The Republicans were held accountable. It was a victory for democracy and our two-party system. (The numbers will be placed on northhaveninfo.org when I get them.)
Now, the burden of bringing good government to North Haven is on the Democrats' shoulders.
I will give them a short honeymoon to put all meeting agendas and minutes and financial information on-line, to move Board of Selectmen meetings to the evening, to bring us board and commission meetings where the chair chairs instead of dominates, to require town officials to fully and directly answer questions posed to them, to hire a town attorney who is a lawyer devoted to the public interest and not a politician devoted to those in power, etc.
As for the Republicans, they have to learn quickly to be a responsible opposition party. It won't come easy. The first thing they have to do is admit to themselves that their loss is their fault and no one else's. They've blamed and accused and attacked, and that's got to stop.
The Democrats did not create a closed town government, did not fail to bid out contracts, did not play fast and loose with budget transfer laws, did not fail to provide financial oversight, did not hide revenues, did not act arrogantly toward citizens, and all the rest.
Just as the Democrats now have the obligations that come with power, the Republicans had them before and, in many serious ways, they failed to meet their obligations. Admit your failure, at least to yourselves, and become a responsible opposition party, supporting the Democrats' efforts to heal this town and make it work openly and ethically, as well as financially.
Openness is a very risky thing. The Republicans didn't keep government closed for the hell of it. They did it because openness allows people to criticize more easily. It shows people what's going on.
It is very likely that the Republicans will take advantage of Democrats' attempts to open government, and that this will lead the Democrats to close things down. A responsible opposition party, one that has come to terms with its failures, wouldn't do this. We'll see.
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So...it's ok for new admin to close things down as long as it's old admin's fault?
not in office yet and working on justifing failure to open government...
silly..... give her the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks at least
Tuesday's win was a big victory for those of us who favor honesty and commitment to good government.
The Democrats aren't working to justify anything. This is my personal opinion, and I am not a Democrat.
This is what I mean by irresponsible opposition, blaming the Dems for something they didn't do.
Responsible opposition???
I think that's pretty unlikely since:
1. Leopards do not change their spots.
2. The republicans' arrogant and abusive behaviour has been ongoing for many, many decades. Hard to alter that kind of ingrained attitude.
3. IMO they will never believe this election was by and for the people.
4. Likely that they will go to ground and spend the next 2 years working to poison any good that the town gov't. tries to acccomplish.
I am so pleased that there was such a victory for the 'clean' side and that North Haven came out to vote for change. Democracy lives at the local level!!!
North Haven is living in the dark ages. The results of the election should be post on-line for everyone to see. I called the town hall for all the results from yesterdays election and was told to pick them up at town hall. I do not work in town (along with many other residents) so that is not a possibility. I guess town hall has nothing to brag about today, so election numbers are not on the top of the priority list.
Hopefully change will come.
Congrats to all the wins, whoever you are.
all results, including a complete win for all Democrats on Row B, are posted at http://www.northhaveninfo.org/resources/electionresults073.pdf
Dear Mr. Wechsler,
I hope that you do not mind but I decided to open up an account to periodically visit your site.
Despite our differences in the past, I wanted to see what might be alternate points of view and view the comments regarding the election results.
I would like to address Mabel's comments and tell her that I do believe that this election was by the people. They have spoken, they wanted a change and as an outgoing member of the board finance I make no excuses for the Republican loss.
Ms. McCarty, Mr. Fontana and the Democratic board members who will assume those board positions now have a chance to prove to us what they can do.
As an outgoing member of the Board of Finance, I will give them credit if they perform and they do deserve a period of time to prove themselves.
If they do not perform over the course of time then I will be offering the critical commentary and alternate points of view that I think are neccesary to make.
Mr. Freda, I respect you for being the only official to use his name while making posts on this blog.
This blog was intended to provide an opportunity for a townwide discussion, and town leaders failed to participate or, even worse, participated anonymously.
I offered some officials the opportunity to blog just as I do, but they showed no interest in using this means (or creating their own blogs) to communicate with the people of North Haven.
So, thank you for participating in name, and I hope others follow, not to just to criticize the new Democratic administration, but to raise and discuss important issues in town government.
I am happy to see Mr. Freda on this blog, and his appreciation of the election results. I'm reading Mrs. Pedalino's comments in the papers this week and she's blaming the media and accusing the Democrats of lying and running a negative campaign. I would like to say that the unaffiliated voters of North Haven made the difference in this election. Mrs. Pedalino's comments show that the RTC (which she heads) still doesn't get the message that the people of North Haven are tired of business as usual and want openness. The headlines were there, but without the unethical/illegal behavior of some Town Dept. heads, there wouldn't have been any headlines. The Democrats didn't invent the "scandal"-if she wants to lay blame she should look at the people in the headlines, not the "media" that published them. Maybe she should blame the State of CT since they are the ones prosecuting the accused. I applaud the media for printing what has been hidden from the average North Havener for years. Instead of looking forward to make positive changes for ALL North Haven taxpayers, she seems like a sore loser casting about to lay blame elsewhere, not where it belongs. I truly hope that the people who won will rise above attitudes like this and keep their promises of openness to the voters. I am unaffiliated and I split my vote due to people I saw working in the Town's best interests-not a blanket vote by party line. Some didn't win, but seeing Mrs. Pedalino's statements in the "media" that she blames makes me wonder if many of the Republicans in town have learned anything from this election. Sorry your daughter lost, Mrs. Pedalino, but take your bitterness elsewhere. Right now your party needs to work hard to gain trust-maybe a bipartisan effort will help you in the next election. Who am I? Someone you and your daughter in your official capacity "blew off" several times, someone who attended Town and Board Meetings and watched you mock and laugh at anyone who had the guts to speak truth to power. The people you defend hurt some very good candidates this election. If you stop for a second and think, you will see that your comments are insulting to the voters of North Haven-if Mr. Kopetz had dealt honestly with us, put the Town interests ahead of party loyalty and taken a stand against unethical behavior, he might be banking on his life-time pension right now. Please stop blaming the press, the Democrats and the voters of North Haven for weak Republican leadership and an insulting sense of entitlement in Town Hall.
Bravo, well said! (to anonymous post on Pedalino's bitter whining!) Perhaps the younger guard of the Republican party shd move to clean up the party at a town level, sweep out the dirt, and become a positive element instead of what that party has come to represent in this town. It would be nice if the two (or 3) party system worked well and to the advantage of the people.
Mr. Freda, let me start out by saying that I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and by no means whatsoever is any malice intended in this statement.
I have seen you in the background in past broadcasts of the BOF meetings and have always felt that you never really bought in to some of the antics by the majority members(i.e. shuffling papers, talking amongst themselves, staring at the cieling acting totally uninterested,ect, ect.) while the minority members were speaking or trying to make a point. Having always known you to be a respectful,intelligent and concsientous person, I found it curious, as well as a bit disheartening that you had associated yourself with this kind of behavior. I feel that the partisan rule on the BOF was a travesty and served no good purpose at all.
My hope is, now that there is no longer a Republican majority, you will not let your relatively new found political association guide your judgement in matters of the town's finances? Will we as individual citizens and the town as a whole, finally, be able to truly benefit from your knowledge and experience in financial affairs? I really hope so,and I hope the Democrats can see this as well, because I feel you, more than any of them, have a great deal to offer once politics has been put aside. The best of luck to you Mike,
you're always a class act.
Thank you, Mr. Wechsler. My opinions may not not always be popular on your site but I promise to deliver them in a respectful fashion to you and those individuals who disagree with me.
Janet McCarty is assembling a top-notch transition team, to ensure the taxpayers of North Haven that things will indeed be different. Planning to fire the former Director of Finance was her first excellent move. Many more are to follow.
I also congratulate Mr Freda for adding his comments to this board. I suspected that he was a class act and he's proving it now.
Mr. Freda-
Welcome to the blog, thanks for your input, and thanks for your service to the town.
In regard to the latter, you were always, by far, the most thoughtful, intelligent, and respectful of the republicans on the BOF.
Let's hope that your party can learn from your success. You are setting an good example, here, in being connected via the internet to the town citizens. Some journalists have dubbed us the "2.0 Citizens".
Whereas you and I probably don't agree on many issues, the fact is that we can talk, argue, and relate without disrespect. That's how it should be.
-Tom
From Michael Freda, Outgoing Republican Member of the Board of Finance:
Thank you all for allowing me to participate in this site. As I have previously stated, my opinions might be contrary to the prevailing points of view here but I will accept any criticism that you may have if you do not agree with me.
One of the many challenges that we are faced with in North Haven as we move forward is the lack of significant growth in our grand list. As North Haven has moved from a manufacturing town to more of a retail based environment,we as tax payers have had to endure a greater share of the tax burden here in North Haven.
Many people in town may not realize it but it takes about 7 Target Shopping centers on Universal Drive to replace the tax revenue that Pratt and Whitney generated for us.
The reason for this is that manufacturing facilities generate tax revenue for municipalities on the real estate along with the machinery and infrastructure within the inside of the building. Retail stores do not.
The demise of manufacturing is not just indigenous to North Haven. In a marvelously written book entitled "CITY-Urbanism and Its End", Douglas Rae depicts the demise of New Haven as a mecca for manufacturing from 1900 through the 1960"s to virtually no manufacturing today.
This is a problem in many of our other surrounding municipalites also.
With the outsourcing of cheaper labor to countries such as China and others, I am not optimistic about our long term success here in North Haven to attract manufacturing companies.
I do not consider this to be a fault of the Republicans or Democrats moving foward. It will be a difficult endeavor to be successful in. I am anxious to see if First Selectwoman McCarty's plan to hire an economic development will be a solution for us in this area. I have to admit, I am skeptical of her plan but she deserves a chance to prove me wrong on this.
The result of this dilemma for each of us is that as the cost of our running our town goes up,we will continue to have to endure a larger percentage of that tax burden.
I see a huge challenge for the Democrats in the future due to the fact that at the end of 2008, our revenue from Upjohn ends which currently represents about $1M per year for North Haven. I still am unsure of what we will exactly lose in tax revenue from Blue Cross as the conversion over to Quinnipiac takes place.
I was always criticized as being a proponent of maintaining a tax collection rate in town of 97.5%.
I would anticipate that my soon to be former collegues on the board will push for a higher rate of collection in an attempt to generate, on paper, additional tax revenue as part of the next budget.
I hope that they are correct in their assessment that we can collect a higher rate of taxes moving forward. As President and Chief Executive of my company, I always preferred a more cautious approach to predicting revenue for our corporate budget.
If the Democrats do increase this rate of collection to, let's say, 98.5% it will bear watching to see if that rate can be collected.
Thanks Mike
FINALLY, some intelligent and insightful financial information that the taxpayers can understand.
This is the type of input that has been missing from far too many discussions, on this blog, and elsewhere in town, including some public meetings.
Mike..those are excellent and thoughtful comments. Welcome aboard!
I see from the papers today that Mr Kopetz's "deep concern" for the Town of North Haven seems to wane when there's no big paycheck involved!!! Maybe he's just afraid to be treated by the Democratic majority like the Republicans have treated them in the past? This scenario I do NOT think will occur because right now it appears that the incoming regime has a bit more class than the power drunk Republicans did. Time will tell,I think Janet,althought not a smooth speaker, is sincere in her intentions, TIME WILL TELL!
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