Setaro insists Danbury's schools, roads are bursting at the seams

By Scott Benjamin

(Updated on Thursday, May 16, at 7:20 p.m. to include comments from Mayor Mark Boughton.)

DANBURY – The Hat City has experienced a change that is longer and wider than Candlewood Lake.

We’re not talking about how 38 years ago the Great Danbury State Fair was held for the last time and that parcel was turned into a massive shopping mall that is primarily responsible for Danbury being first in Connecticut in sales tax revenue and first per capita in restaurants.

Regarding the most recent sea change, Danbury attorney Chris Setaro repeatedly said “18 years” - which takes us to 2001 when he, as the Democratic candidate for mayor, lost by just 127 votes to then-state Rep. Mark Boughton, the Republican contender.

Setaro said, “We’ve seen tremendous growth in high density residential housing o n the west side over the last 18 years. We’re seeing the result of that. We have over-crowded schools and over-burdened roads.”

Danbury’s population reportedly increased from 80,893 to 84,992 – a more than 4,000-person jump - between 2010 and 2016. The Hat City has added about 20,000 residents since 1990.

State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, whose district includes a slice of northern Danbury, has told Brookfield Patch that the Hat City has “an odd economic dynamic.” He explained that it has an impressive retail activity and dining venues but a growing number of residents living in poverty.

In November 2015, USA Today ranked Danbury as the second best city of live in the United States. Boughton noted this spring that one recent survey of city residents indicated that 82 percent of the respondents like living in Danbury.

Donald Klepper-Smith, who chaired former Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s (R-Brookfield) economic team, said last year that the metro Danbury area was the only region in Connecticut that had recaptured all of the jobs lost in the 2008 recession.

While other area municipalities have seen and expect to continue to see a decline in enrollment in their schools, Danbury, according to The News-Times, had a boost from 9,000 students to 11,500 from the late 1990s until now. Danbury High School recently expanded to add a Freshmen Academy section.

Yet, William Glass, the former assistant superintendent of schools in Danbury, told The News-Times last summer that there was a lot more poverty in the city than when he had arrived 20 years earlier.

Danbury Patch reported last October that Boughton said that more than half of the students in the public schools are on reduced lunch.

State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury told Danbury Patch this last January that he was “shocked” when he saw a 2018 United Way report that 31,000 household – roughly half of those in the Hat City – were slightly above the poverty line or below that measure.

Boughton has said the higher rate of poverty has largely resulted from too few good-paying middle class jobs in the metro Danbury area.

“There have been some success in the city, but I also think that there have been some deficiencies,” Setaro said in an interview.

“We haven’t had a plan to manage that growth,” he added, noting that a “tremendous number of condominiums have been built in the city of Danbury.”

Setaro, who was president of the City Council when he ran for mayor in 2001, said municipal officials should take “an approach that we are one city,” an apparent reference to the divide between the vast retail and entertainment available on the west side and a downtown, which has lost some pizzazz since the mall opened 33 years ago.

“Certainly there is more housing there,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Kennedy Flats apartments near Main Street. “But in many ways the downtown is not much different than it was 18 years ago.”

“I think people all over the city want to see the downtown become a destination,” Setaro explained. “How different the downtown might be as an entertainment district.”

For example, the candidate said that Tuxedo Junction., the venerable night club that the city now owns, should be leased to a promoter.

Municipal leaders have sought requests for proposal for the former night club, which has been vacant since 2015 when its owner was arrested and later sentenced to prison for wire fraud. Boughton has told The News-Times that it could be developed into a community theater.

“I don’t think that we should wait for the opportunity to come to us,” Setaro said.

Boughton said in a phone interview that during his tenure a larger police station, a health center and a satellite campus for Naugatuck Valley Community College have been added. He said more housing will be developed, including at the site of the former News-Times building on Main Street.

Setaro also said Danbury should be spending more money on its public schools. He recently announced his opposition to Boughton’s $261.5 million municipal budget, which was approved May 7 by the City Council on a 14-7 party-line vote.

Boughton has noted that the adopted package included $5.2 million of the additional $7 million funds that the Board of Education had requested.

“We have the lowest per pupil expenditure in the state,” Setaro declared.

“We are probably going to have to expand existing buildings and it may be very well the case that we need another school,” the candidate said. “Some members of the Board of Education believe that to be the case.”

“A new school would cost $50 million,” said Setaro. “This is a challenge facing the city, and I think it is a significant one.”

“We have to look at how to provide the necessary facilities for our students and teachers,” said Setaro. “I think these things make it less inviting for a business to stay here.”

Boughton said he is developing a plan that will be presented later this year to address the district-wide increase in school enrollment.

He said that it would not seek a new school but would include additions to existing schools.

Regarding public safety, Setaro said that for years to municipal Police Department has only had 132 officers even though its “table of organization” calls for 154 officers.

“People are questioning why we haven’t seen improvement in that time,” he said.

Does that mean higher taxes?

“No, I think it’s a matter of priorities,” said Setaro. For example, he said that there are expenses that could be curtailed such as the $50,000 for a lobbyist at the State Capitol.

“Given the results I’m not sure that’s a good investment,” Setaro said.

He indicated that to achieve no tax increase in the municipal budget for the next fiscal year, Boughton probably used some of the city’s fund balance to offset some spending increases. The adopted package is $4.5 million above current spending.

Said Setaro, “[The] auditors of the city probably provided some guidance on the use of the fund balance to balance the budget [with no tax increase]. I suspect that is the way it was done.”

Boughton said he is disappointed that Setaro would make that comment since he attended the City Council meeting earlier this month where the municipal budget was adopted.

He said no fund balance was utilized.

Setaro said Danbury has a strong AA bond rating and should maintain a high fund balance. He didn’t provide a specific figure, but said he would follow the usual guidelines. Some municipal leaders have said in recent years that their town or city needs at least a 10 percent fund balance to be considered for the coveted AAA bond rating.

Boughton said Moody's and Standard & Poor's have both given Danbury the AAA rating, which is the highest possible. He said Fitch has given a AA-plus rating.

The mayor said the current fund balance is near 10 percent. He said the fund balance stood at $2.5 million when he took office in 2001 and is now near $25 million.

On road repairs, Setaro said, “I think given the growth that we have in this city, we need a traffic study to upgrade our road system. We haven’t had a road bond since the 1980s. We do need to have a traffic study, then if a road bond is necessary, then we can bring that to the voters. We’ve heard so far that people are very concerned about the infrastructure on the roads.”

The municipal budget for the fiscal year that will start in July included $4.5 million in road repair funds.

Regarding economic development, the innovation hubs are where there are a lot of higher-paying jobs. Consider that Stamford has Gartner, a technology-related company, Indeed, the largest job service in the world, as well as the headquarters for NBC Sports Group. “The City That Works” had the highest per overall salaries in the country according to University of California-Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti’s 2012 book, “The New Economy Of Jobs.”

Setaro said he believes Danbury could attract more “telecom companies.”

“We need a new approach that emphasizes retaining and attracting business, such as technology,” he said.

Boughton said the city is eagerly seeking those kind of companies. Although they are not as interested in suburban sites as they were a generation ago since many college-educated people under age 40 live in the larger cities, he said he agreed with the recent comments of state Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman that you "don't need one to eight million in population to accomplish that if you make smart investments."

The Hartford Courant reported this spring that Boughton is lobbying for a $50 million to $70 million project to connect Danbury’s rail line to an abandoned link to Southeast, N.Y. which would save an hour on the commute to and from Grand Central Station.

“I think there is a desire for commuter service to New York City,” said Setaro, who noted that his wife travels there daily for work.

“I’m all for the concept,” he said. “We just have to see how feasible it is.”

Boughton has run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination three times: He moved to the race for lieutenant governor in 2010 shortly before the state convention and captured that nomination as well as the August primary. The ticket of Greenwich businessman Tom Foley and Boughton fell 6,400 votes short that November to the Democratic ticket of Dannel Malloy and Nancy Wyman.

The mayor placed second at the convention in 2014 but discontinued his run during the primary when he couldn’t raise sufficient money.

In 2018 he won the GOP convention nod on the third ballot but was a distant second to Madison businessman Bob Stefanowski in the primary.

Boughton was calling for a gradual phase-out of the state income tax months before Stefanowski held a news conference with noted economist Art Laffer to announce that he wanted to take similar steps.

Sacred Heart University Political Science Professor Gary Rose has said Gov. Ned Lamont of Greenwich, the Democratic candidate, used Stefanowski’s pledge to scare some constituencies about the consequences of eliminating that revenue source, which has been in place since 1991.

Setaro said he disagreed with Boughton’s positon.

“We need to have an income tax to provide the services that we have” he explained. However, he emphasized that his focus during the race will be on municipal issues.

In the Hat City, Bouhgton is the only Republican since the 1960s to serve more than one term as mayor.

He was elected before Bill Belichick captured his first Super Bowl title with the Patriots and has served longer than any mayor in Hat City history.

From 2007 through 2017 he took at least 63 percent of the vote in every election.

Setaro has mounted an ambitious campaign, having raised $105,000 to Boughton’s $66,000 through the March 31 quarter. He had 440 supporters at his kick-off event in January.

Additionally, he said the local Democrats have been buoyed by flipping three state legislative seats in last November’s election that include a least a portion of Danbury. For example, Julie Kushner’s win the 24^th state Senate District was the first by a Democrat for that seat since 1992 when former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) won his last term in the General Assembly.

Former state House Speaker Fran Collins, who has moderated numerous Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce mayoral debates, has said it is difficult in politics to get back to a job that you once had. Now 18 years later, Setaro is on the verge of returning to his position as the Democratic mayoral nominee. Unlike 2001, when he had to win a bruising primary against former City Council member Tom Arconti, he doesn’t have intra-party opposition as he seeks the job that was almost his nearly a generation ago.

Setaro recalled that during a neighborhood tour while he was a city councilman, a constituent came down from a ladder to speak with him.

He asked Setaro, “ ‘Can you do me a favor? When you vote on the budget, please consider that I have two children in college.’ “

Setaro said recently, “I’ve never forgotten that.”