The two candidates vying for the Republican nomination in the Sept. 10 mayoral primary traded allegations of corruption and debated the finer points of education, homelessness, and the fate of Cranston’s storied recreational pool. Nearly a hundred people turned up for the event in the contentious primary race.
Budlong Pool
Hopkins defended his decision to have the large open-air Budlong Pool demolished, saying the Cranston City Council did not allot him the necessary funding to fix an 83-year-old pool.
“I had to come up with an imaginary, imaginary plan that would accommodate the needs of the city of Cranston without affecting the taxpayers of the city. I was not going to put that burden on the taxpayers,” said Hopkins.
Fenton-Fung did not say she disagreed with the outcome, but she called Hopkins’ plan unpopular saying he “forced a plan down the neighborhood’s throat, and they can’t stand it because they were not listened to.”
Homelessness
Both candidates agreed that homeless encampments in Cranston should be removed although neither of them offered a clear plan for ending them. But Fenton-Fung leaned on her record as a state representative, saying that the way to end encampments, rather than to just clear them, is to address core issues that contribute to homelessness.
“What we did at the State House was make record investments in housing, whether it’s just for affordable housing, whether it’s for market rate, but also to tackle this problem of homelessness,” said Fenton-Fung.
With a note of sarcasm, Hopkins had this to say on Fenton-Fung’s housing record.
“I want to thank Representative Fenton Fung for taking good care of me. I’m 70 years old. I live in affordable housing. I built an in-law apartment so that I could have my mother in law live there,” he said. “Four years ago, I moved into the in-law apartment.”
Education
To a question of why Hopkins, as mayor, did not allot more funding to the schools, Hopkins defended his choice with the rationale that the city already funds the public schools at least at a rate of $2.5 million per year.
He said that the schools need to do a better job of working within the budget confines they have if they cannot make ends meet. This academic year, Cranston is cutting teacher staffing and reducing bus routes
Fenton-Fung answered the question by saying that as mayor, she would “make sure that we’re giving them enough money to invest in the programs that they want to succeed.”
Immigration
The controversial mailer Hopkins campaign distributed last week also came up in the debate. The mailer accused Fenton-Fung of voting in favor of a bill to allow undocumented students to attend the Community College of Rhode Island for free.
“The bottom line is, the representative voted in favor of giving illegal immigrants free tuition at CCRI,” said Hopkins.
She responded by saying she did vote to allow them to potentially attend for free, as is the right of all Rhode Island residents, but did not vote to bestow on them rights to free education greater than other Rhode Islanders. Additionally, the students must be on a path towards citizenship to qualify for the free tuition, and hold a high school diploma from a Rhode Island high school.
Corruption
In perhaps the spiciest portion of the evening, the candidates traded allegations about corruption and nepotism. Hopkins defended himself against the allegations that he had ushered in and promoted his son-in-law at the Cranston Fire Department, saying he was cleared of ethics probe earlier in the summer.
Fenton-Fung is wife of former Cranston mayor Allan Fung, who held mayoral office in town for twelve years prior to the city passing a term limit for its mayors. During the debate, Hopkins suggested Fenton-Fung and Fung lied to him about Fenton-Fung’s candidacy and Fung attempted to solicit contracts from him to support his career in law. Asked to elaborate on these accusations, Hopkins would only say Fung was “putting pressure on me to try to get city legal business, and I don’t play those games,” and that it was possible Fenton-Fung denied her candidacy in order to help her husband on his quest.
Both Fenton-Fung and Fung vehemently denied both of these charges, and Fung pointed out that his former firm was already working with the city on a number of contracts.
“This mayor, he’s not an individual you can trust,” said Fung.
Both candidates said they plan to vote for Donald Trump for president in the upcoming general election. The debate was held at the Cranston public library main branch. It was moderated by John Howell. Isabella Jibillian and Ian Donnis of Rhode Island PBS and The Public’s Radio joined Rory Schuler of the Cranston Herald as panelists for the evening.
