Springfield mayoral candidates participate in debate

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - With just two weeks to go before the preliminary elections, all five Springfield mayoral candidates taking the stage at Western New England University.

Springfield’s longest-serving and current mayor, Domenic Sarno is seeking re-election for his seventh term looking to beat out three-term city councilor Jesse Lederman, state representative Orlando Ramos, psychotherapist David Ciampi, and City Councilor Justin Hurst.

On Thursday, all five candidates came to voice their position on some of Springfield’s hottest issues and field questions from a media panel, which included Western Mass News’ own, Chris Pisano.

“We’ve mentioned a lot of issues tonight, what do you consider to be the biggest issue facing the residents and city of Springfield?” said Pisano to the panel of candidates.

“We need a local government that’s going to meet the needs of every single neighborhood. and I believe the way to do that is to open the doors of city hall and bringing in everyone to the table. We need to address communication and fix our 311 system,” said Lederman

“It’s obvious from everyone else that public safety is clearly the number one issue. But I’d also like to add to that education needs to be a top priority as well. Especially when we start to talk about the root causes of gang, and drug and gun violence. We know that many of our schools and high schools are not comparing to others across the state,” said Hurst.

As the city faces persistent gun violence and record-high homicides so far this year, some candidates said making the streets safer is their top priority.

“Public safety, number one. public safety. We want to keep our community safe and that’s the number one issue that matters to the people of the city of Springfield. I will do a national search for our next police superintendent. 50 new police officers year one, community policing, police substations in high crime areas, and partnering with the ATF to create a gun court in the city of Springfield,” said Ramos.

“I will continue to push my bail reform legislation through state representative Angelo Pupilo but on top of that: housing, continue to build new schools, financial stability and we’re going to also make sure to continue to provide education,” said Sarno.

“Public safety is certainly an issue here in the city of Springfield and the root of the problem is mental health, what we need to do is we need to change that and we need new pathways to resilience,” said Ciampi

Other issues at the center of Thursday’s debate were affordable housing and Springfield’s economic future, which includes where to put the new courthouse.

Springfield voters will cast their ballots for the preliminary election on September 12th. The two candidates with the most votes will then go head-to-head in November.

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