Today’s Advocate article digs into the details of the BOE budget committee meeting.

[Read more →]

The clamor for a finance director from the people of Norwalk, the Common Council, and the Mayor is apparently causing Greg Burnett and Sal Corda to circle the wagons around Stuart Opdahl. They dumped a sheaf of finance job descriptions on the table at last night’s meeting challenging Bruce Kimmel and Jack Chiaramonte to find anything that Norwalk’s Opdahl isn’t doing. Kimmel and Chiaramonte were not amused.

[Read more →]

Last week it was bottled water. Today its clotheslines. I guess because property tax reform isn’t an issue residents really care about. The gist of this hot issue apparently is that there’s some energy costs savings to be had if people dry their laundry on clotheslines instead of in dryers. Yeah, ok, call captain obvious on that one.

But some people apparently live in condo associations or communities that have by-laws that prohibit the venerable clothesline. Not just the clothesline, but some associations take great pleasure on prohibiting and regulating all sorts of things under “aesthetic” reasons like flags, window treatments, garden sheds.

[Read more →]

I am still stunned that the common council managed to spend more time debating the reimbursement of council member Nick Kydes’ legal bill than the operating budget. To hear Democrats on the council say that its not up to them to make recommendations on where to seek costs savings is pretty outrageous. So much for the “strong council” type of government.

From a political standpoint, Mayor Moccia has executed a brilliant play here. He lets the Democrats vote on a pass-through budget and then as he votes to move the budget through, suggests that he’ll ask the BET to sharpen the pencil and dig into some cost savings. Slick move there, and showing what a weak council we have.

[Read more →]

Consider this the first of many experiments.

Common Council MTG 02/26/08

I came in late because I was filming the BOE Cambridge report. After how long this took, I’m not sure I’m going to post that up.

Attending: Krummel, Serasis, Brown, Sutton, Lindstrom, Geake, Bolden, Moccia, Hilliard, Conroy, Moccia, Bonnenfant, Kydes, Hempstead, McQuaid

Public Participation: I basically missed this.

Resignation: Debbie Mathies has resigned from the historical commission.
Krummel speaks to the resignation of Debbie Mathies. Hempstead also speaks to the resignation. Bolden adds to the high praise for Mathies.

[Read more →]

Lots of action at City Hall last night, but I’ve got some editing to do. Meanwhile discuss whatever.

[Read more →]

Wonder twin powers, activate– form of a triangulate. Today Senator Chris Dodd has officially jumped on the Obama bandwagon. He’s endorsed Obama for president. Lefty nutty meggers will rejoice. It’s a funny thing though, because upon entering the senate way back in 2005, Barack Obama was Senator Joe Lieberman’s protege. Along with it of course all the DLC stuff, speaking at the Council of Foreign Relations etc. In other words things that make usually make national Democrats palatable to the rest of the country. Politics sure does make for odd befellows. Like the time that Lieberman had to mediate the battle of the bi-partisan in the Senate.

[Read more →]

Reality based politics is apparently something that Connecticut will sadly, not ever experience. Last week, Hartford was atwitter over water. Lights, camera, action type atwitter because it was the legislature that was galvanized to do something, anything, about water. Because we all stay awake at night thinking about how Hartford drinks. Other than kool-aide of course.

From the Courant:

State Rep. Beth Bye, a Democrat from West Hartford has a simple idea that promises to promote health, cut costs of state government, help the environment and reduce our thirst for petroleum: Encourage state workers to drink tap water instead of the bottled variety.

[Read more →]

Keeping an eye on fluctuating credit markets is a good practice. This is the type of stuff that a financial gurus pay attention to, and why I support the hiring of a finance director for the BOE. The BOE budget is the largest expense for Norwalk. To have someone like Opdhal mismanaging funds and projects just means that money is not working for the BOE. Maximizing the dollars you have is an important aspect of financial management. There’s a lot of short sighted thinking by some BOE members when they derail the movement to force Corda to accept a finance director position.

[Read more →]

Actually, my question is will they fully examine the Cambridge report, since the substantive analysis is really that the central office is adrift, aloof and lacks guidance. That guidance is what the elected BOE is supposed to be providing. But there’s a philosophical split on the BOE. Some entrenched members view the role of the BOE as a giant rubber stamp of approval. Others, more thoughtfully believe that guidelines and metrics of the results of administration policy should drive more guidance and deliberation. Obviously I support the latter movement.

From the Advocate:

[Read more →]