Raymond Baccari
News Editor
Sue AnderBois is one of three candidates running for City Council Ward 3 in Providence. The seat is open this year as City Councilwoman Nirva LaFortune is running for Mayor. Currently, the Ward contains the neighborhoods of Mount Hope, Hope Village (Summit), Collyer Park and Blackstone.
“I have been a Providence resident for about a decade and immediately jumped right into the community. I’ve spent my career as an advocate for things like environmental issues, climate, climate justice, food system issues, food security, housing – all sorts of things. And I’ve been involved in just a variety of different policy activities at the city and state level,” AnderBois said in a recent episode of Ray-ality TV.
“And with Councilwoman LaFortune deciding to run for Mayor, and seeing so much change happening in the Council, I was excited about the opportunity to bring that experience and those connections and relationships and dedication to progressive causes to the City Council.”
One of the many issues AnderBois wants to address as a City Councilor is climate justice. This includes supporting Providence’s Climate Justice Plan, building benchmarking and expanding funding for climate justice with a model similar to Portland’s Clean Energy Fund.
The city’s pension system is a familiar, lingering and critical issue in Providence politics. The issue itself is complicated and comes with a variety of solutions. AnderBois supports, after originally being skeptical of, Mayor Jorge Elorza’s proposed $500 million pension obligation bond that needs both state and voters’ approval as a start.
“I would be supportive of the pension obligation bond as an initial down payment on how we extract ourselves from the pension issue. But it’s not a silver bullet, more things will need to be done in the future. And it’s vital that we address the pension issue,” said AnderBois.
An issue specific to Ward 3 is revitalizing the North Main Street Corridor. Some of the ideas AnderBois supports are making the area more walkable and creating affordable housing.
The one committee AnderBois wants to sit on is Finance if elected. “I’d particularly be excited to sit on [the] Finance [committee]. I think that one of the primary things the Council does is control the city’s budget. I’ve been the Treasurer of organizations [and] on boards. I have an MBA. I am [a] very detail-oriented, budget-focused person,” says AnderBois. “[It’s] the largest piece of policy I think that we really oversee at the City Council level. [And] I would want to be an eagle-eye on that Finance committee looking at all the details and making sure that our budget is supporting the city of Providence [in] the best way possible.”
AnderBois hasn’t decided on who she would vote for as Council President if elected. She has no current plans to endorse any of the candidates for the 2022 Providence Mayoral race.