Politics & Government
Santos Hopeful Federal $$$ Will Help Improve Danbury Roads
City Council member ascends to state House on January 4
By Scott Benjamin
DANBURY – In the Hat City, residents ask why the roads are crumbling and it takes so long to drive to the Danbury Fair Mall.
Fourth Ward Democratic City Council member Farley Santos, who on January 4 will ascend to being the state representative from the 109th District, says the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package – the biggest in nearly 70 years - should partly address the congestion and the potholes.
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Santos, 33, who was endorsed by the Democratic and Independent parties, defeated Republican Jesy Fernandez by taking 55.6 percent of the votes in the November 8 election in the district, which encompasses parts of downtown Danbury.
He said some of the federal infrastructure funds will probably be used to add lanes at the busiest intersections on the state roads, which make up 13 percent of the city’s network.
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Santos, who is a vice president and community development manager at the Savings Bank of Danbury, said he believes “part of the objective” from the federal money is to repave existing municipal roads, which total the other 87 percent of the network.
Unsuccessful Democratic mayoral candidates Chris Setaro and Roberto Alves said, in 2019 and then 2021, respectively, that road conditions were at the crisis stage.
Santos said seven miles were repaved in 2022 and about twice that figure in 2021.
“We have not been prioritizing the areas that need it,” he remarked in an interview with Patch.com
The other prime municipal issue has been overcrowding in the schools.
Santos, who previously served on the Danbury Board of Education, said even with the addition four years ago of the Freshman Academy at Danbury High School (DHS), there isn’t enough space in the district. He said DHS is projected to have a record 3,800 students next August.
“The projections have always been wrong because there are always more students moving in,” he explained.
Danbury, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, has a population of nearly 87,000 - 13,000 residents more residents than 20 years ago. It is Connecticut’s seventh largest city.
Santos said that the Career Academy, which will be located at the former site for Cartus, will educate 1,000 high school and 400 middle school students, but it will not be ready until 2025.
Santos said the recent accreditation report from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges indicated that, “The teachers were doing a good job with the finite resources that they were given.”
He added, “There are students that have to go into an extra study hall because there are not enough teachers for the core subjects that they need.”
Santos is the eighth representative to be elected from the 109th District since 1962. The roster includes Democrat Bill Ratchford, who went on to be the congressman from the Fifth District, and Republican Don Boughton, who had been the mayor of Danbury before serving in the General Assembly. Democrats have held the seat in 56 of the last 60 years. Santos is succeeding Democrat David Arconti, who was initially elected in 2012.
On another topic, Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) in Danbury is reportedly facing a financial crisis.
Josh Moody of Inside Higher Ed reported in June that under former WCSU President John Clark, “99 percent of university reserves” had been “depleted in recent years.”
The News-Times of Danbury recently reported that Paul Beran, the interim president at Western Connecticut State University, has proposed eliminating major degree programs in Economics, Social Sciences, Meteorology, Anthropology and Sociology at the school due to declining enrollment. The university’s Faculty Senate voted to reject those proposals.
Santos commented, “I’m concerned about what is happening. We are the regional university.”
“I’m concerned about what subjects are going to be cut, and what the downsizing means for the students,” he added. “It comes down to how are you going to be viable and help the students that need it the most.”
During a November 1998 talk, James Roach, then the president of WCSU, said when he had arrived in 1992 there was discussion of closing the midtown campus and moving all operations to the much larger west side campus, which had opened in 1982.
The university went in a different direction. The News-Times reported in 2003 when Roach announced that he would be retiring the following year that $100 million of construction had been completed at the midtown campus du ring his tenure. By the late 1990s, there were comments that there were parts of the campus that looked very different than when Roach had arrived.
However, the state’s share of the tuition costs has declined over the last generation.
“That is a recipe for issues,” said Santos of the larger operations and the students paying a bigger share of the tuition.
State Sen. Eric Berthel (R-32) of Watertown, an administrator at Post University in Waterbury, told Patch.com in September that Post’s biggest component is online classes.
“It is the future,” he said.
Santos said he has reservations about online learning becoming a bigger component at WSCU.
“I don’t think that being in class can be adequately compared to online learning,” he said.
Regarding fiscal policy, CT News Junkie recently reported that with a projected $444.6 million surplus for the current fiscal year, Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) is considering an income tax reduction for “residents making up to between $150,000 and $200,000 a year.”
“I think that is a necessary step to be taken,” said Santos.
Why?
He said that while canvassing at 4,000 homes during the recent campaign many voters indicated, “It is tough to make ends meet nowadays. I think that we should lessen the long-term burden on the people.”
After three years of no increase in the mill rate, Santos said on the City Council he voted against the tax increase in the municipal budget for the current fiscal year.
He noted that a 2018 report from the United Way indicated that roughly half of the households in Danbury are either slightly above the poverty line or at some point below it.
“There are principals at the schools that are sending home extra meals on a Friday,” Santos exclaimed.
He said that his family “bounced around” different neighborhoods before it bought a home and reached the middle class. He recalled his mother saying, “I can’t buy yogurt this week because we don’t have enough money.”
However, Santos said he would consider increased state taxes for the top 1 percent of wage earners.
Connecticut Voices For Children, a progressive organization, has called for the state to bypass the volatility cap that utilizes surplus money to pay down a pension system that according the 2021 Truth in Accounting report is only 43 percent funded.
CT News Junkie reported, “The additional nearly $5.8 billion in pension payments over the last few years has received praise from both Democrats and Republicans, but Connecticut Voices for Children’s research and policy director Patrick O’Brien said it has ‘the substantial cost of increasing the unfairness of the budget.’
Santos said, “While I’d like to learn more about Connecticut Voices For Children’s take on this issue, I’m also cognizant of the fact that we’ve made commitments to our state workers and I think we need to meet our obligations to the workers.”
On a separate subject, Santos said he is very concerned about the electricity rate hike requests from Eversource and United Illuminating.
WTNH Channel 8 in New Haven reported that the increases requested by Eversource and United Illuminating on November 17 could increase electricity costs for some customers by up to $84.85 per month.
Patch.com reported on November 28 that following negotiations with Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich), Eversource will contribute $10 million at shareholder expense to Operation Fuel, which is a non-profit organization that helps low-income customers with home heating costs, Lamont said. UI will contribute at least $3 million.
Santos, who said his home is heated “100 percent electric,” indicated that the additional money to Operation Fuel will only partly address the suffering.
He said that the state Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) “only has certain things that it can do” to address the proposed increases.
However, he endorsed the state Senate Democratic proposal to have PURA collaborate with regulators in New Hampshire and Massachusetts “to make sure that the new rates are not excessive.”
Why are the rates increasing so high when you consider that Connecticut adopted a deregulation system in 1998 to boost competition?
“Deregulation is not working,” said Santos. “There is not enough competition. I think people should have more options.”
What did he learn at Henry Abbott Tech in Danbury, which he graduated from in 2007, that has helped him in his career in government?
Santos, who majored in Carpentry, said his teacher, John Howley, “taught us how to collaborate. You have to do that in government. You depend a lot on each other. They tell me that in the General Assembly about 80 percent to 90 percent of the bills are bipartisan.”
Which political figures does he admire?
Santos said, “Bobby Kennedy” – whose career was well before 1996, when Santos’s family moved to Danbury.
“I read a lot,” he explained.
“He was an inspiration to folks,” Santos commented about Kennedy. “He was someone who could relate to people who are suffering. That is a unique quality to have.”
“Ella Grasso,” he said, adding the former Connecticut governor who in 1974 was the first woman nationally to attain that office in her own right.
Santos said he has read Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz’s (D-Middletown) 1986 biography on Grasso.
“She was a trailblazer at that time,” he explained. “Women have a tougher time in life than men.”
George Will wrote in The Washington Post in 2019 that the national Democratic primary electorate is now “disproportionately female.”
“We welcome everyone,” said Santos regarding the openness of the Democratic Party.
Perhaps the people who best understand women’s attributes are the college basketball coaches.
During a 1991 appearance at Newtown High School, University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said, “Women are stronger than men. I’ve been in the maternity ward with my wife, and I could not go through that.”
Santos remarked, “My wife is the strongest person I know. The women in my life are role models.”
The late Al McGuire, the heralded Marquette University men’s basketball coach, told Sports Illustrated in 1976, "I've always believed that if you get women involved in anything, it will be a success.”
Santos, who is president of the Danbury Police Athletic League, said, “The men that I work with are great guys, but the women are the ones that get it done.”
He has been a member of the Danbury Schools & Business Collaborative. Santos said that Mary Arconti Gregory, the program’s director, also “gets it done.”
Santos commented, “I think that quote [by McGuire] is pretty accurate.”
Resources:
Interview with Farley Santos, Patch.com, Saturday, December 17, 2022.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1976/11/29/welcome-to-his-world
https://patch.com/connecticut/...
https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/WestConn-social-sciences-majors-17650584.php
James Roach talk, November 3, 1998.
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/kushner-proud-paid-family-medical-leave-act
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2022/12/13/lamont-ponders-income-tax-cut/
https://www.wcsu.edu/president/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2017/09/oct1nt.pd
https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/WestConn-social-sciences-majors-17650584.php
