Wallingford 2011 Elections - Q&A for candidates set at two forums this week

This story originally ran in the Record Journal on Wednesday October 12, 2011 under the title “Q&A for candidates set at two forums next week”

In the instances where the article reads “next week” please remember that it will be referring to THIS WEEK Wednesday October 19 and Thursday October 20.

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225


WALLINGFORD — Voters will have a chance to hear candidates for mayor, Town Council and Board of Education at two candidate forums next week.

On Wednesday, council candidates will answer questions from students from Sheehan and Lyman Hall high schools and local reporters, with a similar forum Thursday for the mayoral and school board candidates. Both are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers.

The forums are being sponsored by the Wallingford Community Women.

“This gives people an opportunity to learn more about candidates,” member Jeanne McFarland said. “This is a chance to ask specific questions. It’s a more informal opportunity to get information.”

Republican Town Committee Chairman Robert Prentice said the forums are a valuable opportunity for candidates, too.

“This is a chance for everybody to say what they have to say,” Prentice said. “All the signs in the world don’t tell anybody about the candidates.”

The forums will be taped and broadcast on WPAA-TV in the weeks before the election.

Democratic Town Chairman Vincent Avallone said forums are good for newer candidates who aren’t familiar with the political process.

“For newer candidates, this makes a big difference,” he said.

Avallone said some candidates are nervous about being on television, but are excited to get their message across.

Prentice said he expects the entire Republican slate to be present both nights. Avallone said the only absence he was expecting was Valerie Ford, a school board candidate who has a work commitment.

McFarland said her organization — formerly the Wallingford Junior Woman’s Club — has helped run the event with the League of Women Voters before, but this year’s forum is the first time it has sponsored the event alone.

Candidates will be allowed two minutes to respond to questions from the panel. Each candidate will answer eight to 10 questions. At the end, each candidate will be allowed three minutes to summarize their platform.

The council forum is divided into segments, with Democratic candidates Nick Economopoulos, Don Harwood and Robin Hettrick and Republican candidates Vincent Cervoni, Craig Fishbein and Tom Laffin answering questions beginning at 7 p.m., and Democrats Debi Reynolds, John Sullivan and Jason Zandri joining Republicans John Le-Tourneau, Robert Parisi and Rosemary Rascati at 8 p.m.

Thursday’s forum will begin with school board Democrats Kathy Castelli and Jay Cei pairing up with Republicans Tanya Bachand, Michael Brooder and Christine Mansfield at 7 p.m., followed by David Leonardo, Patrick Reynolds and Michael Votto representing the Democrats, joined by Republicans Joe Marrone, Roxane McKay and Chet Miller at 8 p.m. The mayoral forum will follow at 9 p.m. with Democrat Vincent Testa Jr. and Republican Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.

FROM WALLINGFORD – Hey kids, it’s time to show up

As originally published in the Record Journal Sunday, September 27th, 2009

It was also cross posted to my personal blog – From the Mind of Jason Zandri

The item regarding the Charter Revision vote is out of date and no longer relevant but the rest of it as timely as it ever was.

According to some research I have done recently, in the 2008 Presidential election the number of Wallingford peo­ple registered to vote aged 18 to 30 that came out and voted was about 2,800.

For people aged 60 to 72 that number was a little more than 4,000.

Both age sets encompass a span of 12 years.

In 2008, 22,000 of the nearly 26,000 reg­istered voters in Wallingford generated an 85 percent voter turnout rate.

In the 2007 local election the number of people aged 18 to 30 that came out to vote in Wallingford was about 500.

Of the nearly 4,200 people aged 18 to 30 that were registered to vote only 500 showed up—that is a paltry 12 percent.

For people aged 60 to 72 that number was about 2,800 out of 4,700 or 60 per­cent.

When we talk about the impact for bet­ter or worse of the largest voting block the discussion always focuses around the older folks but it is not just because they are larger in size (as they are so by only about 500 voters) but rather due to the fact that they show up in greater numbers. In order to get to 2,800 voters showing up in a voter block for the 2007 local elec­tion you have to include everyone aged 18 to 47 — a bracket of 29 years.

That is a total of 11,400 registered vot­ers to yield the same 2,800 turnouts.

Let me say it again— you have to lever­age 11,400 registered voters from the 18 to 47 demographic to get the same turn out number of people aged 60 to 72 where 2,800 out of 4,700 showed up.

2,800 people aged 60 to 72 out of 4,700 is 60 percent.

2,800 people aged 18 to 47 out of 11,400 is 25 percent.

I understand that the numbers in total drop below 50 percent for local elections; in 2007 voter turnout was 46 percent.

The reason for this is mainly due to the younger generation of people not show­ing up.

This is especially concerning tome as a parent of four little children. At 40 years old I am in with a group of people that seem not to be willing to take control of their own destiny for themselves or their families.

Say whatever you want about how you can’t change things, politics is all dirty and it caters only to this group or that group or whatever— it becomes a self ful­filling prophecy when you don’t show up to vote.

I feel that local elections impact you more than any other election you could participate in. All the voters are from Wallingford, there is no other election that you could have a greater impact on by just voting.

In a Presidential election you are cast­ing your important vote among millions of others; in Wallingford it is one vote of about 12,000 or so.

Your locally elected officials directly af­fect everything from what you are charged in taxes by way of the budget and what allocations get handed off to support the schools that your children are attend­ing and so on. They provide the platform and funding for or removing it from all the local services you may use.

There are many changes offered to the voters in the 2009 election from the in­cumbents that are running for office again to all the newcomers throwing their hats into the ring.

There are changes being proposed to the Town Charter. This document dic­tates the guidelines of how elected offi­cials are to discharge their duties in serv­ice to you and the town and it is the first time any changes are being offered in 18 years.

You as a voter directly get your say as you get the opportunity to vote “yes” or “no” to each of the proposed changes.

Democracy at its best— all you need to do is show up.

Letters to the Editor regarding Simpson Court Parking

These are the letters to the editor of the Record Journal regarding the Simpson Court Parking issue as published on Tuesday October 18, 2011

Equal Investment

Editor: Steven Knight wrote regarding the Simpson Court parking lot issue that it will be “Thirty years before any investment the town makes would convey to them” (private property owners). If the town spends $500,000 in tax money that improves the value of the property, the owners could market and sell (with the lease restrictions) for more than it is worth presently because repairs and upgrades will have been done with the tax dollars. If this is such a great deal, Wallingford and the property owners both should make an equal investment.

Visit 500kparkingdeal.com. Get the facts and vote November 14.
JASON ZANDRI, WALLINGFORD  

Bad decision

Editor: Concerning the owners of the land and buildings on Simpson Court in Wallingford: All the owners have been charging and taking in lease/rent money from their tenants for years if not decades: restaurants, real estate companies, spas, retail stores, etc. — that is their right. Their privately-owned land behind their privately-owned buildings has been in need of repairs and maintenance for a long time. These owners have had and still have the responsibility to address needed repairs, and pay for them. A safe, well lit, pothole-free parking area is a necessity. The owners have failed all parties, except themselves — and for what reasons? (More profits, no responsibility?) And they want us to pick up the tab.

Town money used for this project, whether it be taken from the Electric, Water/Sewer Division or any department, is taxpayers’ money, not money to be used for private property enhancement.

The town can still lease a strip of the area going from Center Street across to Church Street, maintain it properly and continue to allow public use. Have any of the building and land owners come forth with a plan to pool some of their “profits” and have their property repaired? I doubt it.

It’s really so simple: they own, they should pay, as we taxpayers pay for our home improvements. If they haven’t come forth and will not come forth, then vote “yes” to repeal this very bad decision made by our mayor and council.

KATHY AVERY, WALLINGFORD

Knows better?

Editor: With regard to the letter from a Wallingford council person (R-J, 10-8), I would like to make one small point: Not one — not one — of the people involved in the current referendum, nor the referendum concerning the Wooding-Caplan property, was in any way, shape or form, involved in the referendum on the location of the Park and Recreation facility — an effort so poorly organized, and orchestrated that not even then members of the Park and Rec Commission, nor members of the then Council, can even remember it. Had any of the people currently active in exercising their civil rights (and duties) been involved, we can all be assured that Park and Rec would never have been located on the outskirts of Wallingford (where many of those most in need of it can’t easily get to it), but rather in town (old Simpson School property?) where it belonged.

While government almost always thinks it knows better than the people, it very often doesn’t.
ROXANNE MCINTYRE, WALLINGFORD

 

One-sided terms

Editor: Like Alfred E. Neuman, the supporters of the Simpson Court parking scheme would have the public say, “What, me worry?” about the funds that are being spent to improve and make safe the rear Simpson Court lot.

“Don’t worry,” they say, “these are electric division funds!” Not true. These funds were paid to the town by the electric division, in lieu of their paying taxes, and these are town funds to be used on capital projects of the town. “The assessed values of the properties will go up, and therefore we will get more tax dollars!” Not true, either. There has never been a report to the Town Council that the assessed values will go up, and the mayor himself has questioned that representation. “But, with the lease, it is not really private property.” Not really true, either. There are 130 parking spaces planned to be in the lot and, under the lease, the four property owners are being given 90 parking passes for people of their choosing (instead of the town monitoring to whom the passes are given). “The property owners can’t afford to pay anything to light or to help make their property safe!” Since when is it the role of our local government to pay to make other people’s property safe? When and where does this slippery slope ever end?

Isn’t this just like the bailouts of GM and AIG? Why isn’t this money being used to add additional parking (at least temporarily) or possibly even lighting, to the town-owned Wooding-Caplan property? Why couldn’t we use a portion of these funds to rehabilitate the American Legion building, (which is also owned by the town)? Please don’t be fooled by the misrepresentations. The terms of this deal are so one-sided and unfair! RHONDA B. FISHBEIN, WALLINGFORD

 

Public money

Editor: Our mayor and town council have once again shown their disdain for the taxpayers of Wallingford by essentially giving 500K in public money to the private investors that own Simpson Court buildings so that they may improve their property while getting nothing in return. The leasing arrangement that dates back over 40 years has always been a bad deal, and now it is even worse. The town gets to maintain the parking lot area (repairs, snow removal, etc.) for the next 30 years, all in exchange for calling 30 spaces “municipal parking.“ It has never been demonstrated that these parking spaces are usually used by anyone other than customers of Simpson Court businesses. Additionally, it sets a poor precedent that will permit the mayor to implement his stated goal of replicating this deal with other building owners who have parking lots in need of improvement in the uptown/downtown area. Add this $500K to the other $10 million in off-budget spending planned this year, and the “good times keep rolling” in Wallingford. This must stop! PAUL CIARDULLO SR., WALLINGFORD

 

Bunk

Editor: Don’t be fooled by a lot of double-talk and “save our town” bunk! Simply put: the town council voted (9/13) to spend one-half million dollars of your hard-earned taxpayer money to upgrade the parking lot behind Simpson Court between the bank and the Masonicowned building — money coming from the Electric Division. Question: your electric rate go up recently? This property is privately owned! This decision could possibly open up Pandora’s Box. What’s to prevent any other private enterprise in Wallingford from “demanding” to have their lot upgraded, as well?

A number of taxpayers have already asked me the same question: How ‘bout fixing up my lot? Come on, get in line for a great deal — the town’s picking up the tab.

My understanding, based on what I’m told, is that three of four properties in question may be up for sale; but if that happens to be so, I’m sure they’ll hold off, awaiting the free taxpayer-funded upgrade in order to get an enhanced price for their property. Vote a resounding Y-E-S to prevent this nightmare from happening! It’s your money. Talk about “facts! The above facts are worth pondering.

Also, voting day for the referendum is the 14th of November. Mark your calendar. Voting places have also been changed. You should receive notification in the mail. ROBERT HOGAN, WALLINGFORD