By JIM BARON

PAWTUCKET — Butting heads for the final time in what has been a long and contentious campaign for mayor, Democrat James Doyle and Independent Donald Grebien trod familiar territory Tuesday in a tour d’horizon of issues facing the city. 

In a debate sponsored by the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and Pawtucket Rotary Club in the City Council Chambers and moderated by Chamber President John Gregory, Doyle, the 11-year incumbent, boasted of his record as mayor, saying Pawtucket during his tenure “has gone from being a city that was practically bankrupt to one that is financially stable.”
Challenger Grebien, the City Council president, retorted that he has the leadership skills, vision and “energy to make things happen” and promised to “move the city forward from its current stalled position.
“Change must begin at the top to be truly effective,” Grebien said. “We all deserve better.”
Doyle, too, spoke of what he called “responsible, positive change.” But on more than one occasion, his solution for addressing specific problems was to maintain and build on the status quo. When Grebien asked Doyle for his “specific economic plan,” Doyle answered: “My specific economic plan is to continue what we are doing right now.”
Asked by Times reporter Donna Kenny Kirwan about the twin problems of downtown parking woes and the prospect of retail business returning to the city center, Doyle said, “there is adequate parking, but nobody can find it.
“We are on course,” the mayor asserted. Naming several new residential and condominium developments in formerly vacant factory buildings, Doyle said, “we have the potential to have 700 more people living in the downtown area. If that happens, the amenities will come, the businesses will come. They always do.”
That is not enough, Grebien insisted.
He wants to change the downtown traffic pattern so that Main Street is returned to two-way driving. “The shops are not going to come back unless we have adequate parking and an adequate traffic pattern.”
 Perhaps the most heated moments of the evening came when Grebien derided the Doyle administration’s support of city schools.
“Minimal tax dollars are going to education,” Grebien said, contending that “every increase (in the property tax) has gone to the city side of the budget – he pointed to an assistant fire chief position he has criticized as unnecessary on several occasions, and to 71 new city jobs he said the current mayor has created.
“We have to make sure we take care of what we have,” Grebien said, “we have to fund it.”
Obviously expecting Grebien’s response, Doyle was clearly ready with an answer.
“Don’t tell me the taxpayers of this city are not funding the education system,” the mayor snapped. “That’s a falsehood.
“Don is suggesting a tax increase,” Doyle told the audience that filled the council chamber. He said that “property taxpayers in the rest of the country pay 43 percent of the cost of education,” but that here that contribution is 60 percent.
The candidates also squabbled over the need for more police officers.
In response to a question, Doyle said “we do not need more police officers on the street, we have an adequate force.” He noted that with four new recruits preparing to be sworn in, the city will soon be at its full complement of 158 officers, although he misspoke the number as 258. “We need the police who are out there now to continue doing a good job.”
The mayor said “the city dynamic is changing,” with police called on to address “a tremendous amount of domestic problems.
“The world has been thrust upon us,” he said.
Grebien asserted that crime is on the increase. “People are afraid to come out of their homes at night, there are more problems at the playground on West Avenue.
“We need to increase the number of police officers,” Grebien said, but added, “I’m not sure we can afford it.” He cited the need to obtain grant money to hire more police.
That was one of several times that Doyle and Grebien agreed that there are projects and programs the city needs to accomplish, but it doesn’t have the money to do so at present.
As they have at previous forums, the two men clashed over Grebien’s proposal to establish Municipal Economic Development (MED) Zones.
Grebien said there are still many vacant mill buildings in the city and the art ventures and other businesses that have come into the city in the past couple of years want restaurants and other amenities to supplement their presence. He said the MED Zones would “give tax incentives to businesses and people who are buying goods.Doyle said the MED Zones, specified areas of the city where only half of the state’s 7 percent sales tax is charged to customers and the 3.5 percent they do pay goes back to the city to be applied in those zones, “ís not a fit for Pawtucket and hasn’t been a fit anywhere in Rhode Island. He said that program favor “big box” retail stores at the expense of the small businesses that are the heart of the city’s economy. Besides, he predicted, the notion of a MED Zone for Pawtucket “has no chance in the legislature.”
Grebien insisted that the General Assembly “would open up its arms” to the new jobs and new business that the MED Zone would generate, adding “It’s not just about box stores.”
Asked by Pawtucket Rotary Club President Paul Palange, who is also publisher of Senior Times, about senior citizens losing access to transportation because the state RIde program has started charging fees for bus and van rides that used to be free, Grebien said “we need to be aggressive and come up with new solutions to solve problems. When we knew there was a problem a year ago, we should have been pre-active.
Doyle, in one of the snarky exchanges that marked the event, said, “let me, rather than run around the question, answer the question directly.” He said those affected “need help and need help now.” He said the Bristol County Savings Bank, of which he is a member of the board, awards $25,000 a quarter to support community programs. Doyle wants $10,000 of that to go “to pick up what RIde has dropped.”
Tuesday’s debate is likely the last face-off between Doyle and Grebien before the Nov. 4 election.