Ward 4 Council Candidates Cooper and Lewandowski Outline Positions on Pressing Issues

Guy E. Cooper, a retired Haverhill police officer, is challenging incumbent Melissa J. Lewandowski for the Ward 4 seat on Haverhill’s City Council in next Tuesday’s general election.

They each sat down with on WHAV’s “Win for Breakfast” and answered a series of questions about their candidacies. Here are their answers in the order the candidates will appear on the Ward 4 ballot.

Why do you want to serve on City Council?

“I’ve been a contributor to civic organizations even before I held office because I like being boots on the ground, showing up, answering the call, doing the work. I’ve had some successes in moving some items forward while I’ve been on Council, but there is an opportunity obviously to do much more and I aim to finish what I started,” Lewandowski said.

“I want to continue my civic duty for the City of Haverhill. Haverhill is my home, what I consider my hometown and I want to continue serving the citizens of Haverhill in that capacity now,” Cooper said.

There is a perception Haverhill is building too much housing. 

“What’d I like to see is senior housing similar to what they did with the YMCA in Methuen where they had particular senior housing for the 55-plus demographic. I’d also like to see conversion of some of our buildings that we might be able to identify as surplus properties,” Lewandowski said.

“I believe in growth, but growth with a purpose. The growth that we have now, the apartments and buildings that are going in, they’re not very affordable for people at this point. Also, as we now know, there is a very big strain on our infrastructure,” Cooper said.

What can City Council do to promote more affordable housing?

“I along with a lot of my colleagues are interested in home ownership, not rentals. We need a combination of state and city funding, in my opinion, to allow nonprofit developers to build homes,” Lewandowski said.

“I think the city can put some type, I believe, they can put some type of a limit on, having an idea of what their out cost will be when completed to what you are going to rent or what you are going to lease and what it’s going to cost a person to rent or lease. I think that is something we should look at first,” he said.

The death of Francis P. Gigliotti II while in police custody and the death of Officer Katelyn M. Tully have left the public looking for answers, especially in light of changes at the top of the police department. Do you think the public has the right to know more and how quickly and what types of information do you think is properly withheld?

“What can be shared, in my opinion, is general information—date, time, location of incidents, facts and circumstances surrounding those incidents; an overview of what an investigation entails; what is the scope of it and; most importantly, in my opinion, we think that we need to be better on progress reports and timelines for the public,” Lewandowski said.

“I do believe 100% that we should be telling them what’s going on or even if that the process is still moving on. But I think the silence, that’s very hurting. I do believe everybody needs to know everything that’s happened,” Cooper responded.

Do you believe that residential property taxes are too low, too high or about right?

“Well, too high. If people are hurting and they can’t afford to stay, then the answer is too high. We need to ensure our taxpayers can continue to live here. This year we saw an increase, the debt exclusion made up the majority of that increase, but there were other factors, of course, employee benefits, general inflation, not getting enough money from the state. But going forward we can’t allow our property taxes to be our out,” Lewandowski said.

“Because of inflation, prices of everything is going up. I do believe now, though, again

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