Mayor Moccia’s Silence Is Deafening
Today’s Hour continues the ongoing saga of the how the Council thinks. At issue is their attempt to micromanage the employes of the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, which is not a city agency.
“Transfer the money back and transfer the employees back. We’re discussing that,” Maslan said. “There’s no final decision on (the future of the NEDC) yet, but we’re discussing whether to keep it as an inactive shell or dissolve it.”
Presently there are no employees. Why the Common Council members would want to staff an agency that they don’t fund is one of the more perplexing questions that is somehow missing in all this. The Common Council in fact only authorizes the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency to act as an administrator of grants that it receives as part of City redevelopment efforts.
The second perplexing issue is why Mayor Moccia hasn’t come forward to explain how he was involved in the discussions and planning of creating the Norwalk Economic Development Corporation. But then, it is also convenient for planning committee members who were just elected in November in 2009, to claim they knew nothing. They weren’t on the committee when those discussions were held. In June of 2009 for example, we can sort of see what the planning committee was focused on:
EXECUTIVE SESSION
** MR. HEMPSTEAD MOTIONED TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE
SESSION TO DISCUSS THE WALL STREET REDEVELOPMENT
PROJECT AND SECTION 108 LOAN GUARANTEE PROGRAM AND
BROWNFIELDS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE.
** THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
The Committee entered into Executive Session at 10:00 p.m.
The Executive Session ended at 10:45 p.m. and the Committee reconvened into public
session.
** MR. HEMPSTEAD MOTIONED TO APPROVE FOR FORWARDING TO
THE COMMON COUNCIL THE PROPERTY ACQUISITION
NEGOTIATIONS FOR 70 WALL STREET.
Will the public ever know why Mr. Hempstead was so in favor of having public money be used to bail out a Kydes family real estate venture otherwise known as The Globe Theater? Probably not. And we can see when the Norwalk REdevelopment Agency declined to further pursue the purchase of the Globe Theater, 70 Wall Street, what the reaction of this council has been.