By Brett Yates
On March 15, Rutland City Mayor David Allaire swore in four new members of the Board of Aldermen: Mike Doenges, Thomas Franco, Devon Neary, and Carrie Savage. Two returning aldermen, Tom DePoy and Bill Gillam, also took the oath of office.
DePoy, the owner of a commercial cleaning company, now begins his eighth consecutive term. Gillam, a retired restaurateur who rejoined the Board of Aldermen in 2018 as a mayoral appointee, previously served from 1992 to 2008.
Under the banner “Rutland Forward,” the board’s four newcomers, each a first-time candidate, campaigned in concert this winter as a progressive slate that comprised six of the 17 Rutlanders in the race. The group pledged to “work together to build an inclusive, welcoming community with an economy that works for everyone.”
Doenges, a salesman for the California-based technology firm Cisco, and Franco, a project analyst for the Virginia Department of Education, both work remotely while living in Rutland. Neary works for the Rutland Regional Planning Commission as a transportation planner, and Savage manages alumni relations for Castleton State University.
At first glance, the March 2 election appears to have preserved the board’s preexisting political makeup. Departing alderwomen Melinda Humphrey and Lisa Ryan, who declined to seek reelection, hosted a virtual forum to promote the Rutland Forward candidates in February. Chris Ettori, who left the board to mount an unsuccessful mayoral challenge, tended to side with Humphrey and Ryan when the board weighed in on culturally divisive issues, such as the question of Rutland High School’s mascot.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Mattis, a Democrat, lost her seat on the board, finishing 10th in the vote tally, as Republicans DePoy and Gillam retained theirs. (Rutland’s municipal elections are officially nonpartisan, with ballots that don’t list party affiliations.)
The reconstituted board, at its first meeting, signed off on the city’s accounting, auditing, and financial reporting policy as presented by Treasurer Mary Markowski; authorized the Rutland Humane Society’s annual coin drop on Merchants Row; and tasked the Public Safety Committee with figuring out what to do about the city’s broken-down fire truck.
It also voted in favor of the charter and ordinance committee’s revision to the city’s long-discussed sign ordinance, which grants additional leeway for alterations to grandfathered signs, and approved a public warning notice in the newspaper that will start the 20-day countdown to the law’s implementation.
