RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

Louras, Trapeni air their differences

Residents asked and the two candidates for Rutland mayor answered Wednesday.

In their latest face-to-face public appearance, Mayor Christopher Louras and challenger David Trapeni responded to questions ranging from taxation and business growth to bully pulpits and employee morale.

The two candidates, who competed with four others in a six-way race for mayor two years ago, answered questions posed by Rutland Herald Editor Randal Smathers during a televised forum sponsored by the Farm to City Group, PEG TV and the Herald. The questions were mainly submitted by voters.

The majority of the more than dozen questions posed to the candidates dealt with the economy and how businesses, taxpayers and city services could weather the storm.

The candidates gave similar answers to several questions — both support more efficient city government and energy audits of city buildings.

However, they disagreed on many more topics and traded questions directly with each other on a few topics.

For example when asked about "Smart Growth," the practice of concentrating commercial development in centers — such as the city's downtown — rather than sprawled out over long linear areas — such as Route 7 in Rutland Town — Trapeni followed up Louras' statement of support for focused development by saying:

"We obviously have no smart growth now with all the empty storefronts and upper floors," Trapeni said. "I look at the situation this way: Most of the people working at Hannafords and Staples live in the city … To say sprawl on Route 7 is bad, I just don't buy it. I don't care if they do that type of business from here to the airport."

But Louras, who has voiced his opposition to approving city services for commercial developments that compete with city establishments, said the restaurants and retailers south of the city were bad for downtown business.

The candidates also had different visions of future economic anchors for the city and region, which has seen several longtime employers leave town in recent years.

Louras talked about making Rutland a food processing hub where locally grown goods could be branded and readied for export in a business arrangement he said he's been hammering out with the Rutland Area Food and Farm Link.

"We could have agri-business here," he said. "We could grow the next Ben & Jerry's."

Trapeni also talked about agriculture in Rutland and the importance of the downtown farmers' market. However, the plumbing supply store owner said commercial and even industrial developments didn't represent Rutland's economic salvation.

Tapping into tourist dollars, especially the winter skiers at Killington, was the strategy Trapeni said he would pursue.

"We're the Green Mountain State and we need green industry. We need to develop the tourist trade," he said.

Turning to crime and operations at the police department, Louras talked about work he's done to get the city money to devote an officer to community drug interdiction work involving door-to-door chats with residents about drug activity in their area.

Louras also said he's talking now with Sen. Patrick Leahy about "significant" amounts of federal money for Rutland's law enforcement.

But Trapeni said the door-to-door efforts haven't been focused enough — he said the police should focus their efforts on the "five streets" where he said the bulk of the city's drug trafficking was taking place.

He also said the city needed police to patrol on foot.

The most contentious exchange between the candidates took place during a discussion about what role the mayor should have overseeing the city's police commission — an independent, mostly advisory body whose membership is appointed by the mayor.

The commission's activities have been put under a microscope since the release of two morale surveys that found widespread dissatisfaction among the police department's rank and file with the three officers that lead the department.

Trapeni criticized the commission for recommending a raise for the police chief while the department was working, seemingly unsuccessfully, to restore faith in the leadership.

"There were two reports unfavorable to the chief but he was rewarded with a new contract," Trapeni said. "I think the commission is out of touch and I would either dissolve it or make them answerable to the mayor or the aldermen. … I would not allow them to continue working in the shadows."

Louras said he was restrained from answering Trapeni's remarks in full due to ongoing negotiations for a new contract with the police union.

However, the mayor said the commission had served the city well since its creation 20 years ago and he challenged the accuracy of some of Trapeni's remarks, especially his assertions that city Police Chief Anthony Bossi was the most highly paid law enforcement officer in Vermont.

"I checked the Vermont League of Cities and Town. They list Chief Bossi as the fourth highest paid law enforcement officer in the state," he said.

brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.