The candidates running for Binghamton mayor weighed in on housing, the economy and the future Binghamton police chief in a livestreamed debate at WSKG on Wednesday night.
Republican Mayor Jared Kraham is running for his second term. His opponent, Democrat Miles Burnett, is running for office for the first time.
Here’s how the two candidates responded to some of the questions during the debate:
Next police chief
Q: Should the police chief remain a civil service position?
Miles Burnett: I believe the community and local stakeholders should be involved in that process so that there is a public vetting of the candidates that we have. We currently have four incredible candidates that have taken the civil service exam to be the next police chief. I believe that the public should get to weigh in and have their concerns addressed if we are going to make a real difference in the processes that we have here. Right now, the way we have it…on the books…as a law is that we do have to use the civil service exam, but if we can work together and that the community thinks that it's a better process to, to change how we do that, I'm open to listening.
Jared Kraham: I think having a chief of police that is civil service protected is important. It helps insulate that position from political pressures. It means that they are serving the public and the law, not a mayor or a city council. And I think that in Binghamton, that is, that is what works. There's nothing that prevents, you know, me as mayor, from seeking input from a wide variety of people and making the selection for the next chief of police. Of course, I would want to hear from the community. I would want to hear from people that I trust in the police department and the police union. But I think that what is a slippery slope, and I think the city of Ithaca actually found this out the hard way, is opening up these types of decisions where anti-police activists can get involved.
Housing
Q: What is your plan to address homelessness in Binghamton?
JK: It is a two-part problem. We have, certainly, a shortage of safe quality affordable housing. Housing has become more expensive since the pandemic. Housing has become more scarce since the pandemic. We also have mental health and substance use disorder issues that both inflame homelessness and make it so someone doesn't just need a home or a place to live, but needs wrap-around support services to truly make them successful…
We have hundreds and hundreds of units of affordable housing that are going to be opening very, very soon in the City. Are under construction right now, or are in the project pipeline…we are expanding mental health resources in partnership with Broome County…but what we need, above all, are more resources from the state and federal government to face this issue.
…The federal government has to take, make it a priority, and that's why I was so upset and angry with the Trump administration when they called for the elimination of Community Development Block Grants and this ridiculous shutdown that they're weaponizing departments like Housing and Urban Development for political means.
MB: …There has been nothing but attacks from this administration on homeless people in their living situations…
It's because this administration has closed down all the single room occupancy units in this city, has allowed student housing to take over and push people out and make the city more unaffordable while not building, at the same rate, more deeply affordable housing units, while not bringing online emergency shelters actually working hard to prevent them from coming into place.
And I just think, when you don't take a proactive approach and don't put mental health services in place and allow the city to become more unaffordable, you're going to get that result.
On encampments in downtown Binghamton
JK: Look, I do not believe, for the safety of the people living there [Christ Episcopal Church] or the safety of the people in downtown, that downtown commercial district is a place for a home, homeless encampment. We had human waste. We had a nuisance, criminal activity, open burning, sexual harassment and catcalling of women in Downtown Binghamton that is not conducive to a downtown business district and it's not safe for the people that are living there.
I will enforce the law as it relates to illegal encampments, but again, that is not a solution to homelessness, to have people living outside in tents.
MB: No one is pro encampment, but I am pro housing solutions, and going after this problem without putting solutions in place is poor leadership. Where did those folks who were at Christ Church go? I'll tell you, I was just talking with librarians yesterday at the Broome County Public Library, and they say many of them have come in there, and it's turned into somewhat of a day shelter, same with the bus station.
And that is not, it is not because of any other reason than that this administration is not building deeply affordable housing to give some people a place to live, that that is what we need to do to solve the homelessness crisis that we're seeing right now in Binghamton.
Q: How do you plan to address the problem of negligent absentee landlords?
JK: We have fought against these bad actors. We have brought them to court. We've issued arrest warrants for them, and are changing housing in the city of Binghamton by taking away these resources that the slumlords have. I said when I was running for mayor, we should treat slumlords like drug dealers, because they do the same thing to ruin our neighborhoods. That's exactly what we've done.
MB: I don't want to see good landlords, local landlords, sell off their properties and find out four years from now that more absentee out of town landlords have taken over these properties. That's why I put forth legislation that would create a study on Good Cause Eviction, and it was passed unanimously.
Blue bags
Q: Do you support the blue bags system? What can be done to improve it?
JK: Pay-as-you-throw is the fairest way to do trash collection in the city. It makes sure that a grandmother living on the East Side doesn't pay the same amount as a frat house on the West Side. If you go on vacation for a week, you don't have to pay for garbage collection. Oh, and by the way, we offer free recycling collection, free yard waste, and we've reduced the amount of waste that goes to the landfill, saving all of taxpayers a lot of money. And also, it's an important environmental issue. Our recycling rate is higher than other municipalities that don't have pay-as-you-throw.
MB: The blue bag system is a regressive tax. It disproportionately impacts low-income individuals. If you're a single mom with three kids, you are going to have more trash. But that doesn't mean that you have more income, and I don't believe you should have to pay more for a municipal service that's traveling down your road. If you have a small house fire, you don't pay more to the fire department. If you live on a long road, you don't pay more for snow removal. If your kid asks more questions in school, you're not paying more in school.