on 10-31-2008 00:16 
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Over the next few days, through the sponsorship of Alliance Blackstone Valley Federal Credit Union, The Times is pleased to present the following transcripts from the Oct. 7 "Conversation with the Mayoral Candidates," at the Gamm Theatre.
The forum, moderated by local historian and professor Richard Kazarian, was organized by the Pawtucket Alliance for Downtown Success (PADS) and Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts, and sponsored by The Times. "Since 1948, our credit union has always been proud to be associated with education," said Joseph J. Cicione III, president and CEO. "Alliance Blackstone Valley Federal Credit Union is pleased to continue that tradition by sponsoring the following review of Pawtucket's mayoral debate." You may also log onto the PADS Web site, www.pads02860.org, to view tvideo of the forum. We hope that this will help voters familiarize themselves with the issues facing Pawtucket and the positions of Mayor James Doyle, a Democrat, and his opponent, City Councilor Donald Grebien, an indpendent.
Introduction by Maia Thurlow Small, PADS: ... We'll begin with two minute opening statements. The order has been decided with a coin toss. From that, we will have 10-12 minute moderated topic discussions organized by our moderator. There will be approximately six topics to include transportation, downtown development, riverfront development education, arts and revitalization and civic leadership. There will also be closing statements the candidates have not been given the questions beforehand, although they have been given overall topics so they can prepare. Our moderator has selected the topics from input from our memberships, both RI Citizens for the Arts and PADS, as well as The Times had asked for input through their publication. The Met School is here videotaping the event. There are three cameras around the room.
Incumbent Mayor James Doyle who has served as mayor for 11 years and is seeking his sixth term in office. We are very glad you can be here tonight.
City Councilor Donald Grebien who has served for 11 years as well, two of those years as president of the city council and is seeking his first term as mayor.
[Moderator] Richard Kazarian is a downtown Pawtucket resident, local antiques dealer and historian and was named Pawtucket Foundation's Citizen of the Year for 2005.
Richard Kazarian: Good evening, Mayor Doyle; good evening Councilor Grebien. We are very anxious to begin tonight's conversation but before we do we've asked each candidate to take a brief moment to introduce their campaign
Donald Grebien: ... This is very exciting as I look out and see everyone here tonight. You are here because, as I do, you care about Pawtucket and a lot more. When my wife Laureen and I sat down and talked about running for mayor, we knew it was going to be a huge undertaking. But we also knew the residents of our city are looking for energized leadership.
As we continue to do the door-to-door with residents and business owners, some common questions keep coming up. Why would anyone want to run for mayor in these current conditions? Why take on an incumbent who has been in involved in government for almost four decades? Why run when the city's finances are in such disarray? Why run when the state is turning its back on cities and towns? Why run when everyone thinks our country, our state and our city are moving in the wrong direction. My answer is very simple. We deserve more.
As a city wide at-large councilor I realize change must begin at the top to become truly effective and take growth to our new future. Laureen and I are raising our young family in this great city and want more for them .We cannot afford to continue doing the same direction for another two years. I envision a city that is vibrant, that has energy, that delivers more than the tired practices of the past. I have the desire and the passion to be a 24/7 mayor. I have the experience. As an elected official I have led the fight to control spending. I set a goal of reducing the tax levy by 10% to stop pick-pocketing money from our pockets, from your pockets.
Also, working for years at a large company in the private sector I dealt with the reality of what it takes to run a successful enterprise. We can choose to sit back and let the faltering economy and aging infrastructure and lack of leadership push it into oblivion, or we can inject new energy, new enthusiasm, new bold direction to restore the pride in our great city. It's not about small steps that take forever to reap the benefits, it's about taking giant steps in the best interest of our city. Tonight you will clearly hear the differences between the two candidates and I am very confident you will agree: it's time Pawtucket, it's time for leadership. Thank you.
Kazarian: Mayor Doyle
James Doyle: ... Ladies and gentlemen, the election for mayor is crucial one. You all know about the problems we are facing on the local state and national levels. A housing crisis, financial crisis, and recession. Above all a general crisis of confidence. During difficult times like these, it is vital that Pawtucket has a leader who has a track record for effective leadership, a track record for bringing responsible positive change to our city.
Over the past 11 years I believe I've proven that I have the leadership skills necessary to bring that responsive positive change to our city and I am the candidate that is best prepared to lead the city of Pawtucket for the next two years. Over the past 11 years, ladies and gentlemen, Pawtucket has gone from a city on the brink of financial bankruptcy to a city that is financially strong, one that is prepared to get through the tough times ahead.
We have gone from a city that had no pride to a city with much stronger and safer neighborhoods, cleaner streets, a parks and recreation system that is second to none in the state, a city with theater, and music and arts and wonderful festivals that are enjoyed by thousands of people throughout the year. We have a brand new state of the art water system that is the envy of the state. In other words, we now become a city we can be proud to call home.
We have gone from a city that was stagnant to one that has seen unprecedented growth. That has added millions of dollars to its tax base, about 380 new businesses, almost 2000 new jobs and hundreds of beautiful new condos for people to live in. These are huge positive changes for the city and with your help in November we will continue to make the positive responsible changes that will keep Pawtucket moving forward. I thank you very much.
Kazarian: Let's begin with a discussion of perhaps is the most hopeful project in the city, which is the longstanding promise of a new train station. Let me take a moment to set the stage for those who may require some background.
Here's what we know, first that the creation of the a new commuter rail system has the potential to be a real game changer in terms of our ongoing urban efforts, second that it is the key to enhancing the prospects and the value of new residential development and especially large mill conversions and it is also key to neighborhood improvement by expanding work and educational opportunities.
We also know that since its inception the Pawtucket Foundation has devoted enormous amounts of time and of resources in an effort to expedite this critical piece of urban infrastructure. Finally, we remember that on two separate occasions the city council chambers were filled to the rafters with those who felt passionately in favor of this project.
So the question is what do we say to those residents who are beginning to feel as if the promise of a new commuter rail system is losing momentum, or asked another way, how much of a priority will it be in your administration? Mayor Doyle you go first.
Doyle: Richard, I want to first allude to the statement you made about many of these residents Spending hours at two city council meetings. For those of you who remember the organization it's called pads. It's one of the sponsors of this event tonight. Their motto is SOS for save our station. And I was there on both occasions with the members of PADS, supporting their plea to the city council, save our station, please save our station.
I quote from a letter that PADS sent to Tom Ryan of CVS. Misinformation from the developer. "In light of this vote we have renewed our efforts and determination to urge the developer, Oscar Seelbinder, to accommodate both the needs of CVS and the restoration of the station, however we remain concerned about a positive response as Mr. Seelbinder's past intentions for the site have been misleading by the example statements and actions below. In a letter to council president Donald Grebien, Mr. Seelbinder stated a concept of this kind does not include tearing down your station. We will make modifications to the building that will enhance property value."
How wrong, how false. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Seelbinder owned that property. When PADS, through the city forwarded a desire and intent to have the city council allow the redevelopment agency to take that building by eminent domain we were turned down by the Pawtucket city council.
The council said no and that was the end of PADS' chances to take over that station. Above and beyond that, ladies and gentlemen, other things happened. We heard rumor Mr. Seelbinder was going to destroy the train station, destroy the depot. Upon hearing that we went and got a court injunction against Mr. Seelbinder for doing something such as this.
Mr. Seelbinder, either before he received the injunction or in defiance of a court injunction, took a hammer to that building and took off a substantial piece of that depot building before the second court injunction stopped it. Why is that important? It's important for two reasons. One, it's a national, historic building. If that had been allowed to continue, ladies and gentlemen, that destruction of the building which he fully intended to do. When you take down an historic building you lose any chance, any opportunity to gain federal funds for what is the most important piece of the project, a commuter rail facility. All this has gone by the boards if that building had not come down.
So where do we go from there? We talked to Mr. Tom Ryan and the CVS people and they came to our office. They sat down and worked out a plan in conjunction with the City of Central Falls. That plan was to allow CVS. We had to abandon part of that street to allow that CVS to continue on that site. CVS was ultimately built and Central Falls received their piece of the pie, so to speak, or received what they were looking for.
We, on the other hand have a broken, busted historical building that we even had to go in and determine if it was stable or it would stand any type of people being in there because of its condition. Thank God, the building stood ... Because that building still stands, we now have that commuter rail project in hand. 43 million was committed to it initially, we now have received from Senator Reed, 1.9 million dollars to undergo an engineering feasibility study to see if the train will stop at that location. Thank God that building still stands.
Kazarian: Councilor?
Grebien: ... I think we need to go back and look at when this all started and look at how long that building's been vacant and look at the 11 years of this administration. It was not until a developer came in and purchased that did they ever make an offer, ever make an attempt to revitalize that project.
And rather than sitting down and trying to discuss it with the administration, in my administration we will be sitting down and trying to work in the city's best interest. I serve on the preservation society and from the beginning understood how important saving that building was. I know that got lost in the message over the months of discussions and part of that was because of the inaccurate statements and things coming out. But when you look at that project and you look at that depot building that is something that is vital to the future of the city.
Members of the administration have commented on that that building is not necessarily part of the overall scope. I think we should do everything we can to save it. To use it.
But the reality is the studies have been done and they actually put the train stop up in the Central Falls stop and it would never stop in that area because of the way the tracks are.
I know many members and many people in this audience have been there and have addressed that and have been in meetings where we talked about it and the state has come in and I think it's important that rather than try to stall the project that we sit down, work this out together, we put people in the same room together, rather than do the blame game, it's the council, it's the developer. I think it's very important. I think it's very stagnant over the last 11 years and we need to move these things forward.
When we tie it into transportation and we talk about the buses and we talk about the intermodal that the Pawtucket Foundation had come out with to move the city to tie into that project. That's a very important piece. But in all likelihood from all these meetings the reality is the train stop is going to be on the Central Falls side and it's very unfortunate that because of the lack of energy, the lack of vision and the lack of communication, CVS was built on the Central Falls side and Pawtucket really has nothing to show for it.
In fact, when the developer came in mayor, we sat down in your office and put the plan on there and at your request, which was a very valid point, they wanted to put the residential on the city side and you had requested, no, I want the commercial on there. When they went back, they redid the drawing, they came back to the table and you agreed with it at that point, then something changed and I'm not sure where the miscommunication, misunderstanding came about but bottom line.
Richard, I think it's very very important that any administration, that, in my administration that ... it's vital to the economic development that we need to see happen downtown, it's vital to the riverfront development. It all ties in.
Kazarian: Let's move from the train station to the often discussed hotel project on Division Street. This is a two part question.
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