Part of Teetsel’s fiscal prescription for the city includes narrowing the gap between commercial and residential tax rates (currently “non-homestead” properties pay a significantly higher tax rate than residential parcels) and correcting what he said were serious errors in the 2008 citywide revaluation. The reassessment was the first in two decades and, Teetsel said, the way it was implemented has left a lingering undercurrent of bitterness among some residents that he compares to the anger over school district consolidation that he observed in the early 1960s.
During his years on the Common Council, Teetsel took an aggressively non-partisan stance, earning criticism from Republican leaders for attending Democratic Caucus meetings and at times voting against Republican-backed legislation. Teetsel stood by that attitude and said that, if elected, he would continue to separate politics from the legislative process.
“Once I’m elected, I’m not a Republican, a Democrat, a Conservative or Independence Party,” said Teetsel. “I’m an alderman, working for the betterment of the city.”
Dunn walks, talks
Dunn, a Lewiston, N.Y. native who moved to Ulster County five years ago and to Kingston in 2009, has his own plans to work for the betterment of his adopted hometown. The 37-year-old husband and father works in New Paltz at the law firm Getmen and Sweeney, which specializes in employee wage and hour disputes. He currently heads the Ulster County Periodic Compensation Review Committee, which monitors the salaries of county-level elected officials. After moving from New York City to Highland to take a job at the firm, he was drawn to Kingston by its walkability, diversity and amenities.
“Kingston just has more to offer than anyplace in the county,” said Dunn who has taken his campaign to Dietz Stadium where he discusses issues with would-be constituents while walking the track.
Dunn is the vice chairman to the Kingston’s Complete Streets committee, an ambitious city-backed initiative to combat childhood obesity and make the city a more attractive place by establishing walking and biking routes to schools and through neighborhoods. Dunn said that he supports that kind of reinvention of Kingston, but added that it needs to be carefully thought out. He’s a strong supporter of the recently initiated projects to develop a new citywide comprehensive plan and institute a business improvement district for the Broadway corridor — proposals that he believes are the key to well-thought out economic development.
“It’s giving the city a vision of the future,” said Dunn. “Otherwise, you’re just stuck with the same old practices.”
Those old practices, he said, extend to the Common Council where he said too many decisions are made with too little information. As an attorney, Dunn said, he favors decision-making based on facts applied to principles. That kind of governance, he said, would bring more transparency and predictability and clarity to city government.
“Government has to be held accountable,” said Dunn. “We need to provide a reason why we are making decisions and let people know who is making those decisions.”
