Letter: Rodriguez best for mayor's seat

Editor's note: Bryan Wolofsky is the developer of the proposed 800-unit residential development behind Brady Square and Cherry Gardens.

I support John Rodriguez for mayor. Do not be misled by all the media ink over concert tickets, lottery and land purchase scandals and other irrelevancies.

Further, while city hall openness and reducing overall tax burden are very important goals, in order to accomplish them, it is my belief that there should be only one issue about which voters should be laser-focused today: How to increase the city’s revenue and municipal gross domestic product without adding to its infrastructure costs, so as to increase the economic pie, instead of trying to tax ever-greater amounts from the same or a shrinking pie.

In my public presentation to the city earlier this year, I stressed the above point, with an often-proven, very achievable strategy: the development of a municipal business incubator through investing in and working with NORCAT, Sudbury’s leading existing asset for this purpose.

Following that meeting, the only mayoral candidate to contact me was John Rodriguez. In three meetings with him I outlined how several cities in the United States have created and grown business incubators by piggybacking on the existing competitive advantages and human capital of their top local businesses.

When done right, and there are many good examples for us to follow, these incubators really can grow the municipal GDP and tax base, while having minimal effects on its infrastructure costs.

In my opinion, a municipal-private partnership with NORCAT to help local entrepreneurs create and grow their business ideas is the most rational way for Sudbury to grow, expand and diversify its economy to the benefit of all its citizens and investors.

John Rodriguez is the only mayoral candidate to date who has shown that he understands and supports this concept. That is why I believe he would make the best mayor for the future of Sudbury.

Bryan Wolofsky
Montreal, Que.