Letter to mayor

An open letter to Mayor John Harkins :

Your Honor,

As the sitting incumbent, you will have an automatic advantage in this year’s Mayoral election over whoever becomes your opponent. To be honest, I voted for you in the last election because you promised a different administration than our first mayor delivered. You promised openness and transparency in your administration. You promised to put aside cronyism and “politics as usual” and bring a fresh new approach with your administration. You promised to be a mayor of the people, by the people, and for the people of Stratford. That you would put aside the political bickering, back-biting, and pay backs that came with our first mayoral election. The politicization of the Stratford Police Department, which began in the first Mayoral administration, has not only continued, but has actually gotten worse. Many officers that the Town has hired and trained, after being certified and serving for a short period of time, have left Stratford, and moved to Norwalk, Stamford and Greenwich where they are now police officers. Why is this? In just the past few years, our Department went from being staffed by 75% officers with 10 years of service or more, to 75% officers with 10 years or less. Is this good news for the taxpayers that our Police Department has lost at least 50% of its most experienced officers? Can the voter/taxpayers of Stratford say they are better off than 4 years ago or even 8 years ago? We layoff and allow attrition to shrink the size of our Public Works Department and have to bargain with independent contractors to get the Town’s business taken care of. One of the Town’s biggest complaints is that our public services have deteriorated over the past 8 years. When we no longer have public works employees, the cost of providing these services will be at the mercy of the private contractors. Those costs will no longer be under our control. My biggest complaint is the outright gerrymandering of our town districts by a Republican politician, only months before a mayoral campaign. First of all, what’s the rush? If it is so important that this be done, why wasn’t this decision more broadly debated publicly especially in the districts that it effects. The only public discussion , at Town Hall, this action was opposed by every person who spoke except one, Republican Registrar of Voters and Republican Town Committee Chairman Lou DeCilio who actually proposed this plan and do we get a whiff of “politics as  usual” in this proposal? Why was this obvious political proposal not put on the ballot as a referendum in November or postponed until after the election. This smells an awful lot like the machinations that the national Republican Party tried to pull in last year’s Presidential elections. It didn't work then and it shouldn't work now. Do the Republicans think that the Stratford voters, no matter which party, really think this was not a partisan political move? Do they think they can pull the wool over the voter’s eyes and get away with it? I think Mr. DeCilio and the Mayor owe the people of Stratford an apology for this insult to our intelligence. What say you on this question Mr. Mayor? You work for us, we are your bosses and we are outraged.