Pluta, Boyle offer choice to voters

Date: 10/27/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



HOLYOKE -- The city's voters will have a choice next week to elect a veteran city councilor or an experienced businessman to succeed Michael Sullivan as mayor.

Elaine Pluta, who has served on the City Council for 14 year and ran against Sullivan in 1999 will face businessman and newspaper columnist Daniel Boyle.

When interviewed by Reminder Publications last week, both candidates agreed the city of Holyoke is in good financial shape, but both also said that many more issues need to be addressed.

Besides her terms in the City Council, Pluta also worked in the office of the Mayor as director of the Management Assistance Program and an administrative aide from 1996-1999. She currently works for Congressman John Olver in his Holyoke office.

Boyle has worked extensively in the private sector. Among his accomplishments, he led a team that saved the former Diamond Fiber Products in Palmer, maintaining 250 jobs and a payroll of $7 million a year. Since then he has worked as a business consultant for such firms as Owens Corning Fiberglass, Nestle Foods and Scott Paper.

Pluta said, "I believe the city is on the verge of an exciting time. It needs leadership to move forward."

She views the two biggest issues facing the city as the continued development of downtown businesses and education. She is concerned about the city's dropout rate and MCAS scores.

She wants to improve "the overall ability to give children a good education."

She believes a step to help businesses would be to reduce the tax rate on both businesses and residences and to set up a small business incubator with the agreement those businesses would train and hire Holyoke residents.

With the potential of mid-year budget cuts facing municipalities again this year, Pluta said she would not maker any reductions in the budgets for police, firefighters and teachers. The rest of the budget would be scrutinized for potential savings, she added.

The city, she said, has a rainy day fund of $9.8 million and about $4 million in free cash. Boyle said his decision to make his first run for public office came when Sullivan announce he would not run for reelection. He said he answered Sullivan's call for " new faces" in public office.

Boyle believes that businesspeople make good elected officials because they already understand the need to be responsible to people.

He said that Sullivan has "done an excellent job of stewarding [the city's finances] over the years" and that Holyoke is "the envy of the Valley."

"We didn't have to balance the budget with rainy day funds, he explained.

Bolye has called for Holyoke to become "the most business friendly community in Western Massachusetts." He said one of his steps to accomplish this goal is to lower the business tax rate so it is more competitive with Chicopee across the river.

He would also try to treat businesses interested in coming to the city differently. He noted Scott Lemay who wants to open a waste transfer station in the city had to appear at 15 public hearings. Bolye charged Lemay was not treated respectfully by city councilors.

Both candidates praised C.R.U.S.H, the grassroots movement of residents seeking to energize the city and change the perception of it.

For more information on Pluta's campaign log onto www.plutaformayor.com. For Bolye's information, go to www.boylemeansbusiness.com.