Politics & Government
Schools need more $$$, buildings
Alves makes second bid to be Danbury's first Democratic mayor since 2001
By Scott Benjamin
DANBURY - - For decades teachers in the Danbury public schools have underscored that the cultural diversity of their student bodies is a strength.
Roberto Alves agrees. The former City Council member was the Democratic candidate for mayor in 2021 and is destined to again garner the party’s nomination later this summer.
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Alves arrived in Danbury from Brazil at age 5. He graduated from Danbury High School (DHS) in 2001 and says that then and even more so now: “It is one of the most diverse high schools in the country.”
CT Mirror reported in 2021 that nearly one-third of Danbury’s population is foreign born.
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Some of Alves’ childhood friends from the Hat City have moved to the suburbs, but Alves - a pre-sales technical engineer with Cartus, a relocation company - and his wife, Robyn, whom he met at DHS, want their two children to grow up in a more multi-cultural environment.
“At Danbury High School you learn to be respectful,” he said in an interview with Patch.com. “It is about relationship building. There are things you learn in the hallways at Danbury High School that you don’t get anywhere else. That is so valuable in the real world.”
One of his Social Studies teachers at DHS was Mark Boughton, then the state representative from the 138th District. Boughton took the class on a field trip to the State Capitol.
Now Alves is seeking the job that Boughton, a Republican, had for a record 19 years before he became the state commissioner of Revenue Services.
In 2021 Alves lost to Republican Dean Esposito by 290 votes out of the 14,096 votes that were cast.
Esposito was the Democratic nominee against Boughton in 2005 and later switched parties and worked as chief of staff for Boughton and then former Republican Mayor Joe Cavo.
Now Alves and Esposito are headed for a rematch in the November 7 municipal election.
The schools are a prime issue in Connecticut’s seventh largest city.
Esposito is pointing to the approval of $164 million at referendum in June of last year to renovate the former facilities for Cartus into the 1,400 -student Career Academy, which is being billed as a state-of-the-art facility for high school and middle school students. Cartus now primarily has an employee roster that works from home.
However, Alves said that based on two appraisals, the city spent $21 million too much on property costs at the Apple Ridge Road parcel.
“Why the secrecy?” he said.
In an e-mail interview with Patch.com, Esposito countered, “We evaluated the purchase price through four different appraisals and very aggressively negotiated the final price with the seller. The opportunity was once in a lifetime – the city was able to purchase an educational campus for our students for generations to come. We were able to acquire a 270,000 square foot premier commercial space that sits on 26-plus acres with the first right of refusal on the additional buildings on the campus.”
Alves said that the Career Academy is a “start,” but that with enrollments that always exceed projections, the school district also “desperately” needs another middle school and elementary school.
Esposito stated that he has been supportive of the school district as the $295,750,000 municipal budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 “fully funded” the school district’s request of $150 million. He noted that was a $9 million increase over current spending.
Alves said he attended the school district’s budget workshop months ago and the figure approved by the City Council in a 13-6 vote in May was about $4 million less than what the school district needed.
He said that there are unfilled positions in the school district’s budget, summer school programs have been reduced and some elementary school classes will not have instruction in art.
State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury said in a phone interview with Patch.com that the local state legislative delegation has annexed more funding for the schools.
“In the state budget that starts on July 1 we got the Danbury schools more than $10 million additional dollars,” he remarked. “We added $11 million during the current budget cycle. The problem is that the local funding in Danbury for education is still last in Connecticut.”
Esposito wrote,” I would suggest Bob Godfrey work a little bit harder on securing more state funding for our education system, which he, Senator {Julie] Kushner (D-24), Representative [Farley] Santos (D-109)and the Democrat leadership has failed the City for the last thirty years.”
Rich Kirby of Patch.com has reported that Danbury’s 2023-24 municipal budget would lower the tax rate by 4.89 mills, which would represent a 17 percent reduction in taxes.
Esposito stated that the tax mill rate in Danbury is now lower than in any city in Connecticut.
Said Godfrey, “The reason that the mill rate went down is because there is so much more money from the higher assessments. It is a revaluation year and I think people are going to be shocked when their tax bills arrive. I expect that I will be paying additional hundreds if not more than a thousand dollars. The revaluation should have been phased in.”
Alves said that he agreed with Godfrey that the revaluation should be phased in.
Esposito stated, “Revaluation is a state-mandated process that occurs by law every five years. If I followed the advice of Bob Godfrey, taxpayers would see an increase over the course of the next five years, not taking into account what the budget demands may be in the future. I am not in the business of kicking the can down the road that would impact future budgets."
On another topic, Alves said he also is concerned that more than 50 percent of the residents work outside Danbury.
However, Donald Klepper-Smith, a consulting economist for the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce, has told Patch.com that the metro Danbury labor market is the only one of the nine in Connecticut that has recaptured all of the jobs lost in the 2008 Great Recession.
Shay Nagarsheth, Danbury’s economic development director, told Patch.com in 2022 that the city led Connecticut in business recovery following the 2020 pandemic.
Yet, Danbury has an interesting economic dynamic. About half of the households are living at slightly above the poverty level or at some point below that measure. Boughton told Patch.com in 2018 that half of the students in the public schools receive reduced lunch prices.
Alves said he supports efforts dating to Boughton’s tenure to improve train service from Danbury to New York City. However, he said municipal officials should also be taking similar steps to reduce train commutes to Stamford, which has become Connecticut’s second largest city and boasts four Fortune 500 companies.
Since at least challenger Chris Setaro’s campaign in 2019, Democratic mayoral candidates have said the city needs to hire more police officers.
The municipal budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, which was approved during Esposito's first year in office, added six new officers.
However, Alves said that the staffing is still below the table of organization.
“That is not acceptable to me,” he declared.
Considering Alves lost – albeit narrowly – in 2021, how in 2023 does he become the first Democrat to capture a mayoral election since Gene Eriquez annexed his sixth term in 1999?
Alves exclaimed, “I raised $125,000 in 10 weeks, which is more than [Esposito] raised in 35 weeks. This campaign is real.”
According to figures from the Secretary of the State’s office, as of last November 1, Danbury had 21,087 unaffiliated voters, 15,292 registered Democrats, 9,275 registered Republicans and 762 voters registered with minor parties.
Godfrey commented, “I think some people voted for Dean Esposito in 2021 because they wanted to continue the Mark Boughton Administration.”
Godfrey added, “I think this election will be about what Dean Esposito hasn’t accomplished.”
However, state Sen. Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield, whose former state House district included part of Danbury, said that Esposito has been able to address the top issues that Democratic mayoral candidates have highlighted in recent elections – such as adequate school space and road repaving.
Godfrey said Alves is “one of the most empathetic candidates that I have met. He feels people’s pain and he also can feel their joy. That is rare when you see so many robot candidates.”
Harding said Esposito has solid interpersonal skills.
“There are few politicians who can engage voters the way that Mark Boughton did,” he said. “He had quite a following, for example, on Twitter. But Dean does interact well with voters and he has a good sense of humor.”
Which elected official, past or present, does Alves most admire?
“Barack Obama,” he said.
“He connected with people,” Alves explained. “He was a good motivator.”
“The Republicans in Congress at that time didn’t want him to succeed, but he realized that he had to work with those people, and he did so,” he said. “His national health care plan was modeled after the one that a Republican governor had gotten approved in Massachusetts.”
Alves remarked, “In any other country in the world, Obama would have been considered a center-right politician.”
Resources:
Interview with Roberto Alves, Patch.com, Monday, June 19, 2023.
Phone interview with Bob Godfrey, Patch.com, Tuesday, June 6, 2023.
Phone interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, Sunday, May 21, 2023.
E-mail interview with Dean Esposito, Patch.com, Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
https://patch.com/connecticut/...
Danbury municipal budget, 2023-24.
http://www.housedems.ct.gov/node/22101
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/city-economic-diversity
https://patch.com/connecticut/danbury/danbury-mayors-budget-would-lower-taxes-17-fully-fund-schools
