Council Candidates Debate for Small Crowd

The Chamber of Commerce and Exchange Club co-sponsored a Town Council debate at Farmington High School Tuesday night to help voters learn about the candidates.

About 80 people attended the event, which was hosted by former NBC reporter Tom Monahan and included Republicans, Democrats and independents.

The candidates were randomly selected to answer eight questions from the co-sponsoring organizations and several from the audience.

Jeff Hogan, who previously served two terms on the council and is running unopposed for Town Council chairman, showed off an extensive knowledge of the current and historical condition of the town’s economy, its traffic problems and the plans in place to improve both. He said his top priority for the coming year would be to delay real estate revaluation.

“I too believe we have to control spending… we have to be very careful,” Hogan said. “My largest priority for the Town Council is the issue of revaluation. I truly believe this council has to do everything in its power, using state resources as well, to defer the unfunded mandate of revaluation, particularly since the value of commercial properties has gone down.”

Hogan noted that with the addition of the to the UConn bioscience corridor, there is a probability that more businesses will be attracted to the area, defraying the inevitable shift of property tax burden to homeowners.

Incumbent Democrats Mike Demicco and John Vibert voiced their commitment to preserving town services, especially education.

When given a question about how to get education spending under control, Demicco said he disagreed with the premise of the question.

“I am not one of those people who believe spending on education is out of control in Farmington. I have participated in the budget process for the last six years and all the evidence presented to us when we hammer out a budget for both the town and the Board of Education demonstrates that Farmington spends less per pupil than the state average on a consistent basis,” Demicco said. “I think both the Board of Ed and the town do a fantastic job controlling spending. All costs are going up… but if you look at surrounding towns, our tax rates and mill rate are much lower.”

Vibert’s answer on where to make budget cuts was similar in sentiment.

“The last several years we’ve cut things in every category. We’ve done a disservice to education, to the schools; we’ve cut them too much. The foundation of those schools is teachers and when we start cutting teachers from our school system, we hurt our school system. I’m not talking about cuts we make because of enrollment changes… I’m talking about cuts to culinary arts, Latin, English programs — those are cuts which impact how our children are educated and the success they’re going to have coming out of our school systems.”

Vibert pointed to the plan to update technology as one place where spending could be delayed without too much damage to the system.

Independent candidate, former Town Council member and president of the Farmington Taxpayer’s Association, Harry Kraiza repeated the refrain he’s brought to most town meetings over the past few years.

“The culture in this town, particularly at our Town Council… has been spend, spend, spend. Property taxes in our town the last seven years have gone up 30 percent…. We have to change the culture on spending. …Harry Kraiza is not here talking about decreasing spending but significantly decreasing the increases in spending,” he said.

The most senior candidate – both in years on the council and age – Republican Charlie Keniston explained his work on the Unionville traffic subcommittee to ease congestion in Unionville. The fiscally conservative candidate also said sometimes costs are unavoidable and this budget season, he warned, is not going to be an easier than the last.

“I had high expectations of making big changes when I came to the council,” he said. “But we’ve been through tough economic times. If we were a homeowner, we might delay fixing the roof but sooner or later when it starts to leak, you do it. Literally folks, sooner or later you have to pay for these things… I was the only one that voted against the budget this year because I thought we could come down a little lower…. But just like at home you can’t stop paying your bills, you can’t just stop maintaining your home… if you want to live here, you’ve got to pay for it.”

Newcomer Dave Wlodkowski, a Democratic architect in his first run for council, said that a dialogue with town department heads would be important in creating a budget. As an architect, he said he deals with many different perspectives when finishing a project

“The thing we have to realize is that there are no easy answers… we need to understand that as a community. We can say if there were term limits, things would be better of if we cut education in half… we can solve the problem we see in front of us… what you have to be able to do is pull all the points of view together to realize a successful project.”

Incumbent Republican Patty Stoddard highlighted her work with the Board of Education, as a former member and as the council liaison. She agreed with Hogan that postponing revaluation would be important for the budget, as would a recently ratified contract agreement with the Farmington Education Association. She also said her work as a real estate agent gave her insight into what people want in the town, what brings them to Farmington and the state of the market.

Nancy Nickerson, a Republican candidate and only other woman on the council, was asked about term limits.

“I served on the Board of Education for 16 years,” she said. “I enjoyed it and felt I had something to give year after year… when you’re in a town like Farmington, we’re fortunate to have a number of people who want to take part … when you serve those number of years and if the people are reelecting you, they want you there,” she said.

CJ Thomas cited statistics on the town’s economic growth, saying the town has gained 178 new businesses in the past six months, in part due to great schools, low tax rate and attractive properties. He also said that the town approached Cosco, which planned to open in New Britain, offering to make room for the store here if New Britain didn’t work out.

Thomas said the council has taken a bare bones approach to the budget in some aspects. He pointed to the new teacher contract, for which he said he was on the negotiating committee, saying it would be wrong to cut teachers knowing the town would have a much better contract this year.

“We’re very tight with our money in the town,” he said.

William Baker, an independent, said the town has problems with overspending, faltering performance in education and an unfriendly business climate.

“What we need to do is change our image and that starts with planning and zoning and the economic development commission,” he said. Baker criticized the traffic project, which forced Parsons Chevrolet from the “crazy corner” but hasn’t developed the property and the Unionville plan that would remove businesses from New Britain Avenue. He said council members were partially at fault for continually returning to council meetings with nothing to report as liaisons to town bodies.

Bill Beckert, a Democrat who serves on the Board of Education, talked about his experience as a lawyer opening his own business in 2010.

“I thought about coming into Farmington but I was challenged by the fact that traffic patterns are just completely unsuitable for small businesses,” he said. Discussion of another bridge needs to go back on the table, he said. “It’s really about making the town accessible.

How the town pays for services and approves a budget are the most important issue for him, Beckert said.

“I would advocate for charter reform. As it currently stands, the budget process is designed that if someone feels the budget is inadequate… they still have to vote yes, because if the budget fails, by charter it goes back to the council and gets cut a second time,” he said. “The way we do it now is somewhat undemocratic.”

The debate will air on Nutmeg TV’s Government Channel – Comcast Channel 96, or AT&T UVerse Channel 99. The debate will be aired three times: 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7; Thursday, Oct. 20; and Saturday, Nov. 5.