Ansonia Aldermen voted Tuesday (Aug. 26) to put four questions on the Nov. 4 election ballot asking voters whether to reduce the number of wards and Aldermen in the city, as well as a handful of other changes.
The proposals also call for changes to the city’s budget process, which would give the Board of Aldermen final say over the budget, instead of the Board of Apportionment and Taxation.
The vote was 9 – 1, with Fourth Ward Democrat Jerome Fainer voting against the proposal because he said it would give the mayor’s office too much power.
Board of Aldermen members Charles Stowe, Phil Tripp, Lorie Vaccaro, Denice Hunt, Joseph Jeanette Jr., Anthony Cassetti, Joan Radin, Patrick Henri, and Dave Blackwell voted to put the charter changes on the ballot.
The Changes
The four questions will be:
- 1. Shall the Ansonia City Charter be amended to reduce the number of Wards to three and the number of Aldermen to nine?
- 2. Shall the Ansonia City Charter be amended to modify the budget process, including the following: (1) requiring the mayor to submit an annual budget proposal; (2) requiring the Board of Aldermen to approve the budget recommended by the appointed Board of Apportionment and Taxation; and (3) providing Board of Aldermen oversight of budget transfers?
- 3. Shall the Ansonia City Charter be amended to clarify and modify the powers and duties of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen?
- 4. Shall the Ansonia City Charter be amended to correct grammar, spelling, terminology, statutory references, and outdates provisions of the Charter, resolve inconsistencies, and make other technical changes and revisions as recommended by the Charter Revision Commission?
The changes were suggested by a Charter Revision Commission appointed in January to review the city’s governing document.
The commission held several meetings to discuss the changes before voting last Wednesday to forward them to the Aldermen after the commission held a public hearing.
Click here for a previous story on the proposals.
If voters approve question 1, a Ward Boundary Commission would be appointed to make suggestions as to how the city should be divided into three wards, with Aldermen having the final say.
Public Input
The Aldermen held a public hearing on the proposals Tuesday which drew about 20 people to City Hall.
Six residents weighed in on the various charter change proposals.
Prospect Street residents Phyllis Rivera and Anita Seufert said they want the Aldermen have the final say on the budget.
Fourth Street resident Randolph Carroll said he was OK with giving Aldermen the final say on the budget, but said he was “confused” over a proposal to reduce the members of the city’s Board of Apportionment and Taxation and reduce its powers.
Benz Street resident Michael Egan endorsed the proposed ward reduction, but said he’d rather see two Aldermen per ward instead of three, with an additional “at-large” Alderman on the board.
Robert Zuraw of High Acres Road disagreed, saying saving $5,000 per election isn’t a good enough reason to reduce the number of wards in the city, and that BOAT members should be elected.
Thomas Maffeo, the city’s Democratic Registrar of Voters, said the ward reduction would save the city money and allow election officials to upgrade technology easier in the future.
Discussion, Dissent
After the hearing, the Aldermen discussed the proposals for about 20 minutes before voting to send them to voters as-is.
Fainer’s objections concerned the third question that will be put to voters concerning the mayor’s powers. He worried that the changes could “create a monster.”
“I’m not saying Dave (Cassetti), just the mayor’s position, it’s becoming like a little dictator, in charge of everything,” Fainer said. “He does all the hiring, he does all the firing? That’s what we have department heads for, right? That’s what we have boards for?”
Fainer also said he’d prefer five wards to three wards.
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The city’s corporation counsel, John Marini, responded that the proposed changes just make clear in the charter what has been common practice.
“There certainly is no unilateral power given to the mayor with respect to personnel,” Marini said. “There are checks and balances.”
For instance, he said, if the Aldermen don’t like a mayoral hire, they could reduce that person’s salary to $1, effectively blocking the appointment.
And the mayor would have to adhere to the city’s contracts with its labor unions, lest he or she subject the city to a costly lawsuit.
“It’s really not so much a change as it is a clarification,” Marini said.
After the meeting, Fainer said he wasn’t convinced.
“If you look through all the highlights in (the proposed new charter), it keeps coming up, the mayor should do all the hiring,” he said, taking power away from, for example, the Board of Public Works, or the library’s board of directors.
He again stressed that he wasn’t saying Cassetti himself would go on a hiring-firing spree as soon as the changes are approved.
“It’s the position,” he said. “I just think it (would) become too powerful.”
Tara Kolakowski, a former Alderman who oversaw personnel decisions for Mayor James Della Volpe, agreed.
“It’s not about the person, it’s about the position,” she said after the meeting. “You’re giving the position too much power.”
She also took a dim view of Marini’s contention that the Aldermen’s control of the checkbook would give them the chance to cut the salary for a hiring they don’t like, pointing out that the current board is dominated by the same party as the mayor.
