Politics & Government

Councilman Fuller Addresses Stratford Issues

Stratford Patch recently emailed out a list of hot topics to all the candidates for Town Council in November's election. Today, we hear Councilman David Fuller's answers.

Editor's Note: is the current Town Council member representing the 6th District. His Republican challenger in this year's election on Nov. 8 is Ken Poisson.

BOE Health Insurance Premiums

While the Town Council and mayor do not have direct control over many Board of Education (BOE) matters, this does not presume we cannot do anything about it. 

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The mayor and Council has to hold the line and demand that BOE negotiates better benefits packages that does not lead to exponential increases as we have seen in recent years. 

One solution would be to consider a health care pool with other municipalities, nonprofits and businesses.  The more buyers in a pool, the lower the premiums are.  We hear a lot of talk about regionalization, and here is a perfect immediate example of how we can streamline services and resources effectively.

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Pension Policy

Steps have been taken in controlling pensions. The police pension issue demonstrates a meaningful transition from defined benefits to defined contributions that in the long-term will save our town money while still honoring police retirement obligations. 

Fire is the last holdout for the defined contribution plan, and the firefighters definitely earn every penny of their pay. However, the mayor and Council together must demand a fair renegotiation that stops the overtime addition to retirement benefits.

Pensions must be capped, like they were in the private sector, or move it to a contribution based system. 

Littering

With staffing police and public works at a higher capacity, we can have the manpower necessary to enforce littering and blight codes on the books. I am hoping to construct tougher blight laws that deals with unsightly fencing materials and stricter penalties for littering.

The Salary of the Town Attorney

The town attorney should be a town employee at a fixed salary and a fixed budget, akin to an in-house corporate counsel in the private sector. For cases that cannot be handled in-house, a more transparent and competitive bidding process must be established to maintain costs.

Stratford Army Engine Plant

This is a complicated issue with a simple answer. The town must do a better job leveraging political power and advocacy to our state and federal delegation to cajole the Army to take its responsibility to clean off the land. 

The sooner the area is cleaned up, the sooner it would be attractive to would-be developers. We should look into ways to invest the $20 million we have in the EPA superfund towards technologies that neutralize such toxins in the soil and water. 

We must maintain pressure on our federal and state elected officials until they get tired from hearing from us and take proactive measures to get the Army to act.

Shakespeare Theatre

Revitalize it into the artistic and cultural center it can be. With Festival! Stratford, we have witnessed, thanks to the countless hours of volunteers, that the theater is in decent shape. It should be managed by a nonprofit board of directors, like most community theaters in the region, so it is less of a burden on taxpayers.  The restoration of the Benjamin House (aka the White House) must be included in this plan.

Stratford Center Redevelopment

Thanks to the grant secured for the center, re-development is already underway. Stratford has a night life now, and this adds to our cultural and economic growth. The more that can be done to address parking control and accessibility to the train station and the center, the more in-town and out-of-town people would dine and find entertainment in Stratford. 

Long Beach West Redevelopment

The town does not have the resources to maintain this land adequately. I supported the sale of Long Beach West in 2008 when it passed in referendum.  Any redevelopment must consider the ecological conservation of the marsh and shoreline, as well as providing accessibility to the beach and nature walk. 

A small boardwalk like we see at Silver Sands Beach is something I think can add great value at minimal invasive damage to the environment.

Stratford Dog Park

This idea will be presented to the next sworn in Council, and I think we absolutely need one. The model used in Shelton is the way I think would be best served for Stratford. That is administered by a not-for-profit organization to raise funds for the maintenance of the park. 

A dog park will provide dog owners the place they need to walk their dogs freely without intruding on other people and parks in town.

Public Safety

It is no secret that our first responders are understaffed and this is contributing to massive overtime, workers compensation claims and fatigue and burnout in these departments. 

Let’s give the police, fire and paramedics what they need in terms of staffing and equipment. Ideally, Stratford FD should have 26 firefighters on staff at all times, and not 22. This constitutes a large overtime issue. I am supportive of the mayor in his efforts to hire state troopers to be added to our police force. I encourage the administration to keep up recruiting new officers until all vacancies are filled.

Sikorsky Airport Expansion

A better airport is not necessarily a bigger one. Main Street needs to be reworked to deal with the drainage issues at the low points in the road. But, any expansion must consider input from the community, residents and ecological factors before any plan is green lighted.

Mayoral Salary Increase

I am opposed to a $25,000 pay increase to the mayor. In this recession when people are losing jobs, it is out of touch to pay elected officials more money. If we had a budget that did not lay off town workers, then this might be a more attractive option. 

The mayor's current salary of $90,000 is still a lot of money for a lot of people in this town. The ideal scenario would be a cost of living adjustment increase that amounts to 2 percent a year. A raise of $25,000 is just too much. Taking the COLA approach, the pay increase would be between $10,000 to $15,000.  


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