Three's a crowd, for Montpelier District 2 council seat
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Candidate Richard Sheir has thrown his hat in the ring for the District 2 council seat held by Nancy Sherman, who plans to seek re-election. Montpelier resident Jack Lindley will also run for the seat. JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR/TIMES ARGUS |
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By SUSAN ALLEN TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: January 29, 2010
MONTPELIER – Three people seeking one City Council seat for District 2 equals one thing: A lively discussion of the issues and distinct choices for voters on Town Meeting Day.
"For the first time, you'll get a real discussion of the public policy of city governance," said Richard Sheir, who lives on Loomis Street and co-owns a computer software firm.
Sheir became the third candidate for the council seat currently held by Nancy Sherman, who plans to seek re-election; Montpelier resident Jack Lindley recently threw his hat into the ring for that council post, as well.
Sheir said Thursday he decided to run while watching a televised City Council meeting during which the Scott Construction financial error was discussed.
He said he was concerned about the $462,000 overpayment in 2004 to the Newport-based firm, and the failure of the council to fully disclose the problem to the public after it was discovered in 2006. But what bothered him more, he said, was the council's apparent failure to initially consider that the Scott situation might be a criminal case, and the panel's decision to continue to use the accounting firm – Sullivan Powers & Co. — that missed the error while auditing the city's books.
Sheir said his wife turned to him during that televised meeting and said, "'This man was a thief. They were negotiating with a criminal.' In that moment, all of a sudden, everything was framed correctly."
"The people who I know in my part of the district were saying why wasn't this reported to the authorities?" he added. "How long did it take these people to come to the point of saying that when a person won't repay half a million dollars, it's a criminal matter?"
Then, he said, the council's decision to continue to use Sullivan Powers for annual audits pushed him to enter the race.
"What bothered me about that one is Sullivan and Powers missed (the $462,000 overpayment to Scott Construction Inc.). They missed it. That's a fundamental error," he said. "The City Council did not do proper due stewardship by immediately seeking out another accounting firm for the next year.
"The integrity of the city's books is in question," he said. "The council has been too lax in fiscal oversight."
To that end, Sheir said, he doesn't have a string of new initiatives for Montpelier "other than at the end of the day to make sure the city is run as a tighter business and making sure that issues that have long been unresolved get resolved in the next two years."
For example, he said, the fate of the Montpelier Senior Activity Center at 58 Barre Street has been discussed for years; the future of Sabin's Pasture remains up in the air; and, he rhetorically asked, do residents want to use hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade the Carr Lot on Taylor Street – also unresolved – or repair the city's water main system?
He said he supports four-year term limits for serving on city commissions, and called on the city to more aggressively to recruit people to fill those spots, including handing out fliers and collecting e-mail addresses when residents come in to vote.
Reacting to a proposal by Lindley to give Montpelier residents a property tax break for serving on boards or volunteering for city-needed tasks, Sheir said Montpelier couldn't afford the $100,000 estimated price tag of such a program.
"Starting next year's budget $100,000 deeper in the hole, I don't see where that's prudent," he said. He called the idea a "cool solution in search of a problem."
Sheir has run unsuccessfully for the school board, and was elected to one term as auditor.
He said he plans to go door to door in the district to meet voters.
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