A New Day for Stratford

On 05/16, I joined with a number of like-minded Stratford voters who feel that our Town is going to be facing an election this fall that will determine whether Stratford is going to continue to be a Town of “politics as usual” or, are we going to put political party definitions aside and vote for someone whose agenda will be for the good of Stratford and all its residents. We gathered together to show our support for the potential mayoral run of Beth Daponte this November. Beth is a home grown Stratfordite who has had a long and successful career in international public service and education, and although she might be considered to be a political novice in some circles, having served the Town of Stratford for almost 30 years, I feel that being a novice in Stratford Town politics is definitely a point in her favor.  I have found that most politicians were initially lawyers who found that there wasn’t much money or prestige in being a rookie lawyer and entered politics for the power and personal prestige not to mention the perks that come from holding political office. Forget all the rhetoric and B-S about “serving the needs of the people”. After the people voted to end our Town manager form of government in favor of a mayoral form, our first mayor, a second generation Stratford politician, who was initially against this change, opted instead to run for mayor. After winning the election, he brought political patronage to a level that hadn’t been seen in years. Beside the fiasco of hiring an unqualified police officer, the appointment of a chief of police from outside of our Police Department that has politicized that Department for the first time in generations, and the appointment of a number of political “cronies” who, after he lost the next election, paid off those “cronies” with 250k of what he called “unused vacation and sick time”, but was in fact a form of severance pay. The day after his loss, all of those cronies resigned without a thought of assisting the next mayor with the transition. So much for “serving the needs of the people”. Our next Mayor, who had served in the State House in Hartford, and had campaigned on a platform of “transparency and open government”, decided that he would need to appoint a chief of staff to handle the day to day operation of governing. I thought and I’m sure many others did too, that after eliminating the position of Town Manager, and that 90k salary, the Mayor would be handling those duties. So now we’re paying 2 salaries for the work that had been done by one Town Manager. He then demoted Donna Best as Director of Stratford EMS, who over many years of service to Stratford had provided the Town with a “no nonsense”, non-political, highly professional management, of that low key but yet highly necessary Department. He replaced Donna with one of his political “cronies” and this case is being heard in court and has been for the past 2 ½ years at untold cost to Stratford residents for the fees for the Town attorneys and related court costs. Although this case has been found in Donna’s favor, the Town continues to fight this case at ever higher costs to the taxpayers. The Town has a number of ongoing lawsuits, some of them going on for years with no end in sight. I’m sure this is not what Stratford Taxpayers signed up for. We the people of the Town of Stratford have now had 2 Mayors, one Democrat, and one Republican and all we have gotten is politics as usual. “Cronies, sycophants, professional politicians, and last but not least, both men. We’ve seen what goes on in Washington or may I say what doesn’t go on in the aftermath of Newtown/Sandy Hook. The majority in Congress are men. Is this what we want from our local leaders, political gridlock? Is this what we what we want for Stratford? This is not about political parties, as George Wallace once said “There’s not a dimes worth of difference between the parties.”. This is about taking control of the people we’ve hired to manage our Town and expecting them to do what’s in the best interests of Stratford. This is our Town, they work for us. When the “silly season” begins, listen to the candidates, don’t look at just party affiliation, get involved, and don’t let another four years pass with “business as usual”. Go on-line, go to open house events, get involved and for you older folks, don’t forget that the best Town Manager Stratford ever had was a woman named…………Gloria Minnie!