Ansonia Republican Mayoral candidate David Cassetti unveiled a 14-page “game plan” Wednesday (Oct. 9) titled “Ansonia Recharged,” a point-by-point indictment of the Democratic administration that has run the city’s government since 1999, followed by proposed fixes to the problems.
Admittedly, it wasn’t a polished presentation, but Cassetti and the Republicans said they’re not running on style.
They see rising discontent in the city — with increasing taxes, with a stalled economy and a bevy of vacant storefronts, with failing schools — as an opportunity to seize.
And though they’ll admit freely that they don’t have all the answers, they say they have at least come up with some possible fixes.
Charles Stowe, one of three incumbent Republican Aldermen running for re-election, said that itself is a welcome change from the current administration.
“This is the first plan that I’ve ever seen in the city of Ansonia that actually has techniques to solve problems,” Stowe said.
The Valley Indy sent a copy of Cassetti’s plan to Eileen Krugel, the head of the local Democratic Town Committee, seeking comment.
She said Thursday afternoon that a thorough analysis would take more time, but “At a quick look there are facts left out (and distorted) in this political document (i.e. in comparing Ansonia to Monroe’s mill rate; conveniently it left out that Monroe residents pay for their own trash disposal; it is not paid from the municipal budget).”
The Republicans argue the city is ripe for a Democratic defeat.
Patrick Henri, a Sixth Ward Aldermanic candidate and former party chairman, said that while out campaigning, he’s talked to many people, seniors in particular, who are fed up after a tax hike this year brought the city’s mill rate to 39.34.
“They just can’t do this anymore,” Henri said. “These tax increases are breaking their backs.”
Henri ridiculed Della Volpe’s recent announcement that he wants to consolidate sewer services with Derby, as well as the recent beginning of demolition of the Riverside Apartments on Olson Drive, as “gimmicks” trotted out months before the election.
He asked voters to look further back, at the entire record of the Della Volpe administration.
“If this is what you want to continue in the future, keep the same people in,” Henri said. “Assess it for yourself.”
Tax Relief?
When Cassetti announced his candidacy in June, he said the main issue of the campaign would be “Taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes.”
The plan unveiled Wednesday reflects that statement, with its first four pages devoted to highlighting the city’s tax problem, then showing how he’d try to fix it.
Among the “tax solutions” outlined in his plan is a promise that a Cassetti administration would consolidate several City Hall jobs into a single City Manager, and also seek to abolish the Board of Apportionment and Taxation, an appointed board that currently has the last say on the annual budget.
“A (city) manager can do many things for us, and it can help make departments at City Hall accountable, and we need that,” Stowe said later during the presentation.
Cassetti would also establish a “cost cutting commission” as his first official act of business, and seek to provide seniors with property tax freezes or reductions.
OK, but what about the rest of the city’s property owners — would they get a tax break too?
Cassetti said he thinks they would under his plan.
“We’re looking to cut City Hall by 22 percent in my plan,” he said. “I believe we can. I’m going to look for across-the-board department cuts of 3 to 4 percent and hopefully be able to reduce taxes.”
On the sixth page of his written plan, Cassetti says he’ll mandate that department heads submit zero-increase budgets.
Henri interjected to lower expectations.
“The goal is always at least to sustain them. It’d be awesome if taxes could come down. Do taxes ever, ever come down anywhere? Maybe a little,” Henri said.
“The first goal is to try to keep them steady, hold them in place. After that if they can be decreased, that would be awesome.” Henri went on. “But until you get in there and have all the books and the figures and the new people in place, that’s a big undertaking to begin with, so no promises on decreasing.”
“The only thing we can do is do the best we can,” added Val Wells, a Third Ward Aldermanic candidate. “Until we get there we can’t really say definitively what we’re going to do … We’re not going to make false promises.”
Click the play button to see Cassetti’s, Henri’s, and Wells’ comments on the tax question. Article continues after the video.
Schools, Redevelopment
Cassetti also lamented the fact that the city’s schools lag behind most others in the state, but offered solutions to improve them less specific than his plans for lowering taxes.
“We need to build a partnership with the Board of Education,” Cassetti said, charging that Della Volpe’s administration has not done so.
His plan said the city must “Lobby Hartford” to ease up on costly state mandates, which he called the most important component of his education platform.
Beyond that, his plan says he’ll “reach out to surrounding school districts to study cost-sharing and cost-saving solutions” and also “reach out to Ansonia’s residents to introduce real-world education into the classroom.”
Candidates also said Cassetti will do a better job getting the hundreds of thousands of vacant industrial space downtown redeveloped.
His plan calls for the formation of a “coalition of stakeholders” to work on developing a plan for the American Copper & Brass property, modeled after Bridgeport’s Harbor Yard and West Hartford’s Blue Back Square.
“Nobody’s been pressing the issue the past 14 years,” Republican Alderman Phil Tripp said Wednesday. “Dave will push the issue.”
Cassetti vowed to keep Peter Kelly, hired by Della Volpe as the city’s new economic development director in August, occupied.
“I’m going to have Mr. Kelly very busy,” he said. “Very busy.”
Cassetti’s plan is posted below.
