Response to Post in Stamford Advocate Blog

http://blog.stamfordadvocate.com/stamford411/2010/03/30/parents-emails-to-pavia-receive-form-response/#comment-11392

I may not be an expert in Stamford government, I do understand the mayors role as provided by the city charter and I never doubted the validity of the mayors message or his role in the process. What I questioned is the judgment to send a canned response to multiple emails asking for his assistance and guidance in convincing the board of finance to pass the budgets, with no additional cuts as they have been proposed by the mayor.

If the mayor was unhappy with the boe budget, as a non voting member of that board, he could come to the meetings and express his opinion on the subject directly to the board and participate in the budgeting process. Instead he has violated the charter (though I am no expert) by attempting to send a delegate and has sent fred flynn to discuss the budget expectations again instead of participating in the process directly.

Candidate Pavia ran on an education platform and promised to make the city boards more collaborative. Right now we seem more divided than before. I would like to see (he was not at the public hearing on march 22, though by charter (again not being the expert) he did not need to be there to hear 75 people speak in favor of the current proposed budget and not hear one sole dissenting opinion) and hear what the mayor has to say about this budget. I don't want to see a canned response hiding behind misinformation and clarifications about the charter, which you correctly point out that I am no expert.

Sincerely,

Jeff Herz
Stamford resident, parent, tax payer and voter