Letter to Editor: Stamford Advocate

Dear Advocate Editor,

I am not sure the mayor is hearing what hundreds of parents are trying to say, and today's story "Pavia wants retraction" further reinforces this concern. The issue which the PT council is appropriately telling the parents of Stamford is that our children s education, our programs, our schools, our administrators and our teachers are all at significant risk if the current proposed board of education budget is further reduced by the board of finance (or by the board of representatives.). In order to help mitigate this risk the pt council delivered talking points through their membership asking parents to mobilize and reach out to talk to the board of finance members and to speak to the mayor, asking him to support the budget(s) he has proposed.

For the mayor to demand a retraction regarding his role in the process demonstrates that he is missing the forest amongst the trees. The bigger issue is we, the parents of Stamford are asking the mayor to be a leader and participate in the process, not stand behind rhetoric and the city charter, giving an appearance of weakness and ineffective leadership by deferring to the other elected boards and not trying to steer the conversation himself. Right now this appears to be petty nit picking and politics as usual by the mayor about his role. By focusing on this one issue on role clarification is distracting and diverting our attention away from the bigger issue of what actions the city elected officials need to take now to deal with hard times and how those decisions will impact the long term health and viability of Stamford.

Not every parent who received this message from the pt council may or should understand the mayors role as provided by the city charter, as I am sure most parents have not read the charter, myself included. So on one level it is fine that the mayor clarify his role and educate us on the intricacies of the city charter.

So for that I say Thank you MR. Mayor for the civics lesson but Quite frankly, this is not what we are looking for when asking for your assistance and guidance in trying to convince the board of finance to pass the budgets, with no additional cuts as they have been proposed by the mayor himself.

What I do question is the judgment of the mayor and his staff to take time and effort to send canned response to multiple parents as a response to their emails stating that we have been provided with misinformation and then clarifying the mayors role in the process as per the charter. There was not a mention regarding his position on this issue, not a reference to the fact he has heard us and is going to help us (or not), just a dryly crafted, politically and factually correct response which provides no comfort to concerned parents or information which will help them understand if the mayor supports there position or not. This is not the response that your residents, the parents, the tax payers, the voters who elected you are expecting to hear from their leader.

If the mayor was unhappy with the Board of Education (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 allegedly violated the charter by attempting to send a delegate to represent him after missing all meetings since he took office, during one of the most contentious budget seasons in years. He has sent his CFO, Fred Flynn, to discuss his budget expectations and priorities instead of participating in the process directly. Basically the mayor has skirted dealing directly with the BoE and has not participated at all in the process. this fact is perhaps the most disappointing to most parents that I have spoken with in the community.

Candidate Pavia ran on an education platform and promised to make the city boards more collaborative. Right now we seem more divided than before and are at seriously at risk of jeopardizing our education system here in Stamford.

I would like to see and hear what the mayor has to say about this budget. He was not at the joint BoF/BoR budget public hearing on march 22 at TOR. Mr. Tarzia explained as per the charter he had no responsibility to attend and hear what the public had to say. By not being there, he did not see 600 people in the auditorium in support of his proposed budgets, he did not hear 75 people speak in favor of the current proposed budget and not hear one sole dissenting voice demanding deeper cuts.

I want a mayor who is willing to stand up and say he supports what he has proposed or that he is not in support of the BoE budget and is an agreement with Mr. Tarzia and Mr Kohlenberg, believing that there is significant waste in the school budgets. I want to see a mayor who shows he cares through action and not empty words. I want to see our mayor lead our city through these hard times, so we can be prepared when the tides turn and we come out with a strong plan to replace what we had to take away. I don't want to see a canned response hiding behind misinformation and clarifications about the charter.

Sincerely,

Jeff Herz
Stamford resident, parent, tax payer and voter