A month has come and gone since Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti identified two men he wants to fill vacancies on the city’s Board of Aldermen — without any action by Aldermen.
And now new names are emerging as replacements.
After a meeting last week, board President Phil Tripp handed out the resume of a third man to reporters and sang the man’s praises, but stopped just short of officially endorsing him.
He downplayed any notion of a rift between himself and the mayor over the appointments, saying it’s up to the rest of the board to decide who fills the slots.
Previously
Two Republican members of the Board of Aldermen — the Fourth Ward’s Ashley Rogers and the Sixth Ward’s Matthew Edo — resigned recently.
In June, Cassetti said he wanted to see Edward Bostic Jr., a Jackson Street resident and owner of Main Street’s PM Lounge, appointed to Rogers’ former post, and Ralph Villers, the chairman of the cultural commission, appointed to Edo’s.
Cassetti told the Connecticut Post he expected the two men to take office by July 12.
But it didn’t happen.
Click here for a previous story.
’Other Names Have Surfaced’
Tripp apologized last week for any confusion. He said the appointments were put off because the Aldermen are considering names in addition to Cassetti’s recommendations.
“The Aldermen wanted more time to look over and discuss options,” he said.
Tripp handed out the resume of another Sixth Ward resident, Joshua Shuart, to reporters. He said Shuart would be an asset to the board — but stopped just short of officially endorsing him, saying he’d probably vote the way the majority of the board does.
And he also said former Fourth Ward Alderman Keith Maynard, who resigned in 2009 after a domestic violence arrest, has expressed an interest in returning to the city’s legislative body.
Fourth Ward
Maynard, who previously served as a Democrat but is now an independent, said that he hopes to be considered, but knows the domestic violence conviction for which he was sentenced to nearly three years behind bars will not work in his favor.
“It’s something I have to live with, my family has to live with, my friends have to live with the rest of our lives,” Maynard said. “I’m not proud of what happened. If I could do things over again I would. (But) that’s behind me, and I’m ready to move forward.”
Maynard, who coaches baseball and football, was at the center of an outcry in February over proposed new rules calling for background checks on people who volunteer as coaches in youth sports.
He said that experience, as well as his previous experience on the board, would serve him well.
Bostic, one of Cassetti’s recommendations to fill the vacancy, said he was disappointed not to become an yet, but hopes to join the board in August.
“All that did for me was fuel the fire,” he said.
He said Cassetti had reached out to him during his first mayoral campaign with the idea of being an Alderman.
In the time since, the idea has appealed to him more and more.
“The more I thought about it, the more I liked it,” Bostic, a lifelong Ansonia resident, said.
Before owning PM Lounge, Bostic worked for Aquarion Water Company and the Ansonia-Derby Water Company, and also volunteers in youth sports, an issue he said will be a focus of his if appointed Alderman.
He pointed out that the Tinney Community Center on Olson Drive has been closed for years, and said not every family can afford after school programs currently offered in the area.
“Kids are hanging out in the street with nothing to do,” he said. “Eventually they get into trouble.”
Sixth Ward
In the Sixth Ward, Villers said he hopes to be appointed in order to help pursue Cassetti’s agenda.
“There hasn’t been much improvement in Ansonia in years and I’ve seen a lot more since the 2013 elections,” Villers said. “I’d like to help them continues the positive things I’ve seen so far.”
The Valley Indy left messages last week with Shuart, a professor of marketing and sport management at Sacred Heart University, at the phone number on the resume Tripp handed out Tuesday.
Tripp said after Tuesday’s meeting that Shuart would be a good addition to the board.
“His name was brought to me and he showed interest in it, and I had a conversation with the gentleman,” Tripp said. “I think his resume speaks for himself. He’s a doctor, a business professor. His expertise is in marketing, in business, and I think he would be an asset.”
But he said he wouldn’t be telling fellow Aldermen who to vote for.
In addition to Villers and Shuart, former Town and City Clerk Elizabeth Lynch has also expressed interest in completing Edo’s term.
“I’m not one that tells the Board of Aldermen what to do,” Tripp said. “I kind of follow the flow of where the majority goes.”
‘We’ll See What Happens’
The Valley Indy asked Tripp whether the maneuvering over the vacancies was the latest flashpoint in a rift that surfaced last year when his presidency of the Board of Aldermen was challenged by Lorie Vaccaro, a close ally of Cassetti’s.
Tripp said he was simply following the process outlined in the city’s charter, and wanted to give other Aldermen enough time to consider possible replacements besides the mayor’s picks.
“What the mayor did is the mayor’s prerogative,” Tripp said. “He has every right to do that. I go by the city charter.”
The mayor, during a phone interview from Cleveland, where he was attending the 2016 Republican National Convention, said still he hopes to see Villers and Bostic appointed during a special meeting Aug. 9, before the Aldermen’s regular monthly meeting.
“I have my picks and I guess they have their picks,” Cassetti said. “We’ll see what happens.”
The mayor acknowledged fighting with his Republican Party, but said he and Tripp met recently “to discuss our differences.”
“We’re working things out,” he said.
