Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Editor's Notepod, Wed., Oct. 14, 2009

Meriden: cancellation of the political forum, leaving citizens with no likely chance of seeing the candidates in action before the election. It’s getting down to the wire at this point, but surely something ought to be able to be worked out. The city needs a bona fide non-partisan “above-it-all” group which everyone respects and which can set up this sort of program.

Meriden: a three-cornered race for school board seats with four, five and two candidates from the three parties. Between the uneven numbers, the parties, and the minority party representation rules, which prohibit any party from holding more than six of nine seats, it’s a complex set-up this year.

State: it’s no use crying over spilled milk, that is, the taxpayer files stolen in a laptop two years ago from a car on a family weekend in Long Island. While the information was available to the thief, it’s fairly likely that said thief was more interested in signing on to Internet porn than in the trove of information on the computer. But procedures need to be in place. We suspect they are and that today's attitudes are far from "cavalier."

Wallingford: No powder puff football movie this year, even though the town’s is the oldest continuously running program. Policies have to be observed regarding all sorts of things – which is no reason they cannot all be dealt with by next year. These things take time.
the possibility of the closure of Old Durham Road. This should get matters off of a dead standstill, and that’s progress.

1 comment:

colleen cyr said...

"A bona fide group to run things" - that gave me a chuckle. Children's First has been running similar events for years as well as advocating vociverously for the Democratic legislative Sustinet Bill. Surely that makes them more polically affiliated than the freakin' West Siders neighborhood association. When I read the article this morning re John Benigni pulling the rug out from under the West Siders forum I thought My God, it looks like Millie Torres Ferguson called in some favors. Backing up that suspicion is the knowledge that the West Siders conducted similar forums at the YMCA both last year and this year - surely Benigni was aware! Why the sudden commotion? Democrats made it clear they have a "problem" with the forum in another article last week and were threatening a boycott. Did they realize that looked silly and try another tactic, that of shutting the whole sheebang down?
Why don't the Democrats shut down the Children's First forum as well? After all, that is backed by another group that consistently endorses Democratic candidates in Meriden - the Federation of Teachers. The Children's First forum is also sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and the wife of the Chamber President is coincidentally running for the Dems as a City Council candidate.
Looks like it's either their way or no way at all in terms of these candidates forums. For all that they dismiss the threat to their political power by Republicans and WTP, they sure are playing hardball in squashing this neighborhood association forum like a bug.