The “Old Guard” is Getting Nervous
Hard to believe it’s been only 15 months since the WPCA referendum and 2015 election. In a total smack down of the aristocracy (Harkins and friends) the people said “NO” to his honor and to the candidates who put their interest ahead of the people’s. Unfortunately, the “old guard” aristocratic powers predictably have reared their ugly heads in response.
Who are the “old guard” you ask? Anyone who staunchly defends the status quo they have worked hard to preserve for decades. They fight revolutionary movements or candidates whenever they rise up. They exist in both your political parties and have a secret handshake understanding that ensures their positions of power and ability to live off the taxpayer’s largess is protected regardless the party in power.
It is important to closely watch behavior and not party titles to determine who is a card-carrying member. Here are some obvious members of the “old guard”. From the DTC we have Council Chair Beth Daponte, BOE Vice Chair Lenny Petruccelli, Former DTC Chairman Richard Buturla and DTC registrar Rick Marcome. On the RTC side we have Mayor John Harkins, State Rep Laura Hoydick, RTC Chair & registrar Lou DeCilio, 8th District Councilman Vincent Chase and sometime town attorney Ben Proto, just to name a few from a very long list.
Emerging from the WPCA fight we see a “new guard” of players not beholden to the “old guard” who are committed to serving the people they represent. They want to do what is right for all the people in town. The problem is that these new players represent a huge threat to the “old guard” and with the November 2017 election deciding who will be Mayor and run the Council, the stakes are extremely high. I’ll let you decide who are members of the “new guard”.
There a number of issues coming up now that should dominate this election, but make no mistake the fight will be between the “old guard” and the “new guard”. The winner will be in control for the next 4 years. The major issues are:
- Fiscal management of Municipal, BOE and WPCA budgets
- Economic development vision and plans
- Transit oriented development vision and plans
- Shakespeare development
In subsequent updates we will look deeper at these issues. Hopefully our readers will weigh in on where they see these issues going. The fight is just and revenge Is sweet. Just don’t mess with the Madame or you will get the horns!
-The Madame
Filed under: Stratford Political Theater | 7 Comments
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Stratford Politics 
I don’t believe the “new guard” has any interest at all in lowering our bloated taxes. I’m not aware of a single cut to anything that the “new guard” has initiated. The last budget sailed through without question. Among other outrages, it contained the largest BOE increase in 350 years. Just passed right through. No questions asked.
Not a single set of car keys have been confiscated. We continue to allow six figure employees a personal car, fuel and expenses. We certainly hope they are all declaring that as income on their taxes.
In fact, the only thing that comes to mind is the spending of a non-budgeted $60k for a 2″ deep fishing pond at Longbrook Park.
Can we all stop bickering about dog park locations and start talking about what we need to cut so we can afford dog food?
Does anyone know what happened to the former finance director? Was she told to resign or be fired by the mayor?
“I don’t believe the “new guard” has any interest at all in lowering our bloated taxes. I’m not aware of a single cut to anything that the “new guard” has initiated. The last budget sailed through without question. Among other outrages, it contained the largest BOE increase in 350 years. Just passed right through. No questions asked.”
Peut-Être oui Monsieur Kild ou peut-être non. I believe they have interest, but they lack know how to attack the details and hold various people’pieds au feu. Seems to moi that our elected BOE members have no desire to hold Robinson and Monsieur Clarence accountable for how they spend your money. As I inspect the members of the BOE, I see more “Old Guard” members – Len Petruccelli, Bob David, Christian Barnaby, Maria Buturla? Isn’t it a monumental conflict to have the wife of the town attorney’s office of Dewey Cheatum & Howe (who also holds beaucoup contracts with the BOE) serving on the BOE? That is, how you say, a topic for another day?
This budget cycle is when we will see who has boules de curve on the Council. We already know that no one has them on the BOE. There are some signs that the some of the new guard players are digging in, but we have not heard any peeps yet. With the BOE budget out there now, perhaps we will here some cries.
“Does anyone know what happened to the former finance director? Was she told to resign or be fired by the mayor?”
Monsieur Clops, it is not known exactly what Madamoiselle Collier is doing now, but she was clearly reading the tea leaves inside 2725 Main St and sick of the toxic waste that is Chez Harkins. Remember that she is part of the Miron SDTC clique and school yard ami de Daponte. She was a hold over from the Miron administration, kept because she knew where all the bodies were buried as far as slush funds and the likes. Word has it that as the house of cards that was the WPCA sales has come crumbling down that Harkins would need someone to blame for his fiscal mismanagement of your taxes. And that Mademoiselle Collier would be the fall fille.
The question now is who will be the fall guy or gal when the merde frappe le ventilator. Only time will tell and we expect much to come to light in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned.
The BOE is now asking for yet another $6 million on top of the $7 million they got last year. Obviously, administrators can never take home enough tax money. But hey, let’s argue about a dog park or skating rink.
You are surprised? We will need to start a new thread to focus solely on the BOE budget. Upon detailed scrutiny, it is clear that the elected BOE officials are playing footsie with Mademoiselle Robinson and Monsieur Clarence. They lack the political will and backbone to stand up to the abuse of administration overhead. Feehan, David and Monsieur Petruccelli are making statements, but this is a weak BOE. Too much of this budget has nothing to do with “the children” or to the teachers. They are expecting “the people” to not take the time to ask the tough questions that must be asked.
Madame,
This is not a weak BOE. This is a weak public. Parents are not demanding an accountability. They feel if they spend more of their income that somehow that will benefit their children. That has never been shown to be the case, but the BOE client base (parents and students) turns over completely in 12 years. Parents forget that no matter how much money they spend, their child’s education does not improve. Methods may change, programs come and go, books may have new editions and rules may vary but the most important factor in a child’s education remains the parent.
if you need an example, ask any education administrator to show you the correlation between an administrator’s compensation and any measure of student performance. Any at all. When have we ever heard, “Wow! We gave our Superintendent a $50,000 bonus last year and student grades went through the roof!”?
This is probably why the superintendent, COO and the BOE camouflage the administrators’ pay in the budget.
Notwithstanding the greed apparent in the budget, we are owed an accurate accounting of how our money is spent. That not only means an error-free budget, but a detailed and accurate accounting of how our money was spent last year.
If this fairy tale of a budget passes again, the Stratford BOE will have received a $13 million increase within two years. These are astronomical increases by any measure.