Coppolo recently sat down with The Valley Indy for a wide-ranging podcast interview about the issues facing Derby.
Please click play to listen to the entire interview. Click here to listen to Dziekan’s interview.
This episode is sponsored by ValleyGivesBack.org, an initiative of The Valley Community Foundation.
Here’s a guide to the interview, which is roughly 45 minutes long:
2 minutes, 40 seconds: Coppolo, a fourth-generation city resident, talks about his background.
“I was raised on all the great stories and all the great photos, and the legends of how Derby used to be,” he said.
3 minutes, 53 seconds: Coppolo talks about following in his father’s footsteps by joining the Derby Fire Department at age 16.
Today he is a firefighter in Bridgeport but still volunteers with Derby Storm Ambulance and Rescue Corps on Olivia Street. He talks about the mentors he had growing up in the fire department.
8 minutes, 30 seconds: Why is he running for mayor and does he have the experience for the job?
“Everyone has to come to a point in their lives where they say, ‘Is there something I can do to make things better’?”
9 minutes, 50 seconds: Derby Democrats were very much a fractured party two years ago. What’s different now?
“… I think the party has been unified because people are in a point of dire straits. They need to get out of this financial crisis that is increasing taxes, and we don’t really have any amenities to show for it, or development to show for it.”
11 minutes Who’s advising Coppolo?
Coppolo said his father, Allen, is his campaign manager, and that the Democratic Town Committee, along with elected officials on both sides of the aisle, are passing along wisdom.
“I’m coming (at) this (from the) point of a resident. It’s not necessarily that I know the inside politics of everything …”
Visit ValleyGivesBack.org.
15 minutes, 48 seconds Coppolo is asked what’s the most important issue in Derby.
Spoiler alert: Tax increases
Coppolo talks about the fact Derby was once an industrial hub, but now homeowners are responsible for the majority of the city’s bills.
“That’s not really how a town should exists. It’s not fair to our residents.”
Coppolo is then asked how he would grow the grand list specifically and help homeowners.
He said the first priority is hiring “competent, qualified” people to work in Derby City Hall. Coppolo referred specifically to positions the mayor has the power to appoint.
“I would very much like to post job positions, with job requirements, whether it be for the economic developer or the finance director,” he said.
23 minutes Didn’t the double counting of alliance district money first start when a Democrat was in power in City Hall?
Coppolo said he’s an outsider looking in — and that any error should have been caught, no matter who was in the mayor’s office.
“We need people that can read a budget and not make those mistakes.”
27 minutes Coppolo talks about his stance on whether the Ansonia-Derby school districts should regionalize in some way.
He said he’s leaning more toward shared services within the school districts.
Coppolo said he supports the work being done by an appointed committee, and that it should continue.
Election Day is Nov. 5!
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Music courtesy of The Bad Slugs.
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