Education: Bachelor of arts, Yale.
Occupation: Retired
Political or civic experience highlights: President, Seacoast Media Group 1997-2017 – informing the public while running a successful business. Past board chair of Prescott Park Arts Festival, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Portsmouth Chamber Collaborative; Portsmouth Listens.
What is the biggest problem Portsmouth is facing and how you would solve it?
Rents and home prices have shot up faster than working families can afford. We could build a thousand new units of housing but demand is so strong they would all rent or sell at market rates. So we have to generate below-market rate housing to help our young workers and senior citizens. This council has responded to the crisis: the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Housing Committee (which I co-chair), got the Sherburne School project across the finish line – 127 units of affordable housing. Also the land transfer as part of the Kane lawsuit settlement that will result in 80 more affordable units. Our committee recommended additional city sites for housing, and put into motion four zoning changes to stimulate housing supply.
I would like to continue a Housing Committee with dedicated staff person funded by the city’s Housing Trust Fund to keep working on this critical issue.
Portsmouth’s budget has reached nearly $150 million and its payroll has 260-plus people earning $100,000-plus. As a city councilor, what steps would you take, if any, to address the tax burden on residents?
You can’t slash and cut your way to being a great city. Much of the budget is contracted wage increases. So the manager and council must manage the workforce with precision and skill. All retirements should prompt an evaluation of “are there ways to be more efficient,” programs should always be reviewed and ended if their day is over.During budget debates this term, I won council approval for spending guidelines well below the rate of inflation (2024) and only 3.5% (2025) to protect our citizens. Our latest budget took advantage of retirements and reduced headcount without layoffs. Other years we will need to invest in people to enhance education, recreation, infrastructure and services. The goal is stable and predictable budgeting that doesn’t increase taxes faster than people’s incomes.The other way to help taxpayers is to keep our tax base growing. Expansions by Lonza and Novacure show we are a desirable place for biotech and other high-tech companies to locate, adding millions to our tax base to offset residential taxes. Targeted economic development can directly relieve homeowners.
I’m also a strong proponent of a central IT department instead of separate IT units across the city, and using better systems to streamline work.
With affordability being such a challenge in Portsmouth, what would you do to make it more accessible to people with a wide range of incomes?
Transportation – a shuttle loop and on-demand transit solutions could make parts of the city non-car dependent. Being able to live and work in a city without a car, or one car instead of two, is a financial win. A feasibility study of a shuttle loop is part of our capital plan.
Cheaper parking for residents – Parking revenue in 2018 was $8 million. It’s now $12 million and growing. Whether it’s a residential permit program, free Sunday parking, or resident discounts, we should give residents back some of this revenue stream– it’s money that mostly comes from tourists!
Day care – It’s expensive and scarce. This is an area like housing where the city can at times step in. For example, the city has provided much needed space for day care at the Community Campus. The lower cost for that space enabled day care for more kids than the private market would provide.
The Portsmouth Housing Authority has projected rents for the apartments the agency is building on city-owned land at the former Sherburne School will range from $1,580 for a one-bedroom unit to nearly $2,200 three bedrooms. Are those rates low enough for working people? If not, what can be done to lower them?
The Sherburne project will serve a mix of income levels (50%, 60% and 80% of the area Average Median Income). A one bedroom apartment could be as low as $1,095 at 50% of AMI according to the June 2024 pro-forma. I believe the PHA (the project developer) has proposed the best mix of income level offerings they can while still making the project economically viable, and 48% lower than market rents. The 50% AMI apartments get to $20-25 per hour which is a big portion of working people in town.
Should the city commit to using more city-owned land to build truly affordable housing or has Portsmouth done enough?
The city’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Housing recommended several additional city properties and land swaps which I support. We are a high-cost city with limited land and a housing crisis. It only makes sense to use city land when we can. We have also seen churches and non-profits with surplus land like the church on Lafayette Road seek win-win solutions that create affordable housing, which we should seek out and encourage.
Should the city reconsider the scope of a potential police station and City Hall renovation and upgrade project with a projected $42 million cost?
We have been playing the long game to get to a new police station. We ruled out a separate site which would have put costs at $70 million. We chose to stay in the city hall complex and turned aside a $42 million plan that featured a very large wing to city hall. We changed our scope to the whole city hall complex, allowing us to find efficiencies with all the space in city hall. I am confident our committee will by year end have options to renovate the police station and city hall that will not require a giant wing, achieve a top quality police facility at or below budget, enhance city hall with a single service center for residents, and the total project will be phased over five or seven years to keep the capital spend within our limits and not crowd out other important projects. Councilor Cook and I co-chair the Municipal Building Blue Ribbon Committee.
Should Portsmouth do something to encourage development at the McIntyre building site, where the owner says city zoning has made redevelopment difficult?
The biggest barrier to developing McIntyre is not the zoning, in my opinion, but the prohibition on building over the one-story post office wing. It makes no sense to a quarter of the site in the densest, tallest part of town limited to one story, holding back economic viability. There may be an opportunity with the new state and federal administrations to change this limitation. That’s worth pursuing before changing zoning. Also, changing zoning for a single property is illegal “spot zoning.”
The City Council has put forward ideas to address traffic flow and walkability in high-profile locations like State Street and Congress Street? What is your opinion on these efforts?
I support the Market Square Master Plan that calls for wider sidewalks and two instead of three traffic lanes on Congress St. We’ve already proved this is workable with outdoor dining. Prior to 1979, Market Square was almost all asphalt for cars. When the city proposed taking what had been parking and travel lanes for the current wide brick sidewalks, residents protested – less easy to drive, harder to park! But the resulting pedestrian experience sparked a revival of the city, made Market Square a superb pedestrian experience, and created the highest real estate values per acre in New Hampshire.
I am cautious about making State Street two-way. Initial studies predicted traffic might back up as far as Middle Street when the Memorial Bridge goes up. I appreciate the vision but we haven’t vetted it fully.
Should the city begin looking for a site where it can build its third municipal parking garage? If so, what part of the city makes the most sense? If not, how can the city meet its increasing parking demand?
A detailed traffic study proves irrefutably we will be at least 300 spaces short downtown without a new garage. We should be – and are – exploring sites. Parking is a utility that supports a vibrant downtown for visitors and residents alike, and it’s paid for by parking revenue, not property taxes.
What else would you like voters to know about you?
What are the qualities voters should seek in their elected councilors? I would offer four: they must be humble and “know what they don’t know,” so they can be persuaded by new facts and the arguments they never saw coming. They must be curious. They must be persistent and have a tough hide for criticism, because a city councilor who gets no criticism is probably not trying to do much. And they must be a collaborator – as the African proverb says, “to go fast, go alone, but to go far, go together.”