Today’s Hour leads with a story on how the Norwalk-outers now want to form their own caucus. The Norwalk-outers is a term I coined on 11/16/3006 when the five walked out of the Democratic caucus meeting over a disagreement over electing the leadership for the council. Let’s take a look at the wayback machine:
Once again, the local newspapers, The Hour and The Norwalk Advocate, served up news generated by the discord of the Norwalk Democratic Party.The Hour, which keeps its content behind a subscription wall, reports:
Frustration over leadership reappointments led to the walkout of half the Common Council’s Democrats before Tuesday night’s meeting, Councilwoman Gwenn Briggs confirmed Wednesday.
Briggs was one of five to skip the meeting after she said Democrats deadlocked 5-5 on whether to reappoint Michael W. Coffey council president and Carvin J. Hilliard majority leader, she said. Both are Democrats.
“I nominated (Democratic Councilwoman) Phyllis Bolden for the position of majority leader,” she said, calling the nomination “a compromise.” After a recess in the caucus, Briggs said Bolden withdrew her name. Bolden later attended the council meeting and voted for Coffey and Hilliard.
Leadership on the council should be rotated to give more members experience, said Briggs and Galen Wells, chairwoman of the Democratic Town Committee. Wells said friction in the council is the result of Coffey and his allies. (source: The Hour)
Meanwhile the Norwalk Advocate reported:
Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Galen Wells said some council members have complained about Coffey and Hilliard’s leadership and failure to consult with other Democrats.
“It’s suddenly fashionable to cloak anything you do that’s uncooperative with your peers as ‘bipartisanship,’ ” Wells said.
Some Democrats in recent months also have expressed concerns that Coffey is too cozy with Republican Mayor Richard Moccia, who defeated Democrat Alex Knopp last year by 176 votes.
But with the Republicans winning only five council seats, observers expected a Democrat majority to set the agenda and run the city. Instead, Democrats have been divided for several months. (source: Norwalk Advocate)
The Advocate and Hour report that Coffey called the five Norwalk-outers, and they all pledged to work together and move forward. Which is exactly what they pledged to do each time they made the news with internal bickering over largely partisan parliamentary maneuvers.
…
The Hour, Leadership beef root of Dem council flap by Robert Koch & Patrick Linsey 11/16/06
Norwalk Adovcate, Coffey vows to settle fellow Dems’ divide, by Brian Lockhart 11/16/06
Norwalk Adovcater, Lawmaker to shoppers: Check your receipts by By Matt Breslow 11/16/06 posted by turfgrrl at 11/16/2006 08:06:00 AM
Since that original walk out, just about every mention in the newspapers reveals that they as a group or individually have not attended committee meetings or caucuses and then complain about not being “heard.” I could cite every article, but that list is long and I think my point is made here.
I’m not sure what they hope to gain by continuing along this path of squandering the Democratic majority they hold on the council over issues that have nothing to do with the majority of work they are supposed to do on the council. They have spent nearly 6 months of squabbling instead of pulling together as a party, and with an election looming in the fall, you would think that they might want to appear, oh statesmanlike, and pander a bit more to the voting public.
Norwalk’s majority party is the U. There are more Us registered to vote (U meaning unaffiliated) than either Republicans or Democrats. Norwalk also has a history of independent parties. In the most recent election last year, Norwalk had the lowest voter turnout of the cities most demographically like us, (Stamford, Danbury) not to mention our bordering towns (Darien, Westport, Wilton & New Canaan).
These are all important things to keep in mind when trying to figure out who actually elected you into office. And if there was one big lesson to be learned in the 2005 municipal election, it was the unprecedented result that gave the council a Democratic majority and a Republican mayor. Norwalk is not a town that is trending towards being more liberal or conservative but rather Norwalk is desperately searching for leadership from any politician to fix the systemic problems that are harming a great many of our residents.
In the words of Fiorello LaGuardia: “there is no Democratic or Republican way to pick up garbage.” And we can add fix pot holes, pave roads, plow the streets, fix the flooding, parking, traffic and along the way not spend too much, raise the taxes too much or conversely spend to little or not raise revenues to cover operations.
In reality there really isn’t any disagreement in our 15 council people about what Norwalk needs. They are all in agreement that infrastructure spending and educational spending are critical to the health of the city. It’s just that a few people haven’t yet figured out that there really is no Democratic or Republican way to go about doing that.
source: The Hour, ‘Fed up’ council Dems contemplate alternative caucus, By PATRICK R. LINSEY, April 12, 2007
