I attended the last of the candidates' forums for Norwich City Council last night and close(r) to one hundred folks were in the audience, which is a step up from the attendance at previous forums (forii? What is the plural for a fourth declension feminine noun?) and yet, we have about 37,000 residents or, 36,900 people NOT coming to these things.
Some absentees probably had notes from their moms and that's fine. Others are part of 21st Century America and its new motto, 'we never close', working other than nine-to-five (Hello, Dolly (Parton)!) jobs. (More than) a few stayed home for the World Series (with the Red Sox).
[About that.....Forum started at 7 PM with the game closer to nine. I guess they feared one or the other ball club might try to steal a march and start early. Based on the final score, I'm still not sure the Rockies realized there was a game last night at all.]
You know how on cookie boxes there's a disclaimer about 'this package is sold by weight and not by volume. Some settling of contents may occur during shipping'? I have a pretty good idea which six people I'm going to vote for but was surprised at how some of the 'contents' of candidates have shifted since I saw them last. I was at times a little unsettled myself at observations offered by those soliciting my vote.
One incumbent intimated to residents of a neighborhood unhappy about a possible zoning change that they should make nice and get a grip on their feelings (and attitudes) when they speak to the City Council (who will make the ultimate decision). He seems to think disrespect is okay when it flows down. At first, I thought 'veiled threat' but then concluded I must have been daydreaming about Vail, Colorado, even though there was no snow and I don't ski.
Still don't know where the goggles and the gloves came from.
Another candidate, speaking about the same issue (an issue that hadn't actually come up in the previous two hours of the forum) remembered from July a "similar situation" to the current zoning unhappiness except his version of those events had to have happened in a parallel universe because many in the room last night were also in Council chambers that night and their memories are starkly different from his.
For both of those alderpersons (and the third incumbent who signed on as a sponsor), I can't help but wonder why the resolution you sponsored (signatures show dates in August) permitting this zoning change, wasn't alluded to at all during the 'development showcase' in September held in Council Chambers that featured all of you on the City Council, the Mayor, the City department directors and many of the local developers working on projects across Norwich. Maybe in all of the excitement of the moment, everyone in the front of the room just forgot about it. Perhaps you, too, were daydreaming about skiing in Vail, or perhaps Sugarloaf?
I'll mull over the notes I've taken from all the conversations those seeking office have had with those of us doing the hiring and see where that leads me. I do appreciate the choices and am grateful for the time and talent each candidate has to bring to the job of Norwich City Council.
I think the stipend for a member of Council is $100 a month? People wearing orange jump suits, making license plates, are getting nearly the same. Of course, City Council members get to go home at night .... unless we've built a pharmacy or a coffee shop across the street from their house (cheer up! here's $1.19, your share of the tax receipts!).
If you're a voter in Norwich, or anywhere (for that matter), find those who fit your vision and make your decision. Please don't NOT vote, okay? If you choose NOT to decide, you still have made a choice.
As we used to say in New Jersey (and they probably still do), 'vote early and often.'
Democracy is a contact sport and staying on the bench isn't getting into the game.
-bill kenny
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