September already! It jest seems like we were heralding June 1 and the beginning of summer. Boy, did that fly by as Iyam sure the kiddies who went back to school will attest. And jest like that, it seems things are going back to “normal,” whatever that is. Of course, it being September, and a year in which we elect a new city administration, it must mean there is a primary – and sure in heck there is!
Usually, it is the Demmies who’re fightin’ amongst themselves, and jockeying fer power with this faction or that, but it seems they’ve settled on Dorinda Borer being their candidate. Jest as an aside it seems Victor Borras has “suspended” his campaign, as they say in the business, and determined not to primary, or run as a write-in candidate.
Nope, the primary on Sept.12 will feature the city’s minority party, and a faceoff betwixt Paige Weinstein, who is the endorsed candidate, and Barry Cohen, who is the challenger – even though he only lost by 30-plus votes the last time. There were three candidates as yew remember, but Steve Mullins determined he wasn’t gonna spend his war chest on the primary – he was the largest fundraiser in the last quarter, but the other two are kind of self-funded.
Steve is opting for a write-in campaign, hoping people will be sick and tired of the political back-and-forth that seems to be the warp and woof of political life here, and put him into office. Now, the last time we had a write-in candidate, Jon Picard lost by a handful of votes after losing to Ed O’Brien in a primary. Write-ins are large hills to traverse, politically speaking, and it’ll be interesting to see jest how this works out. Steve better have stock in a pencil company, and hand them out at the polls.
The two candidates have had a rawther quiet campaign in this go-round, with little going on between them, and little engagement on issues. Both are looking for change, and hoping people have had more than their fill of Democratic Party rule for the last 34 years. But, besides the hokey “Turn the Paige” slogan, not much else is really going on, and one has to wonder effen things are gonna end come about 10 p.m. Sept. 12. There is reason to doubt.
An email blast, according to Sammy Bluejay, went out last week regarding the structuring of a new party in the berg, the “Westies for Change” Party. Hmmmm. We’ve seen this before with the “A Better Future Party” in the early 2000s, and similar things in the 1990s. It’s usually a hedge against losing the primary, and trying to git that second “bite of the apple.”
It seems Paige Weinstein and Company have formed this new organization, and it follows a rumor we hoid to that effeck some weeks ago, and alluded to it in earlier missives. Soooo, effen that’s the case, and Weinstein is heading this new thoid party, what’s the pernt of the endorsement and the primary?
Now, that don’t mean that Cohen is not doing anything, either. He got the Independent Party endorsement, and is on the ballot in November cuz there is a statewide Independent Party. Soooo, it is conceivable he will seek to run following next week’s ballot as well. Quite the scenario.
Soooooo, to sum up, the Demmies have rallied around one candidate, and a strong one at that. The Republicans, meanwhile, could possibly have three candidates in the November election: Weinstein, Cohen and Mullins, despite whot goes on Sept. 12. The GOP needs all its voters, which is about 3,500 total outta about 19,000 registered voters, and then a goodly chunk of unaffiliated voters in order to win. Yet, they are gonna be fishing outta the same GOP pond, and then trying to net voters from two other ponds in order to win.
This could or could not happen, neither candidate has said they will bow out effen the primary doesn’t go their way, and you don’t hafta be Sherlock Holmes to figger out that probably ain’t the game plan. I’ll leave you to figger out how this all may turn out. It ain’t brain surgery.
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The City Council is, fer all intents and purposes, a lame duck council until the election in November, but the membership did something that has been a burr in the saddle o’ the West Haven PD for a decade. In a case of unintended consequences, the city went to an IRA-type retirement program for police hires back in the Picard Administration. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and a way to shore up the city’s dwindling finances.
Well, on paper it was a great idea. In practice – as most things prove to be – it wasn’t so great. The city would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to train new personnel, and after a year or two, said personnel would up and go to another department in search of a pension plan.
The problem was brought to the council’s attention about two years ago, and this papyrus ran statements from the Police Commission stating we were reaching a critical pernt with loss of bodies. Sure enuff, the city’s staff is below the number seen as necessary for a city our size, being about 13 bodies short of average.
After months of haggling, an agreement was reach and the lame ducks voted to approve it. Now, the city is gonna have a pension plan for the new hires, and we should be on par with other communities sooner rather than later. Cobina ain’t up on all the particulars, but this was the right thing to do after it was found out the good idea on paper, wasn’t a good idea in real life. Sometimes, people, institutions and cities don’t learn that lesson.
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The Municipal Accountability Review Bored (MARB) wants the city to get in gear and move on finalizing its audits. A yes, it must be that time o’ year. As Iva Lootey perted out, the city getting any financial statement or audit out on time would be seen as a bad omen. I don’t remember the last time this berg was able to put out an audit in time. Getting records together seems to be the hardest thing to do in municipal government, effen our corner of Long Island Sound was taken as an example. We never git things done by deadlines.
And it ain’t jest this administration, yew could go back into the 1980s to see that things were and are this way. Soooo, here we are, Moody’s jest put a hold on us cuz things weren’t up to speed, and now the MARB is pushing for us to get up to speed. Yew’d think in this computerized world things would be easy to put together. Push a button and here it comes. Nope. Still not ready, still not on time.
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And effen that ain’t enuff, Madame Olga bet Cobina a long time ago that the brewery projeck for the Savin Rock Conference Center site would be held up and later “revised.” Of course, she didn’t really hafta go into her crystal ball to figger that out. All she had to do was base it on history.
The brewery plan was put forward with a new building and setch about two years ago, yet nuthin’ was ever done. Like other projecks in the berg, the approvals were all given, the plans were presented and approved, and then, crickets. The longer the crickets chirp, the more yew know something is not quite right – or in our city’s case standard operating procedure.
Now we see the project is up for revisions from what was proposed and no one = not anyone – is surprised. It’s jest the way things are. The earlier a project is approved, the longer it takes to finish, and usually with many revisions along the way. Why would anyone expeck it to be different.
In case yore wondering, it was a friendly bet with Olga, I knew she was probably right, but hoped for the best. I hafta make her a pineapple upside down cake. She like those.
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Nelly Nuthatch was at the event at the high school last week, as officials began construction on the Pam Gardner Lecture Hall. It’s a memorial to the very popular late principal, who was a student in the 1980s, and made her mark here very early. Like the saying goes, Only the good die young, and Gardner was an example of a person very missed by all who knew her. This is jest another way Westies help Westies, and we are glad to see this long-hoped-for project underway.
Her family was on hand for the event, and, who knows? This might actually be built on time, and have no snags along the way. Yew know what they say, “Live in hope…”
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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,