Stokes-Marshall Stands for Quality of Life

Mount Pleasant heads to the polls Tuesday, November 8, to fill four seats on the town council. Three incumbents and six challengers are running for the at-large posts. This week, Mount Pleasant Patch will profile all the candidates.

If it happened in Mount Pleasant over the last 13 years, Thomasena Stokes-Marshall was probably involved.

The longest-running town councilmember currently on the panel, Stokes-Marshall’s influence in the town looms large. She chairs the town’s planning and development committee, which signs off on practically every nail that’s hammered in Mount Pleasant.

Read profiles of all nine council candidates.

Her institutional knowledge, she says, is an invaluable asset and a big reason voters should re-elect her to a fourth term.

But she also wants the public to know that she’ll be an advocate for maintaining Mount Pleasant’s quality of life as the town enters trying economic times.

“One of the most important things is to ensure that the town remains in a financially stable position,” Stokes-Marshall said. “At the same time, we need to maintain our level of quality services.”

Stokes-Marshall concedes the town has work to do in shoring up its unfunded capital maintenance budget. It also needs to address an underfunded retiree healthcare benefit.

Meanwhile the town may see flat or even reduced tax income caused by the faltering real estate market. Finding the money for those big expenses may be difficult.

At the same time, Mount Pleasant needs to plan for the future while protecting programs that make the town a good place to live, she said.

“We need to shift our focus from previous years where we are more focused on attracting and building small business,” Stokes-Marshall said. “And we need to protect our aging population … our fastest-growing population segment.”

Stokes-Marshall was the leading voice in the development of the Senior Services Center, which was named in her honor. Now she’s leading the effort to expand the facility by either adding onto the current building or by constructing a second location.

“That expansion is something I would really like to see come to fruition,” Stokes-Marshall said.

But that expansion and maintaining other town programs will cost money, and there might not be much of that to spare over the next four years. The town will have to comb its budget for cuts, she said.

“Raising taxes, with the economy like it is, everyone is hurting, so that’s a last resort,” Stokes-Marshall said. “We can privatize services, which we are already looking at. … There are cost-saving measures we can look at.”

Herself a retired New York City Police Department detective with a pension of her own, she knows the value of retirement benefits, so she said she’ll stand behind protecting town employees’ retirement healthcare benefit. But she sees room for changes as costs balloon.

“We need to look at a plan that is affordable to the town and to the employees,” Stokes-Marshall said. “I think the way to do that is probably through cost sharing.”

No matter the outcome of Tuesday’s election, at least one new face will appear behind the dais when the new council takes office. Councilman Paul Gawrych opted not to seek re-election this year.

“When new people come in, they bring fresh ideas, and I think that’s good,” Stokes-Marshall said. “But I bring not only the experience but also the knowledge of the actions and plans. … I have a working knowledge of how we got to where we are now.”

She also has time to dedicate to the job. Retired and a widow, Stokes-Marshall said throws herself into town business.

“I’m not sure how some councilmen, particularly the younger ones, with families and some with businesses, really dedicate the time to fully understanding all the issues. There’s a lot of information,” Stokes-Marshall said. “I don’t know anything else to do, and I enjoy it tremendously.”

ABOUT STOKES-MARSHALL
http://www.tstokesmarshall.com/home.html
Age: 68
Personal: Widow, one grandson
Professional: Retired New York City Police Department detective
Education:  Bachelor's degree, New York University
Previous elected office: In her 13th year on town council
Why he's running: “I am currently into my 13th year on the Town of Mount Pleasant Council. My life has been dedicated to serving people. I don’t know anything else to do, and I enjoy it tremendously. I am running for re-election because I want to continue to provide the services, maintaining our budget and looking at expanding our senior services center, and making sure our road projects are completed.”