PLATTSBURGH — Elizabeth Gibbs is one of two candidates hoping to secure the Democratic nomination in the City of Plattsburgh’s Ward 3 primary race.
Gibbs, 54, is the incumbent candidate for the Ward 3 seat looking to secure her third consecutive term. She will be facing off against Democratic candidate Chris Rosenquest, current city mayor, in the primary June 25.
Early voting for the primary starts Saturday, June 15.
On her decision to run for the Ward 3 seat, Gibbs said:
“I was prepared to not run again. I had reached out to a friend who lives in the ward and I tried to encourage him to run and he told me he would … I made a statement at the Democratic committee that night in January, ‘I’m not going to run.’”
“And then my friend said, ‘well, actually, I’m not going to run either.’ … So when the mayor said he wasn’t going to run for reelection, and we had a bunch of us on the Democrat committee behind Wendell (Hughes) to encourage him to run, that’s when I fully committed, because there wasn’t anybody else. and so I decided to run again and then that’s when Chris announced that he was going to run for the Ward 3 seat.”
“I made the decision to run again with the idea that I would be able to work with Wendell, who I know very well, I respect him, I think he is very well qualified for this position as mayor, and Jeff (Moore), who wants to run again. So we had talked between the group of us that OK, let’s jump back in, we can help Wendell get on his feet and then when we are finally done with this last term, he’ll be in a good position and so will the city.”
On issues and projects facing the city she hopes to have an influence on in the future, Gibbs said:
“There are a couple of major issues that we’re facing in the city: one of them is the state of our water infrastructure … It is going to take $20 million to bring our water (system) infrastructure in line with what the Clinton County Health Department wants us to be. We are still under the Clinton County Health Department’s supervision.”
“Why would we dump $13 million in a full-depth reconstruction project of Margaret Street when we had this (health department’s violations) to address and I didn’t know it, nobody knew it.”
“I had said I fully support that full-depth reconstruction project, but let’s go looking for grant money, I don’t want that to come through bonds, debt, soak all of our infrastructure funds, like CHIPS and other things. Why do that? Why balloon the debt for that project when we had this (violations)? So now, we have to do this; we didn’t have to do Margaret Street. Now we’re doing both. We deferred $19 million dollars in debt. So we have $19 million in future (debt) we haven’t even financed yet.”
“When I have said no to certain expenditures, the mayor has always painted me as arbitrary and obstructionist: no. We have a finite amount of money coming to the city. We are not a wealthy city … whenever I have said no, it’s because I’m looking at what our obligations are. We have to be more prudent with how we spend the taxpayers’ money.”
“So when he has painted me as an ‘obstructionist,’ and ‘I’m arbitrary,’ and ‘I don’t have any really good reasons for saying no,’ these are the reasons why I’ve said no to some of the expenditures — not everything — if there’s a quality of life project, I have said yes to it. If there’s something that we really need I’ve said yes to it. But when I see certain things like the Margaret Street project, I voted no on that. Not because I didn’t support the project, but because we can’t afford it.”
“I don’t know what the debt for 2023 looks like … When Colin Read was mayor, love him or hate him … 2017, ‘18, ‘19 and ‘20, no bond anticipation notes. In 2021, a little bit and then look at 2022, deferring future debt.”
“I see a lot of the ways that the money has been managed as like credit card spending. I have my paycheck coming in and I’m going to pay the mortgage and I’m going to pay my car payment because I have to, but there’s a whole bunch of other stuff that I really, really want. So I’m going to use my credit card to get that and I’ll worry about how I’m going to pay for that later. Except the credit card is the taxpayers’ money.”
“Eventually if we have all of this outstanding debt … and not enough income to balance it all out, it comes down to raising taxes. and the taxpayers in the city, the homeowners of the city are exhausted from three years in a row of increased tax assessments.”
“Recreation … people want quality of life and I completely agree with that. The mayor has also tried to say I’m anti-parks development, well, that’s not true, that’s not true, I am not in favor of frivolous spending.”
“Kind of like what happened with the DRI, you’re promising the public that they can have everything they want (in the parks), but what can we afford? When this (water infrastructure) needs to take priority?”
On building a good working relationship with the rest of the council and mayor, Gibbs said:
“It’s not about me getting along with anybody … This is about running a $60 million organization in the way that it is supposed to be run.”
“It’s ethical government. We’re talking about good government … I should be able to call a department head and ask a question. I should be able to have access to information, I shouldn’t have to go digging, neither should the public.”
“Jeff, Julie (Baughn) and I do work very closely together. I will absolutely admit to that. Other councilors are welcome to pick up a phone and call me anytime. They want to collaborate on something, the phone call goes both ways.”
On what she would bring as an advantage to the Ward 3 seat, Gibbs said:
“If you’re already an incumbent, you already understand how things work: how do budgets work; how does funding work; how do grants work; what is debt service; all these things that you have to know. and what questions to ask, and what background do you need to understand about certain things that we vote on. Because when you’re coming in, unless you’re actively looking for information, you won’t know what you don’t know … I have learned that along the way.”
“So knowing what the large issues are facing the city, is why continuity is important, because you can stay in office and continue to work through them.”