Another Election Season Ends In West Hartford - Some Reflections

Congratulations to those elected to the West Hartford Town Council:
Scott Slifka - re-elected Mayor
Tim Brennan
Shari Cantor
Joe Verrengia
Rob Durbin
Judy L. Casperson

Denise Berard Berard Hall
Steven I. Adler
Leon Davidoff

Congratulations to those elected to the West Hartford Board of Education:
Elin Katz
Clare Kindall
Naogan Ma

Lib Brassil Spinella

Thanks to those who also ran and gave the public a choice at the voting booth:
Joe Visconti
Rob Sisk
Justin Clark

R. Andrew Bannon-Guasp
Ellen Burchill Brassil

You ALL ran great campaigns - which unfortunately were not covered well enough by ANY media.

Now.... for those newly elected officials ... please honor your campaign pledges. Let's keep West Hartford affordable for those who live and work here. Do something about the sustainability of our budgets as we go forward especially as we have to renegotiate contracts. The taxpayer's pockets are not bottomless wells of money. We also need to keep businesses in town and they are struggling in this economy just as homeowners and families are. Let's try to find some creative solutions to our problems and not be afraid to get the public involved to accomplish this.

Let's improve our schools without major expenditures and let's not spend lots of green to go green.

Can you please do something to get our state delegation to stop handing us unfunded mandates and making us subsidize every other municipality?

Can you continue to encourage real dialogue instead of inviting divisive politics in town? Can you hold more public input sessions and forums? Can you do more listening - really listening - to citizens and to each other? And can you as boards, and members of boards, do more to truly work together and abandon the prior partisan bickering that we have seen? Mend some fences and please don't allow majority status to translate into arrogance.

We've got a great town here... let's celebrate that, and work to make it better for all of its residents with an eye to running it in the most efficient and effective way we can.

We may not always agree on policy or politics, but remember that debate and incorporation of "other ideas" are what forge the best policies in the end.

Republican or Democrat - Thanks to all of you who serve (and to those who have already served) and who give of yourselves to running this terrific place we call West Hartford.