Fifty Ways to Help your City

We have ourselves here in the Rose City at the moment a tempest in a teapot of sorts. Of course, there's a bit of history and the trick is in the telling, so let me get tricky.

Last November, in Norwich, we elected a radically different, and new, City Council. Of the six vacancies to be filled, we returned only one incumbent--two, one from each side of the aisle, had announced they would not seek reelection. Three were, for lack of a more elegant phrase, fired.

Talking about being in the forefront of change-with all due respect to the President-elect and his message of change (and by the way, sir, take down that "Office of the President-Elect" sign some putz has stapled to the front of the podium when you speak. There is NO such function in the Constitution and you look like a pretentious twit even to those of us who voted for you) we here in Norwich got on the change train, sorry Ozzy, sometimes they look similar, and have yet to get off.

Interestingly, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Before last November's election, there were five Democrats and two Republicans on our City Council (Connecticut has a minority representation requirement that mandates diverse voices even if the folks choosing the voices don't want to hear some. Perhaps noble, perhaps not. Depends on who is doing the talking and what's being said), and that's what we still have. We went to an at-large selection process instead of a precinct representation (and to a smaller council) as a result of charter change we accomplished in March of 2001 (despite the efforts of some on that City Council).

The November 2001 election campaign was the ONLY time (I researched this, btw; went to the library and looked up the old copies of one of the local papers on the microfiche reader--had to show the youngster working the reference desk how to use it because it's not Google and you don't double-click to get it to work) since 1991 (I got here in October of that year, which is why I picked that as the reference point) the Republican party fielded an entire slate of candidates for the Norwich City Council. I went all the way back to 1962 and NEVER found an instance where the Republicans fielded more than three candidates for the Norwich Board of Education (which has always been an at-large proposition, also with minority representation).

I'm pretty sure I know residents who are Republicans-they don't have Scarlet R's nor do they drive orange cars, so it's hard for me to tell--and quite frankly, that's good and as it should be.

Anyway-this November one of the two Republicans on the City Council unseated a seven-term incumbent in the 47th District of the Connecticut Assembly, or House of Representatives. The soon-to-be-former alderman handily triumphed--carrying three other towns and a portion of Norwich, in the district. Considering the Republicans in the city had failed again to even nominate a candidate for the 46th District (which is just Norwich and which, for a number of years, had been represented by another former Republican alderman), you'd think there'd be some joy at his election, especially in light of the drubbing the party took across the state and the country, but you're not from here, are you?

Us Rose City residents hate to see anyone be successful or happy-somehow, we figure, it lessens our chances or our share, even though one has nothing to do with the other. Who do you think you're calling crazy? You don't even know from crazy, not around here.

Almost as quickly as the ballots were counted Election Night, the drumbeat started for the alderman to resign his City Council seat (the Norwich charter doesn't allow alderpersons to hold a second (paying) elected position; the CT constitution doesn't care, as the Secretary of State made clear in her letter to a local newspaper). Most of the drumbeating was, and is, from the chairman of the Republican Town Committee who, I'm sure, is a nice person but who has a curious grasp of logic.

In yesterday's edition of one of the local papers, he claims the alderman, by NOT resigning (the State Legislature session doesn't begin until 7 January 2009, by the way, so the Norwich City Council will meet twice more in regular session before we come to the place where the road and the sky collide), "...has disenfranchised the Republican Party in Norwich." Oh? Would the Chairman care to show the math behind that equation?

I disagree with that conclusion and reject the logic used to develop it. I'm NOT in the Republican Party (I registered years ago as a Democrat because I hoped to vote for Senator Bill Bradley in the Connecticut Democratic primary in 2000 but he had bowed out of the race by the time the circus got to Hartford. When you don't invent the Internet terrible things can happen. So I just hung out near the chips and dip) but it seems to me the Republicans in Norwich have disenfranchised themselves, and did so, a VERY LONG time ago.

The current RTC chairman has suggested in recent press interviews he would consider having his party endorse the current Mayor of Norwich, a Democrat, next year (should the Mayor seek a second term) as it did when he ran for the office in 2005. Maybe it's just me, but I am wearing my glasses, and it looks like the RTC chairman may have trouble with the idea of freedom of choice. What's the point of having a multiplicity of voices, Mr. Chairman, if they all say the same thing?

If those on the 'selection committee' of the RTC don't mind a well-meant tip from a bystander so disinterested I might otherwise appear comatose: identify a candidate. You should have started before Chris Coutu was elected (assuming you had any faith that he would win) so why haven't you nominated someone by now? While you're looking, find some one who supports, as her/his soon-to-be-predecessor did, charter revision (we should be hearing that report soon enough, right? I wonder how that bedtime story will turn out?) as well as smart growth in terms of economic development (Washington Street Overlay comes to mind, Mr. RTC Chairman and I don't remember you being anywhere near the barricades for that discussion) as well as implementation of some, part or all of the recommendations of the Ethics Review Commission, whose final report this City Council accepted in March (that's eight months ago by my calendar) and about which little has been done since.

Is it possible the Norwich Republican Town Committee thinks it has a mandate to maintain the status quo and NOT rock the boat? I would certainly hope not. Just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. No need to be coy, Roy, just listen to me. Just hop on the bus, Gus. Don't need to discuss much. Just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free.
-bill kenny