The city of Newport will soon have a new mayor. A special election will be held on Aug. 1 to fill the role that has been empty since May, when Beth Barnes abruptly resigned after only 75 days, citing mistreatment from her council members and the city manager, who has also since departed.
Roderick Owens and Carl King, who respectively finished second and third in the mayoral election last March, are each making another bid. One newcomer has also joined the race — Linda Joy Sullivan, who formerly served as a state representative for the Bennington-Rutland district and was endorsed by Barnes.
Though council members initially had wanted to appoint a new mayor, residents of the Northeast Kingdom city of roughly 4,500 people pushed for a vote.
Residual tensions over the conflict that led to Barnes’ exit cast a pall over the mayoral debate that took place on Thursday. The three candidates were asked how they would navigate tensions with the city council and how they would work within the confines of the city charter.
The appointment of a new city manager, a role which has been filled in the interim by Newport native Karen Geraghty, was another hot-button issue.
‘A real local’
Underlying the debate was a competition of sorts over who knows Newport best. King, who has lived in northern Vermont for several decades, said the part of his biography that made him the best choice for the position was that he was “a real local.”
“I know what Newport wants, I know what it don’t want. I know what they need and I know what they certainly don’t need,” King said, before alluding to tensions in the community. “We don’t need people coming here with (an) agenda being fed by six people, thinking they know everything about Newport.”
Owens took a similar jab, saying he had “been considering running for mayor longer than other candidates had even been in town.”
A public school teacher and chair of the Orleans County Democrats, Owens leaned on his record in the last election, when he came in second with 154 votes to Barnes’ 230. Owens said, “Those people who voted for me in March knew that I was going to be a new voice for Newport.”
Linda Joy Sullivan, who moved to Newport one year ago, defended her comparatively short tenure as a Newport resident by pointing to her last elected position, in the Vermont Legislature.
“Yes, I haven’t lived here as long as my fellow colleagues, but I have given back just as long as my fellow colleagues,” she said. “And I’m not going to stop, whether I’m your mayor or not.”
What is the role of the mayor?
The former mayor resigned citing an allegedly hostile manner of communication within the city’s government and fundamental disagreements over what the mayor’s role was in relation to the council and city manager.
Allusions to those tensions were clear at the debate hosted by the Newport Daily Express, as candidates were asked how they would navigate the role, as defined by the city charter, and work in tandem with their fellow council members.
The three candidates spoke in a similar vein, emphasizing engagement with the public and harmony with the council.
The mayor, as “ambassador of the council,” brings the “will of the people back to council members,” said Sullivan, reciting the city charter. The council “puts together a policy. Then you have your town manager who enforces that policy.”
“It is very important that you don’t run amok,” Sullivan added. “We are civilized human beings.”
Owens said that as mayor, he would “work as a liaison between the public and council,” speaking and working on behalf of the public. He said he would attend a training session offered by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and “do my best to show respect and humility.”
King said he would avoid “personal agendas” and attacks, though at another point in the debate, he asked Owens why he would want to take time “away from (his) students” to be mayor.
A resident asked whether candidates would support the formation of an advisory committee to handle the appointment of a new city manager. The last city manager, Laura Dolgin, retired in June, a move that she said was planned in advance. Community members accused her of playing an outsized role in the mayor’s resignation, remarks Dolgin dismissed as “sensational.”
Owens and Sullivan praised the idea. King abstained from answering, but said he could see the “wisdom in that.”
Budgets and business
Newport’s residents have long desired a revitalization of their downtown, where businesses have struggled to stay open. Housing for potential workers is another pressing matter, said one resident at the debate, adding that he had heard from a business owner whose job posting had yielded not a single application over 90 days.
Candidates floated general thoughts about enticing developers and businesses to come to Newport. King cited Stowe as a model for Newport, while Owens and Sullivan painted a similar picture of a city full of entrepreneurs.
Sullivan described Newport’s future as one of a “smart city,” with “smart retail” and co-working spaces for small business entrepreneurs, but stressed that her priority was speaking to existing business owners to figure out “what would be complementary competition for them.”
Another issue long without resolution is what Newport residents have termed “the hole,” a city-block sized gap of halted construction and a daily reminder of the EB-5 investment fraud that had promised a thriving downtown.
Sullivan emphasized her experience as the court-appointed receiver for the Koffee Kup bakery and its subsidiaries, which closed abruptly in 2021, leaving employees and creditors in a lurch. A court ordered $5 million in back pay for terminated employees and $8 million in outstanding loans to be repaid to the company’s creditors. Sullivan noted that a first payout had been distributed with another forthcoming.
But Owens shot back that he had “questions” about the receivership, noting the payouts were “a long time coming.” He also pointed to her track record as a state representative, telling audience members to look for a Seven Days article from 2020 that detailed how Sullivan had stymied a vote to veto the governor’s paid family and medical leave bill. When offered the chance to give a rebuttal, Sullivan declined to respond, calling the remarks “hearsay.”
A final comment from an audience member expressed their dismay at the low turn-out at the debates. “We’re planning our future,” the audience member said.
