Norwalk: District C Dems Nominate …

by turfgrrl

June 14th, 2007 · 179 Comments

Tags: In the News · Norwalk

179 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: District C Dems Nominate …”

• 1 Joanne Romano (Council) // Jun 15, 2007 at 6:56 am

  Good morning Turf!
  I am not in the running for District C, I am an at-large councilwoman and will be running in the same caztegory this year. Nick Kydes is the current in district councilman. OOPS, you forgot the “e” again. :0)

  Joanne

• 2 turfgrrl // Jun 15, 2007 at 7:01 am

  Sorry about that Joanne! I also indicated that you were at large too.

• 3 Anonymous // Jun 15, 2007 at 8:40 am

  Turffie,
  Once again, districts recommend, town committees endorse. You are forgiven because you are on the move today

• 4 anon // Jun 15, 2007 at 12:52 pm

  Fred Bondi should have bowed out. It’s a mistake to run hin again.

• 5 Anonymous // Jun 15, 2007 at 1:45 pm

  I can’t believe the Dems even agreed to have him run at large. What a liability. Old school cronyism runs deep I guess. Somebody must have called in an IOU.

• 6 Mr Greenpeace // Jun 15, 2007 at 1:54 pm

  I’m new at this who does Fred hang with, who does he side with when it comes to splitting decisions or does he actaully decide things as if he was independant.

  What has he said about the crime, the parks, city hall and latest string of robberies in his city?

  does he know where Woodward st is?

  Most people don’t leave their house where I live afraid they will be robbed suppose that had anything to do with the number at the meeting?

  Back home on the farm we used to have meetings where one family would have as many as twelve members present.Guess it wasn’t that kind of meeting..okay Toto you can come home now…..this is what Norwalk’s political system looks like to me.

• 7 Anonymous // Jun 15, 2007 at 9:01 pm

  #5 Fred is likely the strongest vote getter in his District. Poruban is the weakest. Therefore, they are abandoning Poruban’s seat and feeding Fred to the Lions at large(and I’m sure that’s the point). Even without Fred Laurel has a shot in the district since she is hard working. With Fred running in the District she would be even stronger.

  #6 I would say that Fred is a moderate to conservative Democrat and is actually perfect for his district. He does not take direction from the bosses but works with Dems and Repubs. He is pretty practical. Not all Dems like him but you can’t please everyone. He has been very helpful to the Dems for many years.

• 8 Anonymous // Jun 15, 2007 at 10:50 pm

  I’m not understanding how they run a candidate for district who lost his seat 2 years ago (Poruban) and moves their winning candidate to “at large” (Bondi).
  Must be some logic there, but it escapes me.

• 9 anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 6:23 am

  Kevin Poruban has done nothing as a council man in his three terms. Nothing. Zip. I think it speaks for itself. If anyone disputes this, please list what he has done, because I cannot find one thing he has doen when doing research on this issue on the internet.

• 10 anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 8:40 am

  is it a conflict of interest that poruban is a councilman and district leader and then twists arms to get the nomination that he wants ? Fred Bondi is twenty times better than Poruban.

• 11 Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 9:31 am

  #9 the logic is revenge, plain and simple. and Poruban has yet to accomplish anything over all these years in elected (and appointed) office. and look at his bitter remarks today in the Hour.

• 12 by Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 9:58 am

  I’m thing of running for the Board of Ed. We need to make major changes on how money is spent! I have a child in the school system and that’s one reason I want to get evolved.

• 13 Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 10:27 am

  #12 - that is admirable endeavor - people who are unhappy with a system but willing to step up to the plate and get involved are a rare commodity today. (I’m certainly not willing!). But having said that, running, getting elected, and then actually making a difference is no easy task. Good luck to you if you decide to run, and let’s hope that as a parent your voice will be heard.

• 14 itsridiculous // Jun 16, 2007 at 10:40 am

  #9 - bravo - thus starts the battle to get the most fundamental of all responses during election time: for the incumbents, “what are your accomplishments” and for the challengers, “what would you do differently”. Plain and freakin’ simple. Yet people will see that that getting these plain and simple answers is not easy. The incumbents will do the City Hall Shuffle and the challengers will be guarded in their responses. Or we will be pulling teeth trying to get an answer of “how” they plan to accomplish things vs all the “what” they plan to do! They will all be shouting “I’ll be the candidate to fix the infrastructure problems!” - Really??? “How?”, you might ask. Yet a coherent answer will not come.
  And so the game will probably go in District C and I suspect every other district. But you know what? LET’S START ASKING ANYWAY! It’s not just our right, it is our RESPONSIBILITY to ask the tough questions and hold our officials accountable. And as I’ve often said here: beware of anyway who becomes defensive when asked a question- only the defenseless are defensive. Anyone who can defend their position and their record should proudly do so. If that’s not happening, there’s a reason.
  Have a good day turfgrrl and fellow citizens!

• 15 anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 11:27 am

  I concur with number 9. I went over the council minutes and agendas on the city web site and can not find one thing Kevin Poruban has initiated, started or spearheaded. It is funny how the truth must hurt poruban. It would be interesting if he came on the site and posted in his own name to tell us what he thinks he has done. I was able to find through a ten minute search though that he has opposed many union contracts, voted to increase taxes beyond the reach of working class families, opposed eminent domain reform and wanted unfettered seizures of property of residents, and opposed the creation of bipartisan meetings, and many of the other good things achieved in the past two years on this council.

• 16 anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 12:01 pm

  #12 - call Galen Wells, Democratic Town Chair, or Jeff Konspore, Republican Town Chair. Either one can steer you in the right direction if you want to run for BOE. Both parties are always looking for good candidates.

  If you are unaffiliated you might try calling Mr. Merrill in Rowayton who is running as an independent.

• 17 clown posse // Jun 16, 2007 at 12:06 pm

  #15 — Oh please…what has Coffey done except claim sucking up is bipartisanship? What Has Kydes done? What has Bondi done except try to push the mini-golf course through? What has McQuaid done other than respond to orders from “headquarters”? And, while we’re at it, what’s Moccia done except makes sure that his buddies get whatever they want from the City? Herb Grant’s the only one who has accomplished anything by using his position on the council to fund his provate business. Good going Herb! That’s the way to use public office — the old fashioned way. The citizens be damned; take care of yourself first.

• 18 Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 2:09 pm

  Ok, gotta step in here guys and gals, don’t ever put mcQaid and PPeruban in the same sentence. That akind to dueling at dawn. McQuaid is above and beyond anything that Peruban has done at any point in his time in office. That man had dedicated 35 years of his life to Norwalk and its kids and citizens. You people needdc to take a much closer look at things and stop listening to those who would have you believe all Republicans march to someone elses tune. There are those who do what’s right and those who do what the party bosses expect and McQuaid and a couple others march to their own tune. By doing so they are the ones who are moving Norwalk forward. When someone has their own convictions without agaenda’s its a normal thing that they are not looked at by their party as being loyal and thats a good thing. Besides, we haven’t heard who the republican’s are running yet and already you guys/gals are ripping them apart. Lets look at the candidates and then see what they have done for Norwalk and make educated votes. Lets see, so far we have McQuaid, Hempstead, Romano, Straniti and Kydes and mention of Parks seeking the nomination but not much else has been heard as yet and there’s still a lot of seats to cover. My guess is the incumbents are back next time and its any guess who the which side side of the challengers will make the cut. Keep in mind though, Peruban is a challenger, not an incumbent, he only filled the seat vacated by Rev. Sawyer and lost his own election. that should probably tell you something. He lost in a heavy democratic district.

• 19 clown posse // Jun 16, 2007 at 2:51 pm

  OK…maybe not McQuaid. He has shown some spine behind the scenes (as I understand it). So, let’s put “Go-along, get-along Straniti” in there. Although, that might be dangerous since I hear she carries a pistol in her purse…

• 20 Anon // Jun 16, 2007 at 3:18 pm

  Straniti has backbone not many of her age have. She stands by her convictions and doesn’t back down when the problems get tough. The best one to add to the do nothing list is Kydes. If it an’t in his best interest it ain’t worth fighting for. Sorry, but the only time you see him make a fuss is when he thinks it will get him front page news. He and Miklave should take their show on the road. Now all we have left is Romano and Hempstead and for the life of me I can’t find anything negative on them either. Hempstead has been doing for this town way longer than some of us have lived here, he has shown leadership and dedication way above those of the normal politician because I truly believe he’s just plain all around good. That leaves us Romano, she’s everywhere and into everything, where the heck does she get her energy from? Never had a problem with her, she answers e-mails and phone calls and promises nothing. Her usual response is “I’ll look into it but I can’t promise the results or let me see what I can do and I’ll get back to you” and she does. My bet is McQuaid/Hempstead/Romano and Straniti could run in or out of district and still come up winners.

• 21 turfgrrl // Jun 16, 2007 at 3:19 pm

  Hey, y’all are forgetting the one BIG thing that this council did, okay some of them, that means more to your average citizen than anything else. This council looked at the BOE budget and said no. They didn’t just say no, because they wanted to cut spending, they actually voted to increase funding. What they said was, no more increases till accounting transparency, till cost management containment, till construction cost management, etc. became the norm of how budgets were presented. Corda is still fighting this. Remember that he was all for meetings to “explain his budget” with the BET and Common Council to get more money but seems adverse to it now. Corda’s most recent statement was we taxpayers don’t care what his budget is. He is wrong. We do care, and our common council members (really only 10: Herb Grant, Phyllis Bolden, Mike Coffey, Rick McQuaid, Doug Hempstead, Carvin Hilliard, Kelly Straniti, Nick Kydes, Joanne Romano, Fred Bondi ) understood this and pushed for a better way.

  I don’t want to forget the special job that the entire BET and Bruce Kimmel and Greg Burnett of the BOE played in supporting this as well.

  The second big thing that this council did, was ask many questions about infrastructure and flooding of city department heads. People like Joanne Romano, Doug Hempstead, Rick McQuaid and Bill Krummel really worked hard in understanding the issues that have plagued Norwalk for many years.

  Government is not a solution to anything. It’s a process. And it works when all participants, including the public, have a two-way conversation. Many of those mentioned above, even if not by name, have spent time explaining their thoughts on those two issues, shared documents, provided insight, and answered the many questions I have raised.

  I should also add, that the nonpartisan meetings that this council has held are also a great communication opportunity. I know that there are many people that feel uncomfortable speaking in the format of a public hearing. Public speaking is a tough hurdle. The ability to chat with council people informally at the nonpartisan meeting is a good thing. I wish more more from the public and from the council would participate. But credit should go to Mike Coffey for making that happen.

  That’s more than my two cents on the subject, and I’ll be sure to post more on what good government means etc. later. But I also hope that you all share what you think makes for good government too. It’s an important conversation to have.

• 22 Anon // Jun 16, 2007 at 6:46 pm

  If anyone had been at the council meeting they would have seen that Bolden and Hilliard actually voted to give the BOE fuyll funding after much arm twisting by several of their fellow council members and The big boss women and cronies. This was of course after they were told that they would not get the nod to run agaiun unless they voted the “right” way.

• 23 Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 6:49 pm

  Anon#22 that is Not true!

• 24 Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 6:55 pm

  Whats not true? That they got their arms twisted or that that voted to give the BOE full funding?

• 25 dem4life // Jun 16, 2007 at 7:25 pm

  They did vote for fully funding but you can blame the political party pressure. In committee they did the right thing, and talk to Carvin and he’ll tell you what he really thinks of the budget.

• 26 anon // Jun 16, 2007 at 7:44 pm

  They should have stuck to their conviction. They shouldn’t have crumbled under political pressure. The taxpayerfs deserve representatives who can think on their feet and not flip flop on what is important to Norwalk.

• 27 dem4life // Jun 16, 2007 at 8:41 pm

  They should have but they also knew their vote didn’t change things. Political expedience. The BOE people like Jodi and Rob Polley should be voted out. They are useless.

• 28 Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 8:56 pm

  It still sent a bad mesasage to the taxpayers. And you are correct about voting people off BOE alt more than those 2 should go.

• 29 dem4life // Jun 16, 2007 at 10:04 pm

  Number 28, the taxpayers in their district won’t care. It was political, they will say it and that will be the end of it.

• 30 Anonymous // Jun 16, 2007 at 10:21 pm

  #30, thanks to turf, more and more people are reading this blog and getting an education they never expected so you just may be dead wrong on this one.

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