Chapin Made His Mark On The Farms And Lakes

By Scott Benjamin

Once upon a time, in 1993 – when Derek Jeter was a minor leaguer, Leno and Letterman were starting their late night rivalry, the Internet was not part of the American lexicon and Dannel Malloy was on the Stamford Board of Finance - Clark Chapin, at age 32, wanted to become mayor of the town that has more land than any of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities.

But in the year when Rudy Giuliani was first elected as mayor of Gotham, Chapin, who had the most prominent political name in New Milford and a political resume that featured service on the municipal Sewer Commission, lost to Democratic incumbent Liba Furhman in a three-way tussle. Two years later he lost in a three-way race for the Republican nomination at the party caucus and accepted a nod for a seat on the Town Council, which he won that November.

“I had regrets in 1993 about not becoming mayor,” Chapin said in a phone interview. “I don’t have that now. I saw Pat do the job for 12 years.”

“Pat” is his wife - Pat Murphy - who annexed open space, found stimulus money to revamp the wastewater treatment plant, reconfigured the Grove Street area and was insistent on low tax increases.

Since establishing the mayor’s office in 1987, no one else has served more than six years.

Chapin’s father, the late Cliff Chapin, was the last first selectman, serving from 1977 to 1987. The town’s train station is named after him.

So between them, Clark Chapin’s father and wife served as the top elected official in New Milford for a combined 22 of the last 39 years.

That prize eluded Clark Chapin. However, he found a different political calling card.

Instead of occupying an office near the Village Green, he made the 70-mile trip to the State Capitol, where over the last 16 years he became one of the most prominent voices on farmland preservation and lake quality issues.

Chapin was elected in the 67^th state House District in 2000 and then succeeded popular Republican Andrew Roraback of Goshen as the state senator in the 30^th District in 2012.

Traversing that district made the trip to Hartford along Interstate-84 seem easy.

Geographically it is the largest of the 36 senatorial districts and it has 14 municipalities, also the most in a Senate district. It takes much more than an hour to drive from Brookfield, in the heart of metro Danbury, to Salisbury, on the cusp of the Massachusetts border.

“The political ideology of the 30^th state Senate District is different from the 67^th state House District, which only included New Milford,” Chapin said. “It is a very diverse district.”

As a member of the Environment Committee all 16 years, he sought more state funding for farmland preservation, an issue that is critical in a district that for decades has seen farms turned into residential developments.

His father was a farmer and part-time school bus driver before he became first selectman a generation ago.

Chapin said the Department of Agriculture’s funding for farmland preservation “was less than robust from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s” and has since improved. Chapin said during the last fiscal year the state helped preserve 22 farms

Starting in January he will be the project director for the Working Lands Alliance, which seeks to preserve farmland. Since there is a one-year revolving door provision for departing legislators he will initially focus on strategy before he is eligible to directly lobby his former colleagues.

Chapin said lobbyists sometimes get an unwarranted bad reputation. He said that, among other things, they can be provide valuable insight on issues to legislators.

On another topic, the senator said the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has improved the upkeep of Candlewood Lake, the largest lake in Connecticut, which borders Brookfield, New Milford, Sherman, Danbury and New Fairfield.

“Brookfield has two lakes –Candlewood and Lillinonah – and Clark’s efforts are particularly important because the property values, for example, are dependent on the quality of the water,” state Rep. Steve Harding (R-107) of Brookfield said.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton has said when he did the legislative orientation in 1998 after winning his first term in the state House, he learned that the most important part of being an elected official is “the currency of keeping your word.”

He said after going through “the fake orientation” some of the veteran state representatives took him into the House chamber and pointed to the names on certain desks and told him not to trust those lawmakers because they didn’t keep their word. Boughton has said that it made such an impression that to this day he is very careful about making promises to repave streets in the Hat City if he thinks there is any possibility that he won’t be able to follow through.

Harding said Chapin is a prime example of an elected official who always keeps his word and has collaborated with everyone regardless of party affiliation.

“Whenever you mention his name, you get a positive response,” he said.

On another topic, Chapin said in some ways the state is better off now than it was when he initially joined the House in 2001.

He said the state Department of Transportation was “very responsive” in widening Route 7 in New Milford and building the 2.1-mile Route 7 bypass in Brookfield, which has made it easier to travel to and from those towns and has alleviated the traffic congestion at Brookfield’s Four Corners intersection.

Also, for example, former Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield), who served from 2004 to 2011, signed a graduated licensing bill for young drivers, a distracted driving bill that at the time, in 2005, was considered the strongest in the country, a probate court consolidation and a landmark campaign finance measure.

However, Chapin said the state’s fiscal health has taken a sharp turn for the worse.

Legislators faced a $3.5 billion revenue shortfall in early 2011, which Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) said was the highest per capita in the nation at the time. The General Assembly’s Office of Fiscal Analysis now projects a $3.24 million shortfall for the two-year budget cycle that will commence in July.

Chapin acknowledged that pension obligations that were negotiated under previous governors have left legislators with limited options for cutting costs. Reportedly there are $32 billion in obligations between now and 2030 that have not been funded.

Although some Republicans are clamoring to reduce the state work force, he said it is more likely that the governor will propose “significant” tax increases during the 2017 session. Malloy signed tax hikes in 2011 and 2015.

Earlier this month, Malloy pledged to have a tight budget. He didn’t rule out tax increases but indicated that they would be small.

Chapin said much of the reduction in the state work force under Malloy has come through attrition and not layoffs. He said further privatization of state services would save money, but noted that some of those workers even have no-layoff contracts.

He said he’s not sure how far the state could cut its work force. He said some agencies, including DEEP, have “struggled” in recent years with fewer employees.

Chapin said the short-term benefits to layoffs might be less attractive than advertised. He noted that the state has to pay unemployment benefits and there would be less income available to support businesses.

The senator said he believes there is potential for job growth among Connecticut’s large defense contractors. He said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-2) of Vernon told him recently that his district and subcontractors across the state would benefit from some of the recent Navy submarine contracts with Electric Boat in Groton.

Chapin said he believes the state might be able to increase its television production work force, which has grown steadily over the last 20 years as a result of continued expansion at ESPN in Bristol, the YES network and NBC sports channel in Stamford and Blue Sky Studios in Greenwich.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich) has said that the toughest job in politics is being a mayor or first selectman.

Chapin, who didn’t get to New Milford’s top elected position but has been close to two people who have, said when you’re a municipal leader “people recognize you in the supermarket and sometimes they’re very willing to express their negative opinions.”

However, in speaking with legislators who had previously been the chief elected official in their municipality, he said they have said it “was easier to provide constituent service. In the Legislature sometimes you have to contact multiple people and you can get into some red tape.”

Harding said, “Clark is a person who cuts through that red tape. He works well with everybody.”