I think it’s important to address some of the questions posed in the Letter to the Editor written by Deborah J. Godeski on October 25, 2017.
I’m not sure if the author was paying attention at all during the debate. After four years in office, we should be asking ourselves “Is that all Mayor Dugatto has is a plan?”
A plan for downtown Derby cannot be too difficult to come up with. There is approximately 12 acres of buildable land. That is the size of a postage stamp for most developers. So Mayor Dugatto took four years and a $500,000 grant (funded by the taxpayers) to come up with a plan which she proudly waved in the air several times during the debate.
What did the study tell us? Something we have known for years.
It told us downtown Derby could potentially support a mixed use development. I’m sure the residents of Derby already knew this.
Maybe the title of your letter should read “Mayor Dugatto Still Hasn’t Done Anything Downtown.” She needed a grant, a consultancy firm and a study to tell us that the site could be developed into mixed use? Most residents already knew that.
It was evident during the debate that Mayor Dugatto doesn’t really have any economic development efforts going on to speak of other than the development on Pershing Drive that was started by the prior Staffieri administration.
Her Chief of Staff is a planner not an economic development director who, according to Mayor Dugatto “Is busy making boxes and checking them off.”
Mayor Dugatto further went on to say that she herself does economic development. Economic Development should be kept at an arms distance from any Mayor. There are numerous conflicts of interest that go along with that. It’s best to leave economic development to the professionals.
As for former Mayor Tony Staffieri, does anyone really need to defend his run for the City Treasurer position?
He was a four-term Mayor for the City of Derby who oversaw all departments including finance and helped stabilize the tax base while spending countless hours helping to create efficiency and cost effective measures in municipal government. It seems like a great fit to me.
Mayor Dugatto’s question regarding Mr. Staffieri’s qualifications seemed to be intended to hide the real issue: Derby needs help with its finances. That is the bottom line. We need to get ourselves off the watch list for our bond rating and onto a list with communities that are experiencing economic growth.
In my opinion Mr. Dziekan has the foresight to realize that if you have a capable team in place, then it is your job as Mayor to oversee, not to micro manage. Micro managing leads to inactivity. Mayor Dugatto seems to be mired in procedural red tape.
That is apparent if you look around Derby. Taxes are going up, the grand list is shrinking and the reserve funds are dangerously low. I don’t care how you spin it, after four years the taxpayers deserve more.
Ralph Cappiello
Derby
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