Newark Mayor’s Race: The Progressive Perspective.

Newark’s upcoming Mayoral election is a nonpartisan election. As such, the state parties, and affiliated party organizations, like the Progressive Democrats, have not gotten involved. But just because you call an election a nonpartisan election, does not mean ideologies are not in play. Conservatives understood this for years, and ran conservative candidates for nonpartisan school board and judgeship elections for years.

It looks like liberals and progressives have learned their lesson, as it would seem we are blessed with several progressive candidates among the seven in the Newark race. Read through their answers to the candidate survey of the Delaware Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA). Here are some sample answers:

Question: The lowest-paid City of Newark public employees make $14.94 per hour and $29,137 per year (full-time) and $13.40 per hour (part-time). This is below a living wage for Newark. When contract negotiations next come up with CWA and AFSCME, will you support raising the starting salary for all positions to start at a living wage, without demanding concessions from CWA and AFSCME in return?

Don DelCollo: After looking at the 177 page operating budget for 2013 I found one employee in refuse who makes 27,193 per year and one research aide in planning that makes 29,827 year. I also found 23 part time employees with all kinds of yearly numbers listed but no hourly numbers. Also none of this includes benefit payments which I cannot determine from the budgets or who gets those benefits. Since I am not sure what ADA considers a living wage and if benefits counts towards it. I do not have enough information to make an accurate answer to your question. With the proper information at hand I would be happy to make an attempt at an answer.

Robyn Harland: Absolutely, I am a former Union Member Local 2, United Federation of Teachers NYC and I am still a member, but in retirement status.

Mark Morehead: No answer provided

Rebecca Powers: I support both our Unions and the concept of a living wage. We should set an example for private entities and promote a higher standard living to attract the best talent we can to Newark. For instance, our minimum wage laws are out of date and I support our state and federal elected officials who are pushing to raise the floor and help lift people out of poverty.

Amy Roe: Everyone who works for our municipal government deserves to earn a living wage and should be able to afford to live in Newark. I support the work of unions and would oppose demands by the city for concessions from unions in exchange for raising the floor of the pay scale to a living wage.

Polly Sierer: No answer provided

Matthew Vento: No answer provided

Data Center & Power Plant Project. If you were in the place to make the decision as to whether or not the City should send a letter in support of the proposed data center and power plant to the state, would you have done so? Why or why not?

Don DelCollo: With something so massive that would have decade’s long effects on the residents of the city; I would have taken it early on to public meetings for commentary. I would like to see if we could actually have a ballot initiative on an issue of this magnitude in the future.

Robyn Harland: I would not! I would have pursued all avenues to get feedback from all members of the community, using our local newspapers to solicit members of the community opinions via a questionnaire. This being done prior to making any decisions to support this project.

Mark Morehead: No answer provided

Rebecca Powers: The process of how the Data Center has come to the public light has been, in short, mishandled. I would not send a letter of support because doing so would mean that I agree with how the process has been managed and would also mean that am I would not be representing our community members who raise valid concerns such as noise and emissions. The last open process that our residents were invited to comment on was that of rezoning the STAR campus. During these discussions, the area was zoned away from Industrial, where one would expect projects such as power plants and car factories and to a special zoning for science and technology where residents expected the University to attract entrepreneurs, advanced technology incubation, and bright minds of our time. Instead, communication has broken down between the entities required to forge a successful project and the community is at odds.

Amy Roe: Absolutely not. That Newark became the “public sponsor” of the project behind closed doors without any public engagement or public discussion has cast a long shadow over our community. This structure of decision-making is not consistent with my views of democratic, transparent and accountable government.

The two letters written to the Delaware Economic Development Office (November 16, 2012 and April 5, 2013) were in support of an application for a 100MW interconnection for export to the grid (PJM) as independent from the data center (DEDO application, exhibit A page 11) in addition to 60MW serving campus (p. 15). This amount of exported power challenges the Data Centers LLC’s assertion that their electricity load is needed to provide redundant power. It is irresponsible to both represent the interests of residents and businesses that live within the city and actively promote the construction of this plan for a power plant in our town.

Polly Sierer: No answer provided

Matthew Vento: No answer provided

If you live in Newark, please check out the full survey. And vote!