from The Day, 12/11/2009, Chuck Potter’s column
NL voters need to get more involved
About seven months ago, in this space, I was lamenting an embarrassing lack of leadership in New London. The city was in need of a new police chief, city manager and superintendent of schools.
Some time before that, the concern and topic matter here were whether, in an impending charter-revision referendum, the residents would choose a strong mayor form of government or maintain the city manager form. The number of voters was so woefully low as to void the vote.
Perhaps the only thing worse than a lack of leadership is having solid leadership for a constituency too apathetic to be led. Let’s hope the next Charter Revision Commission won’t suffer similar failure. I went on record back then contending that a change in form of government would make little or no difference in New London.
Part of the reasoning was that the Democratic Party, firmly in control at the time, would simply choose who would be its candidate for the position, and that person would probably be the mayor.
Things have changed. The council is balanced, three Republicans and three Democrats, with a third-party candidate – the Green Party’s John Russell, who was cross-endorsed by the Republicans – rounding out the seven-member panel. Republicans not only gained a valuable third seat at the table, but Russell attracted enough support to add an apparently non-connected, and perhaps deciding, vote to the roster.
One of the first actions the new council took was to vote to create a new Charter Revision Commission. Its goal is to, again, take the city’s form of government to a vote.
This time around, I think the outcome will matter. This time, I think, the people will vote to have a strong mayor and this time, I think, the city is ready for such a change.
“I believe the problem with the city is we sit around and complain there’s no leadership, but we don’t elect a leader,” freshman Councilor Michael Passero said earlier this week. “You wouldn’t run a garden club without a president.”
He’s not the first to make that point, but it’s worth reiterating because it makes a lot of sense. I like to think that a strong mayor would bring a passion to the position that a city manager hired from the outside doesn’t have – and can’t have, at least not immediately upon arrival.
Leadership and home-grown passion are two good, strong qualifications for the job. A third and equally important necessity is vision. This city needs a vision. Someone or some group or the people at large need to step back and conjure up an ideal for New London’s future.
What should be the image the city wants to project? How should it be marketed and promoted?
What kind of businesses does the city want to attract? How does it go about it?
The answers to those questions, and many more, should come from a variety of voices, which brings us back to a more involved population. New London’s vision has to be one that is melded from the myriad cultures in the city. The city is divided by far more than political lines, which, lately, voters seem to cross quite readily. Perhaps the same vigor can be generated across cultural lines and the new leadership can foster that movement and inspire more people to take part in activities, from youth sports to council meetings.
A strong mayor with a vision would make for a good change. A better change would be a strong citizenry that helps craft a municipal vision and elects a passionate fellow citizen to lead it.
First, though, it would be nice to see enough people vote, when the time comes, to make it all possible.
This is the opinion of Chuck Potter.
Tags: john russell, nl greens