E-Mail This Article to a Friend Voters' guide (continued)
	Voters' guide questions 1) Rate Mayor Tom Menino’s handling of negotiations with city unions. 2) Would you back a plan to import prescription drugs from Canada for city employees? 3) Name one budgetary item for which you would promise to protect funding for the next fiscal year — and why? 4) What role can the council play in making sure the city impresses the nation during next year’s Democratic National Convention? 5) Do you support a return to neighborhood schools? How can this best be accomplished? 6) It looks like we may be going through yet another round of talks about the Red Sox moving to a new stadium in South Boston. Where do you stand on the location of the ballpark and whether any public funds ought to be spent on such a project? 7) The Supreme Judicial Court is going to issue a ruling in the Goodridge case — in which the plaintiffs seek the right of civil marriage for same-sex couples — any day now. The ruling, regardless of what it is, is widely expected to generate controversy. What will you do, as an elected official, to show leadership on the day the ruling is announced?

Francesca Fordiani, District Six challenger

1) That is just not a question that I could possibly answer since the negotiations are taking place between the mayor and the unions. There’s not a whole lot of information coming out of what goes on in the room, so it’s difficult to speculate.

2) Yes.

3) I’m concerned with restoring funding to the Boston Public Schools. I think certainly we need to take a step beyond protecting funding. I think we need to restore funding, to restore staffing levels. After having gone through years of reform at the Boston Public Schools, reducing funding and laying off teachers is moving in the wrong direction and at absolutely the wrong time. Between the loss of the bilingual-education programs, and the MCAS and the graduation requirement, it’s just absolutely the wrong time.

4) Honestly, I believe that the most important thing the city can do is make sure every city employee has a city contract so that we can ensure seamless services and public safety. The city council, from where I’m sitting anyway, doesn’t play a huge role in actual contract negotiations. I know that they should meet with unions and work with the mayor to ensure there is fairness and equity for the unions. But it does seem to me that the most important thing we can do is make sure city workers have contracts.

5) I do not believe that we can make a return to neighborhood schools at this time. The concern, of course, is that returning to neighborhood schools will have the effect of re-segregating schools, and that’s something we need to be very, very careful about. There continues to be an achievement gap along racial lines, and that’s something we need to be very concerned about. And there are also, I think, some benefits for the city, beyond maintaining racial diversity, to having parental choice in schools. If you look at the different schools, each has different programs, different philosophies, different public-private partnerships, different grants, and there’s a great variety in what’s offered in the public schools. I think parents and children should have choices, and I think having zoned schools allows for a certain amount of variety.

6) I actually didn’t know that the Red Sox were looking at a new location in South Boston. I would say, as a general matter, I would not favor seizing property by eminent domain for a new Fenway Park in Fenway, and I would not favor that in South Boston. And I would be very hesitant about dedicating public funds to the expansion of a professional sports team. You know, they generate profit, and the City of Boston is in terrible financial shape right now.

7) I strongly and vocally and passionately support the right of everyone to not only be married legally but to enjoy the legal benefits and the social benefits of marriage. I think that the city council has a powerful role to play because of advocacy — using their stature to speak out publicly on issues that are important to all of us.

Chuck Turner, District Seven incumbent, running unopposed

1) The fact that all the union contracts are up at once creates a difficult situation, but I’m not close enough to the negotiations to say whether there are ways he could have avoided that.

2) Yes.

3) Summer jobs for youth. Neither the city nor the business community nor the state provided the resources to provide jobs for all the youth in the city who wanted them and who indicated a need for a job. And we saw what some had predicted — that there was a lot of the violence among youth this summer. So I think we owe it to our youth to assure them each and every year that every child that wants and needs a job will receive them. It’s particularly important because the development of Boston is negatively impacting the financial situation of the working-class children of all races, and their economic situation is becoming worse as many [others] see their economic situations improving. While it is no answer to the problems faced by the working-class families in the city, providing jobs for all youth who need them is a small step but an important step the city can take in balancing the financial inequities.

4) We could support the initiative of the Boston Tenant Coalition to stabilize rents in this city. We could call upon the Democratic Party to assert the need to reduce the defense budget and use the monies to deal with the people of the city. We could, as a council, support a graduated income tax in the state so we begin to create a fair tax system. And we could encourage the Democratic Party to urge its state committee to support that. Those are the kind of substantive things we could do to impress the people of this nation who are suffering just like we’re suffering here because of the fiscal and budget policies of state and national government that both the Democratic and Republican Parties have to take responsibility for.

5) No, I don’t, because there aren’t the schools in my district because the schools in my district were sold in the ’80s and the ’90s, and there’s no way we can have a neighborhood school system that provides the same opportunities or access to all the children of the city. When we have enough schools throughout the city to provide equal access, then we would be able to look at the possibility of developing that kind of system. To return now is to violate the principle of equal access.

6) I’d need to know the attitude of the people in the neighborhood in terms of the location. I think we have to be sensitive to the people in the neighborhood when there are these large-scale developments proposed. To have a stadium on the water is glamorous and alluring to those of us who don’t live in the neighborhood, but as an elected official I’d need to know how the people in that area feel. In terms of public funding, we shouldn’t spend public funds on the development of the stadium itself. There could be road improvements and other kinds of public-works projects that would be appropriate in and of themselves.

7) If they ruled to approve the principle of the right of civil marriages for same-sex couples, I think one thing I could do is congratulate them on their wisdom and their courage in terms of acknowledging the rights of human beings who love each other to ceremonialize that. And if they take the position that they don’t support it, then I will certainly speak out against their action and bemoan the fact that we are still in the situation where our judicial leadership does not have the human perspective to acknowledge that principle.

Michael Ross, District Eight incumbent

1) I support union efforts to obtain a fair and equitable contract for their employees.

2) Absolutely.

3) As I have stated publicly both at city-council committee hearings and at city-council meetings, there is a direct correlation between the level of crime and the number of officers on the streets. By maintaining, if not increasing, police patrol levels, we can ensure the safety and well-being of our citizenry. I expect a similar commitment to public safety next year.

4) The Boston City Council can play an important role in working with neighborhood communities to ensure that the convention is a success for the city as a whole and the residents most impacted by the convention. This week, I will be walking in the community with a representative of Boston 2004 to introduce the Democratic National Convention to the small businesses and residents in places like the Fenway and Mission Hill.

5) I support every neighborhood having access to a school within walking distance of the children’s residences. That is why I have fought hard for a school in Beacon Hill, and why I continue to believe that the children of the West End, Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and Fenway deserve an elementary school near where they live. A revised assignment plan would assist Boston financially and benefit our city’s neighborhoods. This plan should still provide students from throughout the city an opportunity to attend public schools throughout the city, so that city schools are not restricted only to nearby residents.

6) Fenway Park should stay in the same footprint. I applaud the efforts made by the current owners to improve Fenway Park without increasing capacity. As always, my position is that no public funds should be spent on building a new park or on renovating the new park. However, there is presently a need for transportation and infrastructure improvements in the Kenmore Square and Fenway areas.

7) I support same-sex marriages, and am hopeful that the Supreme Judicial Court will issue a ruling in favor of same-sex marriages. I will work to implement whatever authority the city may be given by the court to provide same-sex-marriage or domestic-partnership benefits. [When the ruling is announced], successful or not, I plan on standing by the GLBT community and will continue to support them in any way I can.

Carmen Torres ,District Eight challenger

1) Mediocre. In the rush to have the Democratic National Convention here, I think he’s trying to speed things up, but it’s not working toward the workers benefit.

2) Not just for city employees — I think we need to look at it for the whole state, including certainly the Department of Mental Health, and other departments that are spending millions of dollars on prescription medication.

3) Education — if we’re not able to educate our children, then who is going to do the jobs that need to be done without always being at the low end of the economic level? But what I’d like to do is look at all the budgets and find out what is really essential.

4) I think the city council’s role is very limited but I think they can become much more active by making sure that issues in the city are taken care of in a dignified manner so that you’re not spilling all your political laundry outside in the streets.

5) I have a problem at this present time with discussing neighborhood schools when we have so many neighborhoods that don’t have schools. I think one thing that will deter a lot is the whole issue of why desegregation was needed. Desegregation was not needed in 1975, if the city fathers at that time had really abided by their own rules and regulations and had provided equal access to the constituents — to poor people in particular and African-Americans and Latinos. It continues today that when we’re talking about a return to neighborhood schools that the schools in the white areas are going to have better resources, better support than those schools in the black areas. I’d say I’m lukewarm about returning to neighborhood schools without some real monitoring device on hand.

6) I’m definitely against using public funds for a corporation that has millions of dollars and whose employees are paid millions of dollars while city workers, state workers, and other people who have to meet the needs get nothing. I think if South Boston and the waterfront would like the Red Sox there, that’s fine with me. I do see a historical perspective to keeping the Red Sox where they are now, because looking at the history and what that has meant is an important legacy.

7) I think we have to be understanding that there are people who are different than us. I grew up as a Fundamentalist. When you have a personal relationship with God, you have a situation of a God that’s forgiving and a God that’s created. So in the same vein that God created the heterosexual, he had to have created the homosexual. I think if we leave the religious out and just look at the secular situation, there are people who are committed to each other and it’s a civil union we’re talking about, part of what that would give people is some legality. The destruction of the family as the far-right likes to talk about it hasn’t been because of homosexuality, it’s been because of heterosexuality. I would support and I think we do need discussion.

Jerry McDermott, District Nine incumbent

1) I think that they have been taking place at a moderate pace so far, and I don’t see anything other than a positive solution the closer we get to the first of the year. With the Democratic National Convention looming, I think it would be a major embarrassment for the city not to have all of its contracts settled.

2) Yes, I would.

3) It would have to be for an increase in police presence, so funding for a new class of police. We have a crisis on our hands in Allston-Brighton, and we need to get more police on the streets to stop the dealers.

4) What we need to do is make sure we elevate the level of debate here in the city council, that we rise above any kind of petty, divisive issues, and that we really show a united front and really show the whole country that Boston is a welcoming community. We really have to act as ambassadors of goodwill to the delegates and their families, all of the visitors who are coming here. Try to get folks in Boston to shake that image that we don’t smile.

5) I do support a return to neighborhood schools. We can’t do it overnight because we don’t have enough public-school buildings that are already built. City-council president Mike Flaherty, myself, and a majority of our colleagues have looked at the archdiocese’s property that may be sold off. We’d like Boston to have the right of first refusal — the bricks and mortar are already there. Why not get the right of first refusal, so they’re not sold to the highest bidder but the city can continue that mission of education and make sure those doors are open to children within that neighborhood first?

6) I’ve always thought the Red Sox should stay right where they are. I love Fenway Park. And I don’t think any public funds should be used.

7) This is an issue that the courts will decide. I don’t have any problem with two men or two women entering into a civil marriage, it’s never troubled me. You have a lot of folks in Allston-Brighton, good folks, gays and lesbians, who are very happy together and are having children together. It’s not going to be earth-shattering to me one way or the other.

Daniel Kontoff, District Nine challenger

1) I cannot rate it; it wouldn’t be fair.

2) I think a better plan would be for us to get lower prices for medicine in this country. If you want to do that, fine, but what about the people who live in the city who aren’t city employees?

3) That wouldn’t be fair of me to promise something and then break it. I’ll do what I can. I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been in government before. I don’t know how government operates — my goal is to make a difference.

4) I work for a group called Food Not Bombs. Food Not Bombs will probably be catering a protest against it. I think a lot of Democrats are failing. I think the role we can play is to respect the protesters. And give the protesters support because they have the right to protest — it’s called democracy, free speech. I think the best the city can do is keep the police down and not be so violent.

5) I think it’s up to the people who live in the communities. The reason busing started is because we had a major problem called racism. Busing made a major improvement. If we return, what will happen? You’d have to look into the communities and see what they want.

6) No public funds. It’s a private enterprise, this guy’s a millionaire — if he wants to do something, it’s his money. That money could go to better education, streets, housing. It would be great to move it because then the people in Fenway wouldn’t be harassed. But what would happen to the people in South Boston?

7) I’m totally supportive of same-sex marriages. If I were gay or lesbian, I’d totally be wanting to marry somebody. Marriage is a beautiful thing. As a government official, I’d speak out in respect for people.