The two candidates for mayor are clashing over the status of the downtown redevelopment project.
Democrat mayoral hopeful Dan Foley Jr.‘s campaign has been saying Mayor Anthony Staffieri is puffing up the prospect of redevelopment to win votes before the Nov. 8 election.
However, Staffieri said Foley’s campaign is flat-out lying about the downtown development project in attempt to cloud the matter in the minds of voters.
Who Said What?
As proof, Staffieri points to a line in a Foley campaign flier that landed in Derby mailboxes last week.
A portion of the mailer, attributed to the Valley Independent Sentinel, states the developer “admits it will be multiple elections before the project gets off the ground, if at all.”
The problem, Derby Republicans said, is that those words never came out of the developer’s mouth — and were never published by the Valley Independent Sentinel.
“It’s sad when a politician, someone who is looking to serve, lies just to get ink. It’s a scare tactic,” Staffieri said. “It’s manipulating words that no one said. Where did this come from?”
Ken Hughes, a member of the Derby Redevelopment Agency and the president of the Derby Board of Aldermen, said campaigning is one thing — but making a fictitious statement and then attributing it to a local news source is another.
“It’s the definition of dirty campaigning. If they just wrote that without referencing (the Valley Independent Sentinel) we would not be having this discussion. They can say whatever they want. But when you reference a news site, people believe that,” Hughes said. “There has to be some kind of line that doesn’t get crossed and that is a line that should not be crossed.”
What Are These People Talking About?
Douglas Gray is the president and chief executive officer of the Eclipse Development Group, the California-based company looking to build a retail shopping center in the Derby Redevelopment zone.
The Derby Redevelopment zone is, generally, the land between Route 34 and the Housatonic River in Derby. Efforts to redevelop the area have been going on for years.
On Sept. 21, Gray appeared at a meeting of the Derby Redevelopment Agency. Click here to read the Valley Indy’s story on the meeting.
Staffieri said the meeting marked the end of a one-year due diligence period between Eclipse and the city. Gray was to let the city know whether they were walking away from the project or whether it was a project they could make happen.
Eclipse came back and said they’re committed to the development.
Gray told city officials Sept. 21 his company has “great interest” from potential tenants and that his company was in contract to buy the former Lifetouch property on Derby’s Main Street.
Here is a video of Gray’s statement to the Derby Redevelopment Agency. Story continues below.
He said the development was on track to open its doors in the second quarter of 2014.
Gray did not name potential tenants at the meeting.
Immediately after the meeting, he told reporters retailers were waiting for positive signs from Wall Street regarding the economy before committing to leases. Click here for a separate story on the comments Gray made responding to questions from the press after the meeting.
Gray said that no leases — or pre-lease agreements — had been signed.
Gray did not return a phone call for comment Oct. 21.
We Said What?
The Valley Indy, wondering where the statement attributed to the publication came from, contacted Foley’s campaign after seeing the flier.
The attribution wasn’t meant to convey the information was directly reported from the Valley Indy, but from videos recorded and posted by the Valley Indy, Hyder said.
Foley Campaign Says
Gray’s statements in the videos are being interpreted by the Foley campaign as the developer admitting “it will be multiple elections before the project gets off the ground, if at all.”
“The statement is completely accurate based upon the developer’s comments in the video section of the article,” Foley campaign adviser Rob Hyder said in an e‑mail response to a question from the Valley Indy. “Doug Gray says ‘it looks like we’re right on schedule to look towards an opening in second quarter of 2014.’ There are elections in 2011 and 2013 before Gray’s estimated opening in 2014,” Hyder said.
Hughes said Foley’s campaign isn’t telling the truth as evidenced by the fact they can’t give direct answers to direct questions.
The Republican Alderman said the campaign is talking in circles because the developer never said “it will be multiple elections before the project gets off the ground, if at all.”
“The statement has no basis in reality. Show me the quote you put on your flier? They can’t do it because the statement is not true,” Hughes said.
Staffieri said Foley has established a pattern of saying anything, regardless of the truth. He referenced a previous campaign flier that advertised Derby as having one of the highest crime rates in the state. The problem was that the source material for the statement was from 2004, when the city had a Democratic mayor, before Staffieri was in office.
He Said, He Said
Foley’s campaign officials also said the city doesn’t own much of the land in the redevelopment zone, which makes any project there all the more complicated. The project traditionally becomes newsworthy on the eve of every election, Hyder said.
Staffieri said it’s not the city’s job to acquire land for the developer — Eclipse will negotiate with land owners in the Derby Redevelopment zone. Other property owners will be hearing from the state about acquiring properties because the state Department of Transportation is moving forward with a plan to widen Route 34, Staffieri said.
Staffieri has been telling reporters about possible tenants — Starbucks, the Olive Garden, Red Lobster — when no leases have been signed, Foley campaign officials point out. If the developer hasn’t confirmed anything, why is the mayor naming businesses just before an election, Hyder asked.
As proof of the uncertainty surrounding redevelopment, the Foley campaign’s publicist also points toward a video posted by the Valley Indy in which Gray tells Redevelopment Agency member Mike Kelleher that tenants aren’t moving as quickly as the company wants due to the economy.
However, Gray also told Kelleher that interest is very good considering the state of the economy. Gray’s full conversation with Kelleher is posted below.
“Can Mayor Staffieri say with 100 percent certainty that Eclipse (the development company) will come through as his campaign is claiming?” Hyder asked.
Staffieri said the developer is waiting on a commitment from a potential anchor store before other leases get signed. If Eclipse wasn’t serious in downtown Derby, Gray wouldn’t have announced he is in contract to buy the Lifetouch property on Main Street or explained that his financing for the project is in order, the mayor said.
