Crime, Schools, Taxes, Contamination Issues Dominate Providence Council Special Election
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Five contenders in the Providence City Council Ward 15 special election are airing their views on tough issues facing the city in a post-Covid era.
The state Board of Elections website lists Doris De Los Santos, Iasha Hall, Casandra Inez, Santos Javier, and Oscar Vargas as filing campaign finance papers. The deadline for candidates to declare is this Friday.
The election promises to be a hotly contested race to replace former Councilor Sabina Matos, now Lieutenant Governor. The primary is set for June 8 and General Election on July 6.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTDoris De Los Santos, 49, has lived in Rhode Island for 25 years and says she’s concerned about social and environmental justice. She referred specifically to the situation in which contaminated soil had been dumped near a construction project at the 6-10 connector. GoLocal unveiled the dumping of contaminated material in Olneyville.
De Los Santos, who has close ties to Lieutenant Governor Matos, was a former aide to Matos while she was in the Council and served as her Interim Chief of Staff. De Los Santos’ education includes a Master’s Degree in Arts and Community Development from Roger Williams University and an Associates Degree in General Studies from Community College in Rhode Island.
De Los Santos, who has taken a leave of absence from her Council duties, said that she worries that cleaning up social and environmental justice issues such as the dumping of contaminated soil at the 6-10 connector is difficult for communities with little money and resources to fight for their rights.
"The dumping was happening right in the center of a very populated community. Time and again these people are not aware of such things. The issues do not receive the attention they should be getting because of money and things only get worse for the residents,” she said.
Vargas' Confusion About Taxes
“When I get elected I’m going to fight not to raise taxes anymore. I want to keep the same property taxes we have now,” said Vargas, about his candidacy. Vargas, 50, graduated from Central High School and went to MTTI-Career Training School. He opened up Vargas Auto Glass on Huldah Street in Olneyville.
Vargas said, “Providence has the highest car taxes in the state, $60 dollars per thousand right now. But we can’t change it because it has to be approved by legislation.” It’s unclear why Vargas would choose the car tax as an issue to fight since the city is phasing out it out and the issue is one presently handled by state legislation.
The current tax rate in Providence is $30 per thousand, according to Carmen Rosario, Motor Vehicle Appraiser at City Hall.
“This year the city is taking $5,000 off the value of the car for taxation purposes. So if a car is worth $10,000 the resident only pays taxes on $5,000 valuation this year. The owner of any car older than 2005 isn’t paying taxes at all,” said Rosario. Last year the city used 85 percent of the vehicle’s retail value to set the tax, this year it was 75 percent, per Rosario.
The car tax phase-out, which began in Fiscal Year 2017, is scheduled to be phased out completely by Fiscal Year 2024.
Inez, a 31-year-old English teacher at Mt. Pleasant High School, located in a working-class neighborhood, said she doesn’t have a good answer to the tax situation in the city.
“We have been giving these tax breaks and incentives to corporations that want to come here, but haven’t given incentives to people who live here,” she said. Inez has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Rhode Island College. She lives on Valley Street in Providence with a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and her partner. She has taught at Mt. Pleasant for four years.
“I do believe in the Tax Stabilization Agreement (TSA) reform, because our people need jobs that pay them well and can provide for their families," said Inez in her first run for office.
“City Council members are supposed to represent the people where they live," she said. "I’m not an entrenched career politician, don’t plan on being one. I still plan to teach and be a council member for the duration of my term.”
"Providence is overly reliant on taxes for revenue," said De Los Santos. "The tangible tax rate in Providence is 5.6 percent, and this is not creating the right conditions for small businesses to grow." De Los Santos has another Bachelor’s degree in Administration from the Universidad Nacional in the Dominican Republic, which she believes would be an asset to the council.
Professional Mother
“I’m a professional mother and that makes me an educator,” said Hall, 52, a Silver Lake resident since 2009 who has three children and two grandchildren. “I want my kids to be safe, we need to socialize and be connected. I want to see community policing come back to life in a big way. If a cop knows the residents of his beat he’s less likely to shoot, more likely to bring a kid back to the family and help work with the parents.” She studied computer science at Monroe College in New York.
Vargas also spoke to the issue of crime. “The crime issue is huge. We have to dialogue with the police" he said. "We had community policing programs and I don’t know what happened to those. When police are walking the neighborhood, it makes us feel safer.”
Javier, 42, has lived in Olneyville since he was 8 years old. “This is my city, this is my home,” he said of Providence. “As a councilman, I am going to clean up properties, we need to fix properties that are abandoned.”
Javier said during the height of the Covid pandemic, he used his pick-up truck to gather mattresses and trash whenever he could.
"Now that I’ve helped clean up the streets, I’m going to clean up City Hall,” he said. “If you go to a neighborhood that is not maintained, people think they can do whatever they want. Once we clean up the properties, life will get better for everyone who lives here.”
Javier grew up in the Dominican Republic. He went to Mary E. Fogarty Elementary, graduated from Central High School, and studied computer science at Rhode Island College for three years. Javier was in banking for 15 years, including a stint at Bank of America.
Hall said she would lobby heavily to open up recreation, give kids something to do. “The mom and pop stores can help out. They can hire young kids to do jobs in their shop, get them a little bit of money. We have to teach our kids the basics," she said. "A lot of our kids don’t know what it is to hammer a nail, don’t know how to plant a tree.”
Expansion of Charters
Vargas and Hall are in favor of charter schools, but Vargas would like to see more money pumped into public schools. “Maybe the solution is smaller classes in the public system like they have in the charter schools,” she said. Vargas thinks that in addition to education for children, the city needs more outreach programs to teach small businesses how to apply for grants.
Hall believes the charter schools “are a parent’s choice” and wants families to have options in what they do about their child’s education. She believes that beefing up the public education system would increase those options.
Inez, a lifelong Rhode Islander, does not agree with expanding the charter school system. “I went to a charter school and it was only after I reached college that I realized I had not received a quality education. I believe the charter schools take care of only a small group of students, not the whole student body in a city.”
Further, Inez does not believe in school systems using School Resource Officers (SRO). These are officers assigned to a school to maintain order, according to Inez. “They don’t treat the student holistically,” she said, “it’s just punitive.”
But Javier said he thinks having officers around the schools is a good idea. “We should have some sort of security, doesn’t have to be police, but someone who can help prevent bad things from happening,” he said.
"Representation matters," said De Los Santos. "If we cannot provide the representation of the people, we will not take care of things that mean something to the people of the area."
Candidates have until Friday at 4:00 PM to file paperwork, per Sylvia Fiore at the Providence Board of Canvassers. Candidates then must produce 50 signatures for the Board of Canvassers. Ward 15 includes Olneyville, Valley, and portions of Silver Lake.
Related Articles
- Igliozzi Elected Providence City Council President, Lombardi to Chief of Staff
- Providence Democratic Socialists Urge City Council to Oppose Proposed Salary Raises for Police
- Providence City Council In Chaos - Anti-LGBTQIA Comments, Tapes and Insults Take Center Stage
- Cranston City Council Declares Racism a Public Health Issue
- NEW: Providence City Council Members to Oppose Proposed Allens Providence Recycling Application
- Council President Matos Calls on DOT and DEM to Address “Preventable Danger” at 6/10 Project
- Providence City Council to Vote on Naming Providence Pedestrian Bridge in Honor of Van Leesten
- Providence 2022 Mayoral Race: Matos Has Most Cash on Hand, Smiley Raised Most for the Quarter
- Charges and Countercharges Between Elorza and Matos Over Budget and Tax Structure
- City Council President Matos To Issue Series of Nightlife Safety Ordinances
- Espinal Wins Controversial Providence City Council Ward 10 Primary
- City Council President Matos Issues Statement on State Takeover of Prov Schools
