The Valley Independent Sentinel and the Seymour High School student council co-hosted the debate. Campaign officials said the debate was the first one held for the top office in Seymour since 2003. About 130 people attended the debate, which was held in the high school auditorium.
Thursday’s debate featured incumbent Democrat Paul Roy, Republican Kurt Miller and Democratic petitioning candidate Jeanne Loda.
The dynamic for much of the debate was two versus one, as Loda and Miller tended to agree on topics and turned their attention to questioning Roy’s policies.
Roy is serving his first term as First Selectman.
Lighting Round
After answering two questions from the Valley Indy and one from the Seymour High School student council, the candidates questioned each other in a “lightning round.”
The round featured two minute answers, a one-minute rebuttal and a follow-up question by the Valley Indy.
Each candidate is already an elected official — Roy, 62, is First Selectman, Miller, 41, is a Selectman, Loda, 70 is a Board of Education member.
The lightning round brought out issues of interest to the candidates — and some pointed questions about their past decisions.
Why Run?
During the lightning round, Miller and Roy both asked Loda to explain her candidacy. Loda, 70, joined the race as a petitioning candidate in late July, after members of a Democratic caucus didn’t nominate her to run for another term on the Board of Education.
Roy asked her why she didn’t run for the Board of Education as a petitioning candidate, after saying that she wanted to be on that board again.
Loda said she told Roy back in April she was going to run as a candidate for First Selectman if she didn’t make it back onto the Board of Education ticket.
“It was well known what my intentions were,” Loda said.
Roy responded by saying if Loda was dedicated to the Board of Education, she could have forced a Democratic primary or ran as a petitioning candidate to fight for her seat on the Board of Education.
That led to the followup question from the Valley Indy about whether Loda had any sour grapes against the Democrats for not picking her for the school board.
“No not all,” she said. “I made this decision a long time ago. I had the right to make that decision and I stand by it.”
Miller asked Loda why she is running against Roy, after supporting him in his 2009 bid for First Selectman.
To answer Miller’s questions, Loda said she was dissatisfied with lack of movement with Tri-Town Plaza, with lack of communication from Roy’s administration, and with the procedure for selling a town building at 98 Bank St.
Economic Development, Tri-Town
Loda asked Miller how he plans to promote economic development in Seymour.
Miller said the town needs to figure out why businesses are going to neighboring towns instead of Seymour.
He said tax incentives are a way to bring more business in.
“We need a reason to have these people come to Seymour,” Miller said.
Roy asked Miller why Miller voted against a tax assessment settlement with the owner of Tri-Town Plaza.
In May 2010, after a legal battle, the town agreed to lower the tax assessment on a portion of the plaza and to give owner Ron Spector a $170,780 tax refund which will be applied to future taxes.
“I was 100 percent against the settlement for Tri-Town Plaza, there’s no question about that,” Miller said. “I thought the town received a very bad deal.”
He declined to go into detail, because the settlement was discussed during executive session.
Roy and the Valley Indy both pushed Miller to detail his issues with the settlement.
“I felt the town of Seymour could have gotten a much better deal even if we had gone to court,” Miller said in response. “As a business owner, I was extremely disappointed with the course of action my fellow Selectmen took.”
Union Contracts
Loda asked Roy why he pushed for a no-layoffs clause in certain town employee contracts.
Roy answered that there is nobody to lay off, because of understaffed departments.
“Giving a no layoff clause did not result in any harm. It enabled me to be able to take away the longevity clause in the contract. That was an important issue to be taken away,” Roy said, pointing out how he used the longevity clause as a bargaining chip.
Roy said the longevity clause for employees was essentially a bonus for staying on the job a certain number of years.
Loda rebutted that statement, saying Roy got rid of the longevity clause but also gave them an increase in their hourly rate. The follow up question was how Roy allowed raises in the tough economy, but Roy countered that there were also raises in the Board of Education contracts, a shot at Loda.
Financial Planning
Miller asked Roy about the mill rate and the budget. He wanted to know what became of the idea for to introduce three and five-year budget plans Roy had once advocated.
Roy essentially said it’s on a to-do list, but when he took office there were a lot of immediate needs to be addressed, including a dated communications system at the police station, a boiler at the Public Works Department, aging vehicles at public works and deteriorating roads, among other issues.
“Unfortunately some of those issues had to be addressed before we could come up with a three or five-year plan,” Roy said.
Now that some of those issues have been resolved, like the roof at the police station, he said a three or five-year plan is possible now.
Miller criticized Roy.
“Here we are 23 months later and these plans have not been presented. It’s disappointing to me as a resident, and as a member of the Board of Selectmen,” Miller said.
The Valley Indy followed up, asking Roy when he would present the three-to-five year budget plan.
“Now is the point we can really start to think about a three or five year plan,” Roy said, because the hurdles have been cleared with the immediate needs the town faced.
Tax Incentives, More On Tri-Town
Tri-Town Plaza was a topic of discussion — first in a question from the Valley Indy and again during the lightening round.
The plaza, located on Derby Avenue near the Ansonia town line, has had large storefronts vacant for several years, and is a perennial campaign issue.
The Valley Indy asked all three candidates if they thought tax incentives would help the owner would spur developed in the plaza.
Roy said he settled the tax issue at Tri-Town Plaza, and now it is the owner’s responsibility to sell the shopping center. He said the owner hasn’t put the money from the settlement back into the plaza — and that the physical appearance of the shopping center may be keeping potential tenants away.
“The ball has to be back in (the owner’s) court,” Roy said. “We have taken care of the tax issue.”
“It has become more dilapidated than before,” Roy said of the center.
Roy said if the town offers tax incentives, it must be for all retailers, not just the Tri-Town Plaza. The town has been studying that type of incentive program, he said.
“If I’m First Selectman we’ll continue working on that tax incentive program,” Roy said.
Miller said the town needs tax incentives. He questioned why they are not in place yet. Miller said Roy had promised to bring development to Tri-Town Plaza, and questioned what has come of that.
“I would have the tax incentive plan complete and put forward,” Miller said.
“The thing we forget is we need to look at our overall economic development picture. There are very specific reasons why retailers are not coming to Seymour, and until we take a step back, and put ourselves in the place of a business owner and ask ourselves that question, we’re never gonna be able to solve that problem,” Miller said.
Loda agreed with Miller, that Roy had indeed promised in 2009 to help bring retail stores to Tri-Town Plaza, and said nothing has been done there, although she commended Roy for settling the tax assessment lawsuit the owner of the center had filed against the town.
Loda said the owner of the center has suggested tax incentives are needed, but nothing was done about it. “Apparently this administration isn’t interested in tax incentives,” Loda said. She concluded that it is a difficult economic time but she is all for tax incentives.
Roy, faced with opponents reminding him of a past promise, rebutted, saying he has aggressively pursued business for Tri-Town Plaza.
Any Tri-Town related inquiries are relayed to the plaza’s property manager or owner, Roy said. However, given the economy and the state of the plaza, there’s only so much government can do.
“There are not a lot of people knocking on the door to get into Tri-Town Plaza. I don’t know how much more aggressive you can be if there is no one interested in going there,” Roy said.
Roy said retailers want finished buildings they can immediately move into and are not interested in Tri-Town Plaza.
98 Bank St.
The Seymour High School student council questioned the candidates about their position on moving the Board of Education central offices to the high school building. The proposal is part of a discussion the town is having as it evaluates whether to sell the building at 98 Bank St., where the Board of Education is currently located, along with the Naugatuck Valley Health District.
“At this point I don’t have an answer where we could best place the Board of Education,” said Miller, who said there has been no real dialogue about the subject, and the school board has not been included in the process.
The town has yet to evaluate the needs of the school offices and what each building that is potentially available offers, he said, naming the community center on Pine Street and the LoPresti School, which will become vacant in 2013, as other possible locations.
“So at this point, because of where we stand, I would be against the high school accepting the Board of Education as a new central office,” Miller said.
Loda agreed with Miller.
She is a member of the Board of Education, and said she learned last December Roy was interested in selling the building, but the central office had not been included in the discussion.
“One of the questions we had was, was everything studied? Has there been a cost study? Has there been an architectural study? Has there been an engineering study? And the answer was no, but they’re gonna do that. This was back last December,” Loda said.
Loda said other towns have tried moving central offices to school buildings and they always end up seeking a separate building.
“One of the major problems is we’re concerned with is security. We have a lot of people coming in and out of central office, so and how can we secure a high school for our students? That is a major problem,” Loda said.
Roy countered that the 98 Bank St. Committee is taking time to make a sound decision, and that the town needs to continue studying whether the 98 Bank St. building should be sold.
He emphasized no decision has been made on relocating school offices.
“98 Bank St. is a very expensive building to keep open,” Roy said. “There are very high costs for energy there. It’s an old building, and is not handicapped accessible for the Board of Education office. All those things are being taken into consideration. No decision has been made.”
Roy said if the town sells 98 Bank St., the school offices don’t necessarily have to move.
Seymour Police Department Issues
The Valley Indy also asked the candidates what they would do about infighting and perceived internal problems at the Seymour Police Department.
The department has had several publicized issues, ranging from union complaints to the demotion of a high-ranking detective.
Loda said there is a lot of tension between management in the department and offices. “As First Selectman, you need to be down there trying to work these issues out,” Loda said. She said there are personalities involved, and she does not have enough details for a definitive answer.
Roy said one of the most important things he can do is attend the Board of Police Commissioners meetings — which he does — and have discussions with the brass and the union, which he said he also does.
He talked about the committee he appointed to find better work schedules for the officers — the goal is to cut overtime costs.
“This is an important step. I think if we can come up with an alternative work schedule the police officers enjoy, that will help a lot with the morale of the police department,” Roy said. “When they can come up with a plan that works for them, they’ll understand they are being appreciated and will have an opportunity to contribute, and will go a long way to solving some of the issues at the police department.”
Miller said the town must step back and look at the bigger issue: a lack of a human resources department in the town.
Miller said he has asked for a consulting group to audit all town departments, and make sure the town is providing the best work environment and training for its employees. “We will continue to see these problems until we take a positive and professional stance,” Miller said, and emphasized his plan for bringing in a human resources consultant.
The Valley Indy, then asked Miller the followup question, of what Miller would do short-term.
Miller said he would have weekly senior staff meetings so these issues can be brought out and discussed on a weekly basis.
“If we get them (department heads) to start working a little better together, communicate together, a lot of these problems would be taken away,” Miller said.
Note: The video of the debate posted above was recorded by Frank Loda and posted on his Blip.tv page. Loda is the husband of candidate Jeanne Loda. The Valley Indy reviewed the video, which shows the debate unedited. The Valley Indy also recorded the debate independently, but has been unable to post its video.
