City Council Candidate Profiles | Darrell Desautels

This article was written by Doug Phinney and Jenny Koppang

Seven candidates are vying for two open seats on the Winooski City Council this Town Meeting Day. The top two vote-getters will be elected to two-year terms. This election will be the first in the city to allow non-U.S. citizens the right to vote, a result of an amendment to Winooski’s charter that ensures that all residents can have a voice in municipal elections. 

These interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

Darrell Desautels (he/him)

Q: How old are you and how long have you lived in Winooski? 

A: I’m 70 years old and I’ve lived in Winooski all my life. The only time I didn’t live in Winooski was when I did a short stint in the military with the Vermont Air National Guard in 1971. 

Q: What is your educational background?

A: I did one year of college at Champlain. I studied bookkeeping. 

Q: What’s your profession and work background?

A: I was a machinist, I retired from the Edlund Company in 2015. I spent five years on the Winooski School Board from 1994 to 1995 and was a member of the City Council for eight years from 2000 to 2008. I was on the City Council when they put the finishing touches on the Winooski Downtown Project, which includes the rotary, the parking garage, and the apartments along the river. 

Q: Why are you running for Winooski City Council?

A: When I was on the City Council back in the early 2000s, we did not push our political affiliation on the citizens of Winooski. But it appears that over the last dozen years or so the City Council has taken a left hand turn and started forcing their political views on the citizens. I'm gonna do my best to try to put a stop to that, pushing one’s political views on the city is not the right thing to do. The City Council is there to make Winooski a safe and affordable place to live. But the City Council over the last five years has dug us in a deep hole with all their programs that are way too costly.

Q: What do you see as the most important issue facing the city of Winooski?

A: Number one is getting spending under control. Like I said, the City Council spending has gotten worse every year. First, there is the $58 million bond to repair the school. Then there was a $3.5 million bond vote for a new pool. Is it nice to have a pool? Yes. But the Winooski homeowners, and the majority of the homeowners are seniors, should their taxes have to pay for a $3.5 million pool? Seniors, and people living with Social Security, won’t be able to maintain their homesteads when all these extra costs kick in. If I had it my way, I would have each department, when they create their budgets, cut their spending, maybe 10 percent. Everything that the city taxpayers pay for, I would ask them to cut a certain amount. That would make a small difference. Any city department with money left over should use it to cut the city’s taxes. 

Q: Winooski has an acute housing crisis. What ideas do you have for creating more affordable housing?

A: You got these new buildings going up on Main Street. It's going to have a lot of housing in it, in upper Main Street Winooski. And the people that are making the building, they want their money back. So they're going to charge anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 a month rent on the building. You know, I'm not sure that the City Council can tell somebody who just built a multi-million dollar building to make it affordable. What is affordable? The housing authority, the Champlain and Burlington Housing Authorities, they own properties in Winooski and all those properties, for the most part, are rented out to people with Section 8, where the state government pays some of these people’s rent. The person who owns the complex is still making their money, but the people who live there get a benefit that makes it affordable to them. But then again I, as a taxpayer, don’t want to have to pay for these peoples’ rent. 

Q: Winooski is scheduled to receive $2 million in American Rescue Plan funding. How would you like to see that money spent? 

A: I’m not familiar with this plan so I don’t feel comfortable commenting about something I know nothing about.