Mayor candidate Soffredine concerned with loss of city employees

Election 2011

EDITOR'S NOTE

Editor's note: Traverse City voters will choose a new mayor to succeed Chris Bzdok on Nov. 8, and options include two city commission veterans: Michael Estes and Ralph Soffredine.

The new mayor will serve a two-year term. Traverse City's mayor has no more authority than other members of the seven-person commission, but some mayors historically have assumed more of a community leadership role than others.

Estes served as the city's mayor from 2007 to 2009, and Soffredine has been a city commissioner since 2003. They differ on many aspects of governing, evidenced by their comments in profile stories in today's Record-Eagle.

City voters separately will choose three new city commissioners from a slate of seven hopefuls.

More city commission candidate profiles can be found at Record-Eagle.com/election »

RALPH SOFFREDINE

Age: 74

Occupation: Retired police officer

Experience: Traverse City police chief from 1982 to 2003 and fire chief from 1991 to 2003; city commissioner from 2003 until now; Traverse City Area Public Schools board member from 2001 to 2004; board member for several community groups.

Related Photos

Ralph Soffredine Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

October 16, 2011

BY ART BUKOWSKI abukowski@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Mon Oct 17, 2011, 06:43 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Ralph Soffredine believes city staffing is about as low as it can go.

Soffredine, a city commissioner since 2003 who previously served as the city's police chief, now aims to fill the city's top elected post. He's particularly concerned with the loss of city employees -- 26 were cut or not replaced since the 2005-06 budget year -- and he wants to stop the bleeding.

"We've had a lot of significant cuts in people who are working here," he said. "We're getting to a point where we cannot afford to lose any more employees."

Soffredine on Nov. 8 will square off against Michael Estes, who served as Traverse City mayor from 2007 to 2009. The winner will replace Chris Bzdok, who decided not to run again after a single, two-year term as mayor.

Soffredine said he planned to retire from public office after completing his current term, but decided to run for mayor after he heard Estes wanted the job.

"I wasn't going to run, I was going to hang it up," he said. "But I looked at some of the issues, and I think I would be a better candidate than Mike."

Estes doesn't have the right mentality for the mayor's position, Soffredine said.

"I don't think he's a good leader," he said. "I think he believes in cut, cut, cut, without looking at the impact of those cuts on the community."

Soffredine said he'd take a stand against further staff reductions, particularly in the police and fire departments.

"I understand government, and I understand what you have to do. It's like at home: You've got a budget and you can only do so many things," he said. "But common sense tells you that you have to have strong public service ... I'm just really concerned about it, and I want to make sure that the level of service we provide and the quality of life in this community maintains itself."

He isn't in favor of more staff cutbacks, but Soffredine said the city must examine and possibly negotiate reductions in benefits for current and future employees.

"We have to look at some of those legacy costs, because they can be very expensive to the city," he said. "We're at a point now where we have to take a serious look at this."

Soffredine's critics contend he's prone to accepting what city staffers propose without asking tough questions or suggesting new ideas. He disagrees with that assessment, though he acknowledged he heavily relies on city department heads to make good decisions and advise the commission.

"I don't rubber stamp anything," he said. "Here's the issue. I'm not an engineer. I'm no longer police chief. I'm no longer the fire chief. I don't run the disposal plant. Those are professionals. They know what they're doing."

Much talk in recent months -- and during the past 20 years -- focused on the possibility of merging the city's police and fire departments with those in the surrounding townships. Soffredine is leery of any idea that would result in less city control over emergency operations.

"I've been hitting a lot of doors, and I'm here to tell you the people want their own fire department and they want their own police department," he said. "I'm willing to look at those issues, but I think that when we look at it, it's going to come out to the same thing -- we're better off having our own."

But he said there's plenty of "dangling fruit" in the form of cost savings through equipment sharing with other agencies, and those ideas need to be explored.

"There are some things that we can do together," he said.

Soffredine is a proponent of using public money to spur private development, especially if it helps existing businesses expand. On multiple occasions he voted to use taxpayer dollars for private projects, and he'd likely continue to do the same if he believes in the projects in question.

"When we have the economy as we look at it right now, we have to do everything we possibly can for our businesses," he said. "We have to do everything we can to help them, support them, assist them."

If elected, he'd push for a few changes. He wants the budget process to start earlier so commissioners have more time to discuss each year's budget before approving it in June.

"Rather than starting the budget in March or April, I want to see that baby started in February, at least ... we should be able to discuss those issues and take our time with them," he said.

He also wants to boost the city's presence at neighborhood association meetings.

"If I'm elected mayor, I'm going to those neighborhood meetings," he said. "I think that we haven't done a good job of that as a city commission."