The first re-election of any public official is typically their toughest. For Concord Mayor Byron Champlin, winning another term after the longest tenured mayor in modern city history may not be that difficult.
With no announced challengers from within the city council and only one so far from outside that circle, Champlin is poised to be heavily favored in his campaign to return to office this November.
Much the same as when he was elected two years ago, Concord is aiming to build economic growth on the back of downtown revitalization and capitalize on waves of people moving away from urban areas and toward smaller enclaves where they can hike, bike and raise a family.
Also much the same as two years ago, Concord is a city under the thumb of a housing crisis, with insufficient supply that puts financial pressure on existing and new residents, renters and owners alike. As the state capital and a center for social resources, it also includes a relatively large community of people experiencing homelessness. Despite a shared commitment among city leaders on both of those issues, the needle has moved only modestly in Champlin’s brief first term.
That, however, is why he said he would like be re-elected, he said.
The next two years could bring a hefty increase to the city budget with several multi-million dollar projects on the horizon. Concord, like other communities, is dealing with a shortage of public safety workers. Plus, an upcoming revaluation that is expected to hit landlords – and by extension their tenants – and manufactured homeowners the hardest, as their property values are rising faster than the city average. With these and other issues looming, Champlin said “consistent leadership” is what Concord needs.
With the filing period for city elections opening September 5, the Monitor sat down with the mayor ahead of city elections this fall to discuss the issues facing the city and his approach to holding the gavel.
Here are some excerpts of what he had to say, in his own words.
On why he’s running again:
In an ideal world, the mayor of Concord would have a four year term. I think it’s hard to have impact in only two years. So I want another two years.
We have the master plan process coming up; I want to see that move forward. We have the issues around a new police station; I think that’s important to have consistent leadership. We have issues around our taxation. We’re going to have the new class and compensation study coming in, which will take a look at what we pay and how we pay our employees.
I think that it’s important to have that consistent leadership, particularly over a city council which has so many people who have just put their first term under their belt and have gotten to understand the process and how it all works.
On the current City Council dynamic:
When I was a councilor, with maybe one or two exceptions, there was a group of people who had become comfortable working with each other. There are people who might look at that and be critical. I hear a lot of talk about an ‘old boys network’– notwithstanding that we have a significant number of women on the city council – but I think that what people mistook for an ‘old boys network’ is a group of people who know each other, who understand each other’s peccadillos and who have gotten into a comfort zone in terms of working with each other. I think that is efficiently working government.
Doing things for show is not necessarily an effective way to generate change. Change is affected by sitting down, talking, consensus-building, getting people to agree with your position and having your ducks in row when you come to the table.
It’s great theater to have people arguing at city council. It’s incredibly inefficient. That’s reality television. That’s not good government.
On potential public pushback to major city construction projects, from Memorial Field to the upcoming new police headquarters:
The bottom line is that you’ve got to let us spend money on these facilities. We put money into building these structures, these facilities, we also have to put money into maintaining them.
We had several years during the city’s history, when the mayor wanted to have zero increases in the budget, and the result was that maintenance was not performed. So those are the tradeoffs.
On mounting city spending:
The challenge that we have is that expenses continue to rise. The needs of the city continue to rise.
There are a lot of forces: We absolutely need more housing, but with more housing comes more residents. With more residents comes an impact in safety services and general services, and all of that comes with a cost.
We just approved the contract with our firefighters union. No city councilor should be surprised if we see that the city manager’s proposed budget for fiscal 2027 has a tax rate increase, because we just approved part of the dynamic that’s going to push that. Unless we want to eliminate some services, which may be something we have to look at.
On how to take pressure off residential taxpayers through economic growth:
One of the ways for us to do that is to be prepared for opportunities and to look for opportunities.
That’s one of the reasons that, in the end, I was not a supporter of the Monitor Way development.
To me, maintaining that industrial land was really important. If an opportunity arises, we want to be able to say, ‘hey, here’s where we could put your business.’
The other way is to continue to try to be a collaborative community to do business with.
People have real resistance to people who are developers. People have real resistance to the business community. But the reality is, the more that we can generate in taxes from the business community, the less we have to ask from our residential property taxpayers.
I can be absolutely frank and say that I had hoped that we would have more business development in my first two years.
Monitor: At the same time, businesses don’t want to put down roots in a place where they can’t house any employees, or where their employees can’t afford to live. What’s the solution?
We need to be looking at housing density. We need to be looking at more projects like the ones that we see on Fisherville Road.
Monitor: That’s a project that was downsized from its original proposal.
Which I think was a mistake, frankly. I understand the concerns of the residents, but I think that should have been a much denser residential development, because we only have limited land.
On addressing homelessness:
Our progress has been very incremental, because it isn’t just a city problem, it’s a regional problem and it’s a national problem.
The Steering Committee on the City’s Plan to End Homelessness has been trying to make some significant inroads. It was extremely productive last year, when they held their strategic planning session and came up with their five goals and created subcommittees. I’ve certainly been working hard to support the effort to hire a coordinator. I’m not sure how successful that coordinator will be, but I’m willing to take a shot at it.
I’m concerned that we’re seeing an erosion right now due to federal action of mental health support, which I think is critical to addressing homelessness. It’s not all about creating housing units, but it is, having more housing of all types, so that you open up more housing down at the lower level, so that people can move into it.
We can collaborate with organizations like Riverbend. We can collaborate with organizations like the Coalition to End Homelessness. We can collaborate with other service organizations. But these are not services that, I think, we have the capacity to fund ourselves.
Monitor: Hiring for the coordinator position was delayed in the hope of fundraising to pay for it. Concord has $15 million in a rainy day fund. Why not allocate money to fill that position the first time, get moving, and then fundraise for future years? Could the city move faster on the goals that the committee has already pointed out?
I think that’s a fair question. I asked Granite United Way to be involved early on, and I think that that position could be more effective, as one that works through Granite United Way than it would be if it were city funded directly.
Monitor: Is that worth the six months the position has been sitting in “unfinished business” on the council agenda?
Yes, I think it’s worth it. This has been an incredibly successful and rapid process, and they’re in the process of interviewing candidates right now.
On the big picture:
I just love this town, and I really want to see this town continue to be a place that is highly attractive to people.
I’m sensitive to the pressures that that puts on everyone. I’m sensitive to the pressures of increasing expenses on people. I’m on a fixed income, like a lot of people in the city, so I particularly pay attention to it.
We have to have that discussion about what kind of a city we want to be and what kind of amenities we want to have. I think that’s a healthy discussion.
Editor’s note: These excerpts were pulled from an interview with Champlin. They have been edited for length and clarity.