gotten raises. But even Social Security came to the realization it was time to do something. They gave a nice, healthy raise to Social Security, about 3.5 percent I think.

So, times are getting better very slowly. I prefer to look at things on the bright side rather than the dark side. I can't think negative all the time. I see the negative and I react to the negative and that's one of the reasons I voted against the new assistant superintendent position. That was just too much money. The schools to me are the priority and the raises are my next priority. If that passes this year they'll be able to focus on the schools and nothing else.

Q: What do you think is the biggest issue that faces Salem and how would you address it from the Budget Committee?

A: It's become cliché to say infrastructure. Everybody knows the infrastructure is in trouble but some people want to deal with it by throwing a lot of money at it, and some people want to deal with it by being careful. I probably fall into that group. Then there are some people who don't want to deal with it, they want to put it off again.

I've been through this for 40 years. We put off stuff, we put off stuff, we put off stuff and now it's too late. It's really too late. We have to do something. The police station is going to fall over one day. Schools, in some places, are dangerous. I didn't realize we still had asbestos in this community...There are wiring issues, wiring was put in during the '60s and the codes were different then. 

Those kind of issues have to be dealt with. You can deal with them a little at a time, but you keep putting off the problem. Take the schools for example, this mysterious plan that showed up at the last minute. It isn't going to solve the problem completely because you've got to go back to the schools that have already been renovated and add more classrooms.

To me it's a matter of, "Let's fix everything." Even if some day we turn the Haigh School over to the town, which would be great for people like the Rec Director to get out of that closet and into a real building, somebody is going to use that building and it still needs to be fixed. The long-term solution is to fix it now.

The priority is that we have to fix the town and we have to take care of the people at the same time.

Q: Are there areas in town government where Salem can scale back and other areas where perhaps there needs to be more investment?

A: I think the new selectmen are going to change things. I think (Selectman Stephen) Campbell is right in a sense that selectmen are going to be radically different, depending on who gets elected.

I think the first thing that is going to take a hit is the road program. I don't think it's going to go away because it can't but I think it's going to get scaled back dramatically...

I'd like to see the individual cost of the items for the roads. I think you'll see (Public Works Director Rick) Russell and (Engineering Director Bob) Puff have toprioritize. I think they do, I think they do a good job, they really do. They study the issues. That $5.5 million plan is what the road committee thought was the most reasonable solution.

Now obviously some people don't agree and want to see $4 to $4.5 million for roads. I know Campbell wants less spent on roads. So it's going to come down to that third person who is going to make a big difference in that issue. 

For stuff like the police station, I don't know when that's going to come. It's got to come soon. I've been in there and it's a mess. They're patch-working what they can. A roof here, a wall there. Somewhere down the road it's going to have to fit into the schools. If you do the schools this year, then you have to deal with the high school, and in a few years the Woodbury.

That puts the police station six years out. I don't know if we can take it. I really don't. I don't know what the answer is. Bonds are still really good right now. I don't know what bonds are going to look like. You can't buy a bond today.

Q: Where do you stand on the school renovation warrant article?

A: I support it for a couple of reasons. It's an issue of economy, it's not going to get cheaper to do it. If we put it off it's going to cost more next year. So that's one reason. We save money by doing it now...

The next issue for me is safety. There's stuff in the buildings that has to get fixed. Everybody thinks a brick building can't burn. Well, yeah, it can. There is stuff in a brick building that can burn.

The third thing is fairness. You've got three schools that are fixed and it's beautiful education space. Forget the niceness...I think it's really fair for the other schools to get the same treatment. And that's really up to the town...

I don't know where the (deferred maintenance) stuff comes from, the conspiracy theories. One of the people running was talking about hidden items in the budget. There is nothing hidden in the budget. It's all public information. There is a lot of it to absorb. But it's all there and it's all listed. Absolutely nothing is hidden.

When I was in the high school they were working constantly. Every summer I saw people tearing up floors, putting in new floors, getting rid of the asbestos tiles, dealing with wiring issues, electricians were constantly working at night, there was no one in the building...

The money was well spent. I worked for three different superintendents and they all did things to improve the school district...I don't buy the "deferred" stuff. They may have deferred stuff for different reasons but they did what they had to do to keep the buildings open.

Q: What is your stance on curbside pickup?

A: I voted with recommendation for it. I did because for a very personal reason for which I was chewed out by some of my conservative friends. I voted yes for me. It's hard for me to go to the dump, I have physical problems. Lifting the barrels into the truck is very painful. I get it done and if they don't pass it, I'll keep getting it done but eventually I will have to hire somebody...

The issue is complicated for me. The C&D, for example, to me the solution is much simpler than just canceling it. Right now I'm paying $3.67 to take a full pickup truck to the dump, so one sticker cost. There was talk about people dumping load after load of shingles. That's not a homeowner doing that. 

The first thing I'd stop is any commercial dumping at the dump without a huge charge for doing that. If it costs $100 a ton to get rid of C&D, then you need to make it $100 a ton to dump it there so it breaks even. Rather than just ending the process and making me go to (the business on Route 38) for $75 a load. That's not helping me as a taxpayer...

The dump is a big issue. Apparently we are sending stuff to Maine. So people are charging us to haul it to Maine. Those same people charge Maine for dumping and giving it to them. So they're making all kinds of money and we're not making any. So I don't know how to fix that but we certainly need a place to take our garbage.

The cheaper thing for me is $0.68 a week. But if people are spending $6 a week they must be happy with that. I don't think the haulers are happy but our local haulers didn't come in with the lower bid.

The selectmen run the dump. Some people don't like to hear me say this but it's not my job to run the town. It's not my job to supervise the town. It's my job to look at the money. That's all it says in the budget laws. I help the town deal with the money.

The selectmen put up a little bit of a wall this year saying, "We're not going to answer questions that don't have to do with money."

Q: What does the potential passage of the SB 2 article mean for the Budget Committee?

A: It doesn't change the need for a budget committee. You still need a panel, I think, to review the numbers. I read a lot on SB 2 and no other town I saw discussed the budget committee. It's just a change in procedure but not a change in responsibility.

I agree that 200 people shouldn't be making million-dollar decisions. But I also said years ago that 2,000 people shouldn't be making million-dollar decisions either. We have 3,700 people making about $100 million worth of decisions. That's just the budget...

I think the town and the school district worked hard to come in with a budget that made sense. The town cut $1 million out before it got to us. The Budget Committee never cut $1 million out. We cut some stuff and we put some stuff back in and they said "You're not supposed to put it back." Well, if we can take it out we can put it back in.

The mosquito thing was very important to me. My grandson plays in places that are surrounded by water. One case of Triple-E and you have a person who can't function anymore. I believe in 2001 Salem had two of the three cases...

Q: Do you support the idea of one vote approving multiple years of a union contract? Do you support the current town and school union contracts on the ballot?

A: I've heard for years that one Town Meeting cannot bind another Town Meeting. That's true. The money always has to get voted on. Now it's going to be voted on in the budget. So does the Budget Committee have the right next year to take money out of the salary budget? Yes, they do. Whose responsibility is it to pay those contracts? It's the town's.

They're going to have to take the money from somewhere else. So you're not binding anything.

The other issue is if you look at the math, and I'm not an accountant and I don't have a background in finance but I do have a background in common sense, if you negotiate a contract it takes money. According to what Beth Roth said, it's $200 an hour and I think that's cheap for a lawyer. A meeting will last a couple of hours so that's $400 each time you meet. If you meet 50 or 60 times at $400 each time, you add that into the cost.

If you don't negotiate next year, you save that money. If you don't negotiate the year after that, you save money.

Most of the raises in the contracts are 1 to 2 percent. They're minuscule raises. You have secretaries making $24,000 a year. They've getting a $300 raise spread out over maybe 40 weeks. The unions on the town side gave up major stuff including on their health plans which makes people very nervous when you switch health plans...

I think the unions made tremendous concessions, which is what people have been asking for. Especially some of the stronger voices in town. They wanted change. They got change but to get the change they had to stretch it out. They did a nice job negotiating the contracts and we save a quarter million dollars if the town contracts pass.

But if it doesn't, and this is what people don't understand, it's going back to the way it was. That quarter million dollar savings is gone. Next year you're going to negotiate all over again so there's more cost. Now, we do have money in the budget for the lawyers...

Bernie Campbell, Sr., used to make public statements over and over like "I want Salem teachers to be paid in the top five in the state." We couldn't compete with Manchester or Nashua but we could always be around three or four. I don't know where we are now but we're not three or four...

This is the best deal we've had in a long time.

Q: Why should voters use one of their three Budget Committee votes on you next week?

A: I don't have an agenda. I don't consider myself a liberal or a conservative, although some people may dispute that. I really don't care, I do what my conscience tells me to do. My votes are based on, I think, the whole community: the people that work for it, the people that pay for it and even the people who don't don't pay for it. We have people in town who don't pay taxes. 

I believe I'm giving people an honest day's work. Not for an honest day's pay because I don't get an honest day's pay. But I believe I'm doing the right thing. I think I'm doing the right thing for the town.

I'm committed to the town. The town has given me everything I have. They educated my children, they protected me. On the two occasions I had to call the Fire Department they were there immediately. On the one occasion I needed the police they were there immediately. 

The community leaders have given this town a lot of stuff, they've given a lot of effort, and I believe I do that. I'd like to do it again.