GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Republican Committee has named its slate for the 2015 election, and a Democrat is at the top of the ticket.

Brian Forte, currently a member of the all-Democratic town board, will run for supervisor on the Republican ballot.

Forte interviewed for the endorsement from the Guilderland Democratic Committee, but Peter Barber received the nod instead. Forte said earlier he wasn’t allowed to interview to keep his town board seat.

Douglas Breakell, the chairman of the Guilderland Republican Committee, said last week that the decision for Forte to interview with the GOP stemmed from a “mutual connection,” although Forte said the party had approached him.

Michele Coons and Lee Carman will run for town board, and Mark Grimm, a rumored supervisor hopeful, will instead make a run for Albany County Legislature in the 29th District. Steve Oliver, the only elected Republican official in Guilderland, will seek re-election as highway superintendent, and Travis Stevens is running to keep his seat in the County Legislature’s 31st District.

The salaries for town board members were $23,030 in 2015; the salary for town supervisor was $110,340; and the salary for highway superintendent was $82,611. Albany County legislators each have a salary of more than $21,000 and receive benefits.

Breakell said he believes the committee has put together its “strongest group of candidates in years,” despite the fact that they come from different backgrounds and even different political parties.

“We have a great team of people I’ve known and associated with my entire life,” said Forte. He said he had grown up with Carman and Coons and has been friends with them for a long time.

He said his message as a Republican candidate is largely the same as it would have been as a Democratic candidate.

Having been a town police officer for more than 30 years, Forte said he has a good working knowledge of the community.

Overall, said Forte, his plan is to focus on good government, smart economic growth, and keeping taxes down.

“You hear a lot about keeping taxes down and a large portion of the tax bill is school taxes,” said Forte. “Redeveloping commercial properties here in town and embracing new businesses would increase the tax base and bring that bill down.”

A new local law, which Forte voted in favor of, was passed in April, and requires owners of vacant buildings to post $5,000 bonds to maintain the properties.

“I think we can do better than that,” said Forte. ‘We need to work more closely with landowners and developers.”

He also said he planned to focus attention on water and sewer in the town, areas he said need a lot of work, particularly in upgrades and extensions.

Coons made a run for town board in 2011, but Forte and Democrat Allen Maikels — who will run as an incumbent this year — won the two spots.

“It was a close race then,” she said. “I have more experience now.”

Coons works as the director of member services for the Retail Council of New York State and said, of her decision to run, “I just feel like I need to do something for Guilderland.” She has lived in the town since childhood.

She volunteered with Guilderland Pop Warner football, coaching, coordinating, and fundraising, and said she enjoyed working with the children and the parents. She now volunteers with Guilderland Babe Ruth baseball.

“I am helping people in Guilderland, but I’m not helping all of Guilderland,” said Coons. “I just think I’m meant to do that.”

Coons talked about the dichotomy in town between children and seniors.

“I want the kids to be able to stay in town as they grow into adults, so we need to keep taxes down, but I don’t want to cut services,” she said. “We need to offer services to seniors that help keep them happy in their homes.”

She, like Forte, said she wants to focus on smart development and increasing the town’s tax base.

“I’d also love to see town hall prosper again,” said Coons, noting that she believes morale is down among town employees.

“I like to talk with people,” she said. “It’s not only department heads that have ideas; every level of an organization has ideas, and you need to respect everyone’s opinions.”

Coons used to work for CVS Pharmacy, and part of her job, she said, was going into stores to help boost employee morale and increase sales.

“It is amazing what you can do if you have happy employees,” she said.

Albany County legislator Lee Carman is finishing his third term in the 29th District — encompassing seven election districts in the Fort Hunter neighborhood. He said it was “time for some fresh blood” in that role.

Rather than seek re-election to the legislature, he is making his second run for town board; he lost to incumbents Paul Pastore and Patricia Slavick in 2013.

“A lot of people thought I took the easy way out last time, since I had my legislator position as a fallback, so this time I am risking it all,” said Carman, who works as the vice president of financing for Kinderhook Bank. “I ran for town board two years ago because that’s where I wanted to be; I want to help my community.”

Carman said, above all, he would like to see more partnerships between the town and local businesses, to help attract new businesses in Guilderland.

“We need to build a tax base with redevelopment so we don’t pass the burden onto taxpayers,” he said. “I’m not talking about mass development, I’m talking about developing what is already here.”

Carman also said services are down and that “true fiscal management means providing services to youth and seniors and everybody in between.”

The parks need a little more maintenance and the seniors need better transportation options, for example, he said.

“It’s all about a community effort,” said Carman.

Grimm, meanwhile, will attempt to replace Carman in the legislature. He made a run for supervisor in 2013, and lost to Kenneth Runion in a closely-contested race; he said earlier this year that he was considering running for supervisor again.

“I was interested in both supervisor and county legislature, because I think I could make a difference in both roles, but county legislature is a better fit,” said Grimm this week. “I think I could have an immediate positive impact on 300,000 people and that’s very appealing.”

Grimm said he reviewed all of his tax bills from the past decade and discovered that there were county tax increases of 8 percent in three out of the last seven years.

“I have a strong record in Guilderland of blocking big tax hikes and I want to be a taxpayer champion in the county,” he said. “The biggest portion of a tax bill is county tax; we can do better and I hope to be a part of that.”

Actually, the largest portion, by far, for Guilderland residents, as is typical across the state, is for school taxes. The county tax is $3.83 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, the town tax is 26 cents per $1,000, and the school tax is $21.84 per $1,000.

The state’s property tax cap, which went into effect in 2012, limits the amount local governments and school districts can increase property taxes to the lower of 2 percent or the rate of inflation. Local government bonds must pass a resolution by at least a 60 percent vote to override the tax cap, which means residents of that municipality won’t get tax rebates.

Grimm said he also hopes to bring more transparency to the county.

“This is the year 2015 and you can’t even watch the meetings on television or online,” he said.

In addition to greater transparency, he wants to foster more engagement.

“You want to engage the audience so people can actually have a dialogue with their leaders,” said Grimm. “I think a lot of people don’t even know what the county legislature does.”

He said he would use his communications skills — he is a public relations specialist and owns his business, Mark Grimm Communications — to help create an environment where engagement is encouraged.

“We really need to have someone as a watch dog in there and that’s a good fit for me.

“I’m going to campaign hard,” concluded Grimm. “I’ll be pounding the doors, like I always do.”

Breakell said the committee plans to wage an aggressive campaign and he believes “the winds of change are blowing in Guilderland.”

Travis Stevens was profiled in the May 21, 2015 Enterprise when Democrat Nicholas Viscio announced he would challenge him to represent the 31st District, online at www.AltamontEnterprise.com.