Woodstock CT Café

Possibly the more likely senario in Tuesday’s election: Only one First Selectman candidate will be elected and the two second Selectman candidates will both be elected because they both have more votes than either of the two losing First Selectman candidates. (see ‘Inquiring Mind’s’ question and ‘The Aussie’s’ comment below. Admin.

G’day Folks,

Back home in the outback of the down under (actually the up top by my way of thinking) in my home town of Alice Springs we had somethin put together by the Board of Elections that determined the town electorate IQ based on candidates that won elections in every town in our territory. The idea behind this was to see what towns were smart in terms of their evaluation of candidates and what towns were not so smart. The Board of Elections commission rated candidates for their various offices based upon their background and expertise relevant to the elective office that they were seeking. After the election was over the commission would analyze the results of the election to determine which towns were acting smart and which were less intelligent in the way they chose candidates. The electorate IQ of various towns usually ranged from genius (150 or better) like Erldunda south of us down to moronic (75 or less) like the town of Barrow Creek (where the crows fly backwards) north of us. A town like Darien in Fairfield County would probably be in the genius range while Winsted might be closer to the moronic range - a place where a guy like Wetzel would thrive since he could call everyone a moron.

This electorate IQ was calculated by candidates’ ratings based upon qualifications and who was elected. Candidates were rated 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 with zero being based on no qualifications or negative factors up to 12 for those candidates with seemingly excellent qualifications for the job. With these town electorate IQ’s political parties could assess how to approach and campaign in a town based upon their electorate IQ. Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin,

I think you have shown an excellent understanding of the issues. You certainly have analyzed the situation realistically. It appears that you have done your homework. You probably understand that suggesting any limitation on Woodstock Academy’s freedom to self-determine its tuition cost, risks popular disfavor. There is little likelihood that the BOE and WA will reach agreement on a fair percentage cap as you suggest and many would prefer that WA continue to have a blank check. There is absolutely no interest in the other sending towns to imposing a cap and those towns, as well as the Trustees, as their leadership has stated, will not become involved in Woodstock’s Prop 46 debate or think one minute of transferring the pain (as Glenn Converse has put it) onto the Academy.

I must disagree with some of Cafe Cronies statements. A BOE member must be willing to make uncomfortable and many times unpopular decisions. Read the rest of this entry »

The direction for the town’s land use management supported by the Democratic Planning and Zoning candidates is well-articulated in the Woodstock Voter piece the town is receiving today and tomorrow. Following are my observations of the problem and the Republican position from the Middle School Debate and their published advertisements.

The town has a zoning ordinance that is so poorly written it is broadly unenforceable, a problem the whole WPZC has been aware of for years based on chronic complaints from three successive zoning enforcement officers. If we do not have an enforceable zoning code, we effectively do not have zoning in our town. And that is exactly what many Republicans on or running for the Planning Commission want – no zoning. This is especially true of Fred Rich, who in the two years I served with him on PZC had a typical response – “You can’t tell someone what they can do with their land�.

As one of many examples, we have one case where someone is storing large commercial trash containers in his yard in a residential neighborhood under a “home occupationâ€? – and there is nothing we can do about it with the current regulations. In another, we approved a hot dog stand with a port-a-pottie that was opened on someone’s front lawn. While I registered a symbolic “Noâ€? vote, we could not legally deny this application under the current regulations. There are many, many more examples including used car lots, biotech buildings, major construction equipment storage, and on and on. The commercial pressure is definitely on, and we have no effective means to deal with it. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, 10/30/07, the Cafe had a big day with 358 unique visitors and 1340 page turns.

This election is all about ‘me’ – no, not the ‘me’ writing this piece, but the collective individual perspectives of all the ‘me’s. Maybe it would be easier to describe the process as figuring out how to get your bread buttered.

Let’s start with Planning and Zoning. It has been obvious for some time that the swelling population of Woodstock has illustrated very clearly the need for a cohesive set of regulations. Now, I know this doesn’t sit well with some people, but bear with me. The regulations, clear and precise, need to be in place so that Woodstock retains the flavor of its personality… you know, the one everyone has endorsed – open space, conservation, right to farm, sequestered development rights, minimum lot sizes, etc.

P&Z regulations protect the community. That’s the simplest distillation. In today’s legal/technical world a community loses its ability to control anything without them. Our legal system is based on many things, one of which is the theory of precedent (the translation is ‘what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander). So, whatever you allow one person to do you have to let everybody do. To stand on a soapbox and demand (or expect) unfettered property rights is a form of reverse eminent domain. To demand (or expect) that a property owner has to get permission from the community for every little thing is communism. If you live in a community, you realistically need to understand there will be some regulation regarding the use and/or development of your property. If you don’t want any regulation, well, you need to go out and buy yourself your own town! But considering how rare an occurrence that would be, we need to get back to finding a happy medium with our regulations. Read the rest of this entry »

I agree that the flyer was in poor taste. It also failed to identify the author or who had paid for the propaganda.

I found it interesting that the Republicans seemed to be complaining about the new subdivision regulations?? These new regulations have helped to bring needed controls to Woodstock development- and the initiative behind the new regulations was to promote Woodstock’s rural character and open space. SO- ONE CAN ONLY ASSUME THE REPUBLICANS DO NOT SUPPORT OPEN SPACE AND OUR RURAL CHARACTER- BECAUSE WITHOUT STRICT, CLEAR REGULATIONS- POOR DEVELOPMENT WILL OCCUR!

I would also like to make a comment regarding Joe Breen. He has been criticized for poor behavior, poor choices regarding educational initiatives, blamed for initiating a law suit between PZC & Zoning Board of Appeals-I don’t have direct first hand knowledge of all these issues, but certainly have found different versions of same events- which makes me wonder exactly what the truth is? It seems to me that the Republicans and CPS are attempting to use “Breen” as a lightning rod- and blame all the town’s evils on him (I also see people attempting to do the same to “CPS”) - and focused on trying to make it a center point of there campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to take advantage of this forum to introduce myself and allow people to ask me questions directly. My name is Kevin Ford and like John I am running for the Board of Education.

I am a non-traditional student in many senses of the word. I went straight into the military when my high school education was over. For several years after my enlistment was over I went to college at night while working a variety of jobs during the day. To this day I continue my education in a variety of ways and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

My life is very different because of my education and I am very aware of what it would have been like had I not chosen to pursue it. For this reason I am very interested in the educational well being of the children in town. The educational impressions that are made when they are young will stick with them for the rest of their lives. Education will be one of the most important factors in determining what shape that future will take.

Currently I am a Corporate Systems Development Manager at a company called IDG in Framingham. My work there has given a pretty broad range of experience in budgeting, forecasting, creating contractual arrangements and getting buy in for projects. These skills speak directly to some of the challenges that the BOE is facing today. Read the rest of this entry »

I also attended last night’s candidate debate. I was very glad to see the Republican’s there to support the WMS student council students. I am glad that they reconsidered their decision to boycott the event.

I would like to comment about the flyer on the windshield that Chuckles mentioned above. I received one also. I wish that I had not. Before I comment further, let me state that contrary to comments posted here in the cafe in response to my past posts, I have no ties politically or otherwise to Mr. and Mrs. Leavitt, nor to Mr. Breen. Some bloggers here have called me “one of them” in the past. I met both Mr. Leavitt and Mr. Breen for the first time last evening. I met Mrs. Leavitt for the second time last night, having been introduced to her once before at school by one of my children.

I was disgusted to find that flyer on my windshield. I was further disgusted that I had wasted a precious minute of my life to read it. It contained very little factual content. It predominantly contained statements that were opinions; negative ones at that. Read the rest of this entry »

I was truly honored to play a small part at the candidate forum tonight. I was very impressed by the turnout tonight by both the candidates and the public. I also thought that many excellent questions were posed of the candidates.

In all honesty, I would have liked to be able to ask nearly every question that the audience posed, including Mr. Rapoport’s. I thought that his was a valid question. There were also other good questions that we just could not get to because of the time constraints, as Mr. Rapoport could plainly see, as well as everyone else that attended. As it was, the forum lasted until 9:30, with a time span of 2 1/2 hours!

My suggestion for the future would be for the parties to agree to different forums for the various boards and commissions, depending on the number of candidates running. I felt badly that there were significant issues that could not be addressed because of the time, including Mr. Rapoport’s. Read the rest of this entry »

Good Morning Folks:

I’d like to take a moment to respond to “Don’t Buy It� on a couple of subtle but key points. With regard to the equitable allocation of resources between Woodstock Academy and Woodstock Public Schools, my personal position is that equitable doesn’t necessarily mean equal. It is clearly the case that the cost to provide a quality education to 9-12 grade students is higher than for 5-8 or K-4 students. The issue of equitable distribution really arises when Woodstock Academy is adding programs and the associated costs while Woodstock Public Schools is forced to eliminate programs. And within this formulation, there are really two parts; (1) when Woodstock Academy adds or improves programs which provide greater opportunities and (2) when Woodstock Academy adds entry level or remedial programs. The specific implications of these two cases may be a bit different but the outcome is the same, sub-optimal student achievement and poor use of educational dollars.

In the first case Woodstock Academy has an incentive to offer the maximum in both diversity and depth of its curricular and extra-curricular programs. This approach helps assure a product that is desirable and attracts the greatest number of quality students. In isolation, this is a laudable approach and would at first glance appear to be beneficial to Woodstock students. However, these actions can’t be viewed in isolation. With every program added at Woodstock Academy along with the associated costs, there are reduced resources available to the Woodstock Public Schools. Read the rest of this entry »

I enjoyed attending the candidates’ event at the Academy. I look forward to attending the event coming up at the Middle School. I just received yesterday in the mail an invitation to that debate. I turned around and quickly said that I would attend. I make my own decisions and the only reason I hadn’t RSVP’d earlier is that I hadn’t recieved a formal information about it earlier. I did look to reschedule a meeting I had planned the same night of the 29th once Becki Leavitt was kind enough to let me know ahead of time about there likely to be a candidates’ debate on the 29th. I hope that all candidates will make it.

I have very much enjoyed being the Chair of the Municipal Finance Advisory Task Force. I am very proud to be part of the “team” that is the Task Force. It was a collective “we” that has worked hard, researched many issues, asked a lot of questions, and found commonground to reach consensus on many meaningful recommendations we’ll be reporting to the good people of Woodstock. I thank each and every person on the Task Force. Being Chair has allowed me to learn much about our town government beyond what I already had learned from my serving as an Alternate member of the Planning & Zoning Commission (for 3 months to fill the remaining portion of a vacant term) in 2005 and my serving these past 5 years as an alternate representative from Woodstock to the Northeast District Department of Public Health (which does get involved in planning and zoning issues). I do have a “record” of accomplishments and involvement. Read the rest of this entry »

Newsflash: According to WINY Thursday morning, the WRTC issued a letter reversing their position and accepting the invitation to the Middle School debate to be held Monday evening, October 29th, at 7PM. Admin

OCTOBER 29, 2007

Sponsor: Woodstock Middle School Student Council

Moderator: Stephen Adams

Schedule:

7:00 P.M. General Introduction – WMS Advisor/Principal
Introduction of the Moderator - Steve Adams

7:05 P.M. Moderator Introduces Boards/Candidates
Explanation of the Format

7:10 P.M. Board of Finance – Up to 40 minutes
Candidates (8) Statements – Up to 3 Minutes Each

Audience passes questions through the moderator - All Candidates May Respond – Up to 3 Minutes Each

7:50 P.M. Planning and Zoning Commission – Up to 40 minutes
Candidates (9) Statements – Up to 3 Minutes Each

Audience passes questions through the moderator - All Candidates May Respond – Up to 3 Minutes Each

8:30 P.M. Board of Education – Up to 40 minutes
Candidates (4) Statements – Up to 3 Minutes Each

Audience passes questions through the moderator - All Candidates May Respond – Up to 3 Minutes Each

9:10 P.M. Closing Comment - Moderator/WMS Advisor/Principal

9:15 P.M. Adjournment

The event opened with statements by each of the three candidates for 1st selectman.. Alan Walker went first. He glossed over the issues with the usual empty rhetoric and had the personality of Dick Cheney. Ho hum. Caspar Milquetoast. Margaret Wholean was her usual flustery stuff. Sweet and apologetic. Starting and stopping. Her experience in the position definitely a plus though. Then came Nora Valentine. Clearly she wants this more than the other two. Clear, outspoken, assertive, good communication skills, best presentation, and engaging. She has a beautiful family and would bring sort of a “camelot� feel to the town hall.

Sort of went out of order. Next we went to the BOF candidates. William Andreicik was the winner in my opinion. Good speaker. Had ideas and convictions. Only one to admit that the implementation of PA-490 was flawed. Richard Cass, God bless this man, had the gumption to publically admit that he was a tax or spend liberal. I swear I heard the clicking of a colt .45 trigger behind me. Cass is married to the Sweet Evalina bird lady. He also has a Master’s Degree in Social Work…red light…I can barely swallow the idea of a tax payer funded Dial-a-ride never mind putting a social worker on the BOF. Kurt Kaufman comes to mind next. He stated that he favors riscinding of Prop 46. I noticed the lady next to me developed a twitch when he said this. He came across as being a bit haughty instead of his usual aloofness. He is definely pro-education funding. At least he’s honest. The Republicans BOF candidates were vague, made little eye contact with the audience, and were basically unremarkable. Their modus operandi or just clueless?? Read the rest of this entry »

The candidates who were present were: Allan Walker, Margaret Wholean, Nora Valentine, Chandler Paquette, Mitchell Eaffy, Bill Andreiczik (D-sorry if I spelled it wrong), Ronald Cabana, Glenn Converse, Brian Musumeci, Steven Rosendahl, Kurt Kaufman (D), Dorothy Durst, Frederick Rich, Dr. Jeff Gordon, John Anastasi, David Fortin. There were some candidates running unopposed who were basically simply introduced and were available to talk with following the program and during intermission. They didn’t give a speech per se or take questions formally though. These folks included Nancy Nystrom, Frederick Chmura, Judy Walberg, Barbara Rich, and Linda Bernardi.

I know I’m leaving a few candidates out and I apologize. Maybe someone else can jump in and help me with them. I think that Richard Cass and George McCoy were also there, but my memory’s not 100% clear on that. Someone feel free to correct me on this. Also, there was a gentleman named Young, but I cannot remember if it was Timothy or Dexter.

Each of the candidates gave a brief intro of themselves and their background and then they each stated either an issue of main concern to them or an idea they have. The candidates were very limited as to the amount of time that they were given to speak. I think that was only due to the fact that there were many candidates to be heard from and the class was trying to keep things moving along without hosting the public until midnight. At least that was my impression. I have no info about any insider details of how this event was organized. Read the rest of this entry »

The following two letters were sent to Academy leadership and staff after a series of cross-communications in recent weeks regarding the format for the “Meet & Greet” at the Academy on the October 23, 2007.

Letter #1

Ms. Sandra Frederickson
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Woodstock Academy
57 Academy Road
Woodstock, CT 06281

Re: Candidates Forum

Dear Ms. Frederickson:

I was informed Friday afternoon by Chandler Paquette, Chair of the Republican Town Committee that the RTC has declined the invitation of the Woodstock Middle School Student Council to the debate it is sponsoring October 29. No basis was provided for the decision. The Middle School Debate was carefully structured with an objective, adult moderator screening written questions to ensure a productive forum.

With this same purpose, I requested that Ms. Kim Jalet organize the Academy’s event with the consensus of both the Democratic and Republican Town Committees. Ms. Jalet declined my request, asserting the role of the Civics class in unilaterally establishing a format which remains unclear, and proceeded to initiate communications with our candidates through the Republican Registrar of Voters rather than the DTC.

The details of the format are not frivolous. Read the rest of this entry »

This debate is scheduled for the evening of October 29th and is to be moderated by an impartial longtime Republican. The Democratic Town Committee was notified last Friday of the Republican cancellation in a phone call from the Chair of the RTC.