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In a stunning denial of any belief in democracy, Mayor John Harkins rejected out of hand the voters right to petition the government. We have been commenting upon Town politics for nearly ten years. That is a lot of slime and muck to wade through. But we have never witnessed such a blatant disregard for the will of the voter, taxpayers and businesses in Stratford. Never.
To review, Harkins had conducted a secret negotiation with Greater New Haven WPCA to sell our WPCA to them for $11 million. Oh, you will hear lots of different numbers coming out of Town Hall. $16 million, $37 million, pick a number. It doesn’t matter. The deal is $11 million for a $100 million asset plus $10 million per year to Greater New Haven WPCA in revenue. That’s the deal.
Unfortunately for Harkins, he couldn’t just sell it with his signature alone. He needed some weak and stupid councilmen to go along with his plan and sell out Stratford residents. Turns out they were pretty easy to find. Gavin Forrester (R), Joseph Kubic (R), Peter Massey, (R), Brian Dempsey, (R), Ken Poisson (R), James J. Connor, Jr. (R) and Jason W. Santi (D). A little arm twisting from Lou Decilio and Harkins had seven easy votes. But it was a public vote. On the record. That’s when voters became irate. Quite a few in fact.
Nearly 7,000 registered voters (more actually than ever voted for Harkins) signed the petition to stop the sale of our WPCA and let the voters decide on election day whether or not it should be sold.
Let’s make no mistake here. What Harkins did yesterday is send a clear message to every resident of Stratford that they do not have the right to vote on Town issues and that furthermore our right to petition the government as specified in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution is null and void within the Stratford Town limits.
This, my neighbors, is outrageous!
