The campaign-long question-and-answer series in The Times-Gazette with the candidates for Warren Town Council took a brief respite last week. In its stead was coverage of the recent forum co-hosted by the paper's parent, East Bay Media Group, and the League of Women Voters-Rhode Island.

Returning to the series, it feels like it's important, the November 3 general election now being just two weeks away, to get a sense of what motivates the candidates to run in the first place.

Because when we choose those to serve on our behalf in elected office, we do so, ideally, with the belief they will put aside any personal preferences in deference to the greater good. That certainly is a realistic expectation.

However, it is also unrealistic to believe those same people do not have individual aims or beliefs that will guide them for the duration of their terms.

With that in mind, we posed the following question to the five candidates — Daniel Barlow, James Core, Scott Lial, Bert Rodrigues and Rebecca Schmaeling — running for the three vacancies on the town council:

What single issue in Warren about which are you most passionate and why will it be among the key focuses during your time on the council?

Daniel Barlow: When I think about the issue that i am most passionate about and why i signed up to run for office, my daughters and the next generation of Warren residents immediately springs to mind. I want a thriving Warren where they can afford to live and work, if they choose.

My focus will be on sustainable development and implementing the town's comprehensive plan. Our community needs housing options that make it possible for young families to live here and raise their children, but we also need to attract more economic development. The comprehensive plan outlines how to do both while building in climate resiliency. Through careful planning and up-zoning of Metacom Avenue we can attract more businesses and provide more housing at the same time. This will grow our tax base putting our existing land to better use and relieve some of the tax burden on our existing residents.

The plan also allows us to preserve our existing green spaces and save our industrial areas to attract more manufacturing. Warren has wonderful resources, such as Metacom Avenue, the working waterfront, vibrant downtown, and our schools.

I would like my tenure on the town council to focus on putting those resources to work for the town so we can lower the cost of living and provide greater opportunities for the next generation.

James Core: Strengthening the town’s finances so that we can have a brighter future is the priority motivating me the most to run for Town Council. A community with good financial practices – procedures, balanced accounts, cross-trained staff, and data aligned with goals - is better able to maintain its quality of life, invest in the future, and withstand shocks from unexpected expenses or the loss of key personnel.

I serve on the committee that has helped stabilize finances during the last two years as we worked through two budget and audit cycles; helped select the finance director; developed reporting formats to monitor financial data; evaluated financial systems; and advised the town on financial matters. The committee was successful this month securing Council approval for a project I championed to create a handbook of the procedures needed in the finance department.

1. While progress has been made, more work needs to be done. Our reserves are thin and we remain undercapitalized. As a member of the Council, I will work on the following low-to-no cost multi-year tasks to improve the financial health of the town:

2. Ensure accounts are balanced and any concerns are resolved with the auditors and Auditor General.

Implement performance-based budgets that track annual goals for each Department.

3. Establishing management and capital plans for maintenance.

4. Establish working capital funds – sometimes called enterprise funds – for multi-year repairs of harbor assets and the sewer system.

5. Implement tighter oversight of the deliverables and budgets for special projects.

I’m very happy here and feel grateful to live in Warren. I believe that thirty years of federal budgeting and management experience will be useful as we work together to strengthen the foundation of the town government.

Scott Lial: I have been forthright about my motivation and intentions regarding this run for Town Council. There are no hidden agendas or unexpected initiatives up my sleeve. As I’ve stated publicly, I had no burning desire to re-engage in town government. That said, the untimely departure of three term limited Council members (a Charter change that I gladly helped pass while on Council) coupled with the town’s challenging financial position, compelled me to enter the fray and help the town work through it.

Among the five candidates I am the only one that brings direct experience and knowledge of the position and an understanding of the financial predicament in which Warren currently finds itself. While there are so many exciting areas of growth and improvement that can be planned around in the coming Council term, the immediate focus must revolve around stabilizing our fiscal health. Whether this qualifies as a passion I’m unsure, but an absolute must it most certainly is.

At the risk of sounding redundant, we are facing unprecedented tax increases due to both anticipated and unforeseen financial liabilities. It would be disingenuous to pretend hopeful agendas and costly initiatives would be viable in the short term, and imprudent to render focus anywhere other than budget stabilization. The coming increase will be in the vicinity of 9%. That is not a typo. It’s 5% more than typically allowed for by the auditor general without requesting an exemption. And this increase simply reflects carrying the current lean budget forward (plus any existing debt service increases) along with the new debt service responsibility to cover the cost of the voter approved school construction.

Exciting times are ahead. There’s plenty of reason for optimism regarding Warren’s future. My only focus at present is managing our fiscal position and ensuring we get there.

Bert Rodrigues: The thing I care about most is making sure Warren stays a place people can still afford to live. I’m a homeowner here raising two kids, so I feel it every time taxes go up. That extra money has to come from somewhere usually from family budgets that are already stretched. For folks on fixed incomes, it can be the difference between staying and having to leave.

We still have to pay the bills, roads and sidewalks need repairing. Schools need support. Public safety has to be there when people need it. And we have school construction debt hanging over us. None of that goes away. The question is how we handle it without putting more pressure on people who are already struggling.

I’d sit down with the department heads, go through the numbers, and look hard for places we can tighten up without cutting the services people rely on. I’d also push to go after grants and try to bring in businesses that actually help the tax base instead of just adding to the load.

I’m not going to promise taxes will never go up. That would be dishonest. What I can promise is that I’ll question every spending decision and expect clear answers before I vote for any increase. People work hard for what they have. They deserve a council that gets that and that understands what these decisions mean for their ability to keep living in the town they call home.

Rebecca Schmaeling: I am passionate about engaging the community in town governance. I believe that Warren is at its best when everyone feels like they have a voice in the decisions made by Town Council, and I want to use the communication and community-building skills I’ve gained in my career to help achieve this goal. I’d like to tackle this both by finding ways to bring people into the process and by making the process clearer and easier to understand.

To get a head start, I hope to put out a survey in the first few months of the new council to get a sense of what people care about and how they prefer to get information. I think that this can help guide us to the best way to serve Warren citizens more proactively.

While I would want to wait for the results of that survey, some of my initial ideas include holding standing hours at local coffee shops so residents have an opportunity to have their voices heard outside of monthly meetings; creating a digest that gives an easy-to-understand breakdown of what happened at council meetings for those that cannot attend; creating a welcome committee that acts as a hub for new residents; centralizing volunteer opportunities in town; removing barriers to joining boards and commissions; and establishing a communications stream for the government to use to contact residents and share updates.

I think that there is so much to gain by making it easier and more engaging for Warren citizens to participate in the decisions that will shape their futures, and I hope to be able to implement these changes in the coming year.