November 5, 2009 4:42 pm

Norwalk Common Council Looking Ahead at the Drama

With the Republicans wresting a council majority in a primarily Democratic city, what does that mean for the next two years? First, we analyze the tea leaves for what the council committees are going to look like.

For the Common Council president, the man most chomping on the bits to get the title is Doug Hempstead. He can swing the votes to get there with the 10-5 majority of Republicans. Suffering under grander delusions than Napoleon conquering Russia however is Nick Kydes. Council President might not be the title he most covets, he thinks he’s Mayor caliber. I’ll point out again, he was removed from his council committee assignments because he never showed up, and his reputation for not reading any council packets is problematic. But the voters of East Norwalk decided that he was with sending back to the council, useless representation unless you believe his flyers and mysteriously paid for advertising. Fortunately, in one of the only good things that the Norwalk Democratic Party has managed to do this election, they have filed an election complaint about the ad that appeared in the Hour. The Hour in their story on the subject, claimed confidentiality about just who bought the as, and Kydes claims no knowledge of it.

Unfortunately for Kydes, the “I don’t know nuthin” defense doesn’t work in the real world. And all it will take is one good effort by election legal teams to add to Kydes woes the fact that he didn’t disclose his electioneering activities during the past year creating and distributing unattributed flyers and petitions about the Norwalk Homeless Shelter, East Avenue Street widening, and a proposed development at Norden Place. Kydes escaped an ethics violation in 2007, chances are he becomes the center of all political drama on the council once again.

Meanwhile Rick McQuaid, Kelly Straniti, Rich Bonenfant, Joann Romano and Andy Conroy are all positioning themselves for committee chairmanships. The committtees, in case you forgot and most people do, include Ordinance, Recreation, Parks & Cultural Affairs, Land Use and Building Management, Planning, Personnel Committee, Health, Welfare and Public Safety, and Finance.

There’s a strong lobbying effort amongst some Rs to keep Laurel Lindstrom off the public works committee. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. The Republicans can easily find themselves backed into ideological fights when they should be worrying about how Norwalk is actually going to deal with plummeting revenues and a greater demand for city services. These same forces are working against Fred Bondi. While Bondi switched his party registration, he hasn’t yet cracked the inner circle of conservative conclaves. With no deal makers to play with, Bondi may find his role diminished on the council.

Rick McQuaid has a unique opportunity to shepherd a better working relationship with the BOE, which might be more receptive to working with the Council instead of against the Council. With no new superintendent on the horizon, no experienced finance director, no good enrollment projections to work from, the BOE is saddled with an impossible budget season. McQuaid could step in and provide leadership to the Council that might be intent on making a political statement about funding rather than ensuring educational dollars get to the classroom.

On the Democratic side of the aisle, the drama that will unfold is who of the 5 becomes the voice of the Democrats. If there’s any hope on that side of the aisle to regain political relevance, they’ll need to voice alternative ideas and solutions to Norwalk’s problems. I’m not sure they can get there without new party leadership that has an interest in governing instead of�internecine�warfare.

NorwalkSpectator

Turfie, did you remember to say the magic incantation “Eeny meany, jelly beanie!” when you looked into the crystal ball? Just checking.

One point that you might want to check on from your voluminous sources. Dr. Dan Cook, who replaced the lamented Mr. Opdahl, apparently does have experience as a Finance Director. I believe that was the position that he held in Stamford. He seemed to be very organized and very straight forward. I know he gave the BOE Finance Committee monthly updates on their budgets that were comprehensive and clear. He worked very hard with Mr. Gianitti on reducing the amount of money the BOE was hemorrhaging with the school lunch program. He seems to be an asset to the District.

turfgrrl

NorwalkSpectator: I thought he was the assistant principal for Stamford HS prior to arriving here. Granted he’s an improvement to Opdhal.

Bruce Kimmel

There are a number of issues that relate to development and the character of our city. For instance, should Norwalk promote its New England character and fascinating colonial past; not to mention its expansive waterfront? Or should we focus on becoming a modern Northeastern city with a broad revenue base that’s close to the Big Apple?

How we’re addressing our various infrastructure needs should also be on the agenda. Are we stuck in old ways, conforming to old habits? Like trying to think green while building a half dozen garages on West Avenue. Or promoting Super 7 so folks can travel between Norwalk and Danbury at 80 mph instead of 40.

Should we be a little more daring, think a little more out of the box? For instance, is expanding our tax base really the best way to generate additional revenues and lower taxes in the long run?

I am certain the next few years will be quite interesting.

turfgrrl

All interesting issues that you raised Bruce. There’s a dialog that should be happening throughout Norwalk about these very questions, but I suspect that the majority of those who have ideas are not connected with the few who have a say in how those decisions get determined. Let’s take your parking infrastructure and start with identifying all the players in this decision beyond the obvious, ahem zoning.

Do we want Norwalk to continue to be identified as a suburban market where drive up surface parking lot next to buildings is the norm, or so we try to return to the downtown density of olden days? Since buildings don’t get built without financing, this becomes an important question, since it is the financiers that determine the ratios of parking to building which gets handed down to tenants who also require financing to fit out commercial buildings which in turn translates and practically everybody points at someone else and says “they require it.”

And why not Super 7, not as a road/no road question, but addressing all forms of transportation, admitting that without freight rail, trucks are here to stay, that cars will dominate until we build mass transportation infrastructure that is cheaper and more convenient and thus make an investment into a transportation infrastructure that accommodates all with an eye on 50 years from now? Why can’t the highway also accommodate rail and rail stations?

Expanding the tax base, can of course mean different things to different people. Perhaps separate expanding from diversifying. Is our tax base represented by too much residential? How important is it to bring jobs to the city, and what kinds of jobs (industry sector) should those be? I have an interest that they be creative economy jobs, but how does that fit into with the regional economy and what cities/towns compete for economic advantage.

Maybe we’ll even spark some healthy debate here that leads to real world debate.

Moving Forward

Construction of super 7 a multi lane limited access through way is inevitable.

Construction of a light passenger rail alongside the thouroghfare is just common sense. Futher delays and legal potato tossing is self defeating for all.

Having this battle after more than 50 years of debate, ( thats half a century, what a dozen presidents), is well, a tad bit behind, moderen society. We are in some serious economic times. Construction of the vehicle throughway and a light rail system will provide a desperately needed shot of adrenelin.

The planing and actual fruitation of the project is not rocket science, neither can the need be ignored or dismissed. In fact we have substantial studies and planning already completed. Now funding is not even an excuse, as federal funding is now available and there is no doubt we need living wage jobs for our state.

The concerns about out of control growth are the responsibility of local governing bodies. Concerns about corruption with those municipalities once infrastucture is in place, well thats valid but thats not what is being discussed.

The well funded opposition is still playing vinyl records in our digital age.

Whoever has the tracts of property that have not been secured, to get this project off the ground, it can be respectfully asked, if you really care, can we leave something good behind?

Can we ensure there is solid long term planning so communties retain there charm and atmosphere? We can not resist progress. But we can embrace it and manage it.

We have a moral responsibilty, to future generations, to manage responsibly.
Secondhand Rose

Traveling to Danbury at 40 mph these days takes close to an hour. Traveling at 80 mph would cut that time in half. It’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to find someone to argue against making that same distance in half the time. And since the land has already been purchased, I find it hard to believe that peoples’ lives will be disrupted any more than they already have been. Super 7 will make things BETTER, not worse; I don’t see the problem with going ahead and constructing it. Enough time and money has been wasted; it’s needed and it’s necessary. What’s the problem?
BLARNEY

40 MPH would be great, except that most of the time you are lucky
to do 40. Rt 7 is known as “The longest 16 miles in Connecticut.”

Spending the money the state spent on the old 7 was just hrowing good money after bad
Barnstorm

Rose, the problem can be boiled down to two words: Wilton & Ridgefield. If you need further clarification here’s two more words: Toni Boucher.

The needs of those two towns have taken precedence over the needs of western Connecticut and Fairfield County. The reason for that is simply one word: money. And if we in the rest of Fairfield County don’t like it, tough.

Maybe now we can get them liquored up enough to see some reason & common sense!
G. Angels

What happened to Geake? Norwalk needs Geake!
Just asking…

Build super 7 so that Danbury can benefit. Cheaper land for business and corporations to relocate. That way they can get out of expensive FF County and bypass Norwalk completely.

Secondhand Rose

Yes, and more room to expand, too. Lots of open space up in Danbury. And especially in Brookfield and New Milford. They have so much open space they don’t know what to do with it. Unfortunately, they also don’t want anybody else (read: developers) to have it. Brookfield has been fighting for almost a year now to try to block something – anything – being built in what used to be a cornfield.

First Costco was going to relocate there, and Brookfielders managed to put the kibosh on it. Now supposedly a strip mall is on its way to being finalized, which, if you ask most people, is a worse deal than Costco would have been. There’s been a lot of hysteria over the so-called “increase in traffic” that Brookfielders believe would have resulted if Costco had been built (but what they don’t understand is that it wouldn’t make any more people go to Costco now than are already going to its current location just a half mile down the road towards Danbury.) I don’t know why Brookfielders seem to think that thousands of people are just sitting around waiting for a NEW Costco to be built who have never, ever shopped at the current Costco. Their rationale on this issue boggles the mind.

And other people have been pointing out that building a strip mall with up to a dozen different stores is going to increase the traffic even more than a single Costco would have done. It gives one a headache just to contemplate it.