Simply Ledyard CT

Ledyard Budget Season

 It's here. The Ledyard Budget season. This year is particularly challenging but I say that every year. Here's the scoop. There will be plenty of meetings to attend so watch for dates. Be there and bring your questions and comments. Don't whine. Offer suggestions. The members of the Town Council want to hear from you. We read your emails and respond. 

Want to email the town council?  council@town.ledyard.ct.us

 

Ledyard Photo Friday - Library at Ledyard High School

As newly appointed liaison to the Board of Education from the Ledyard Town Council, I will be attending meetings on a regular basis. I spent some time at this week’s meeting looking around for photo opportunities. I found this comfy corner.

Ledyard Election Campaign 2011

You have seen the signs but do you know the candidates? Even in a small town like Ledyard, there are good resources for information about the candidates running for election next Tuesday, November 8th.. If you haven’t decided who to vote for just yet, here is what the local press has to say about the big event.

 

The Ledyard Patch is running a series of articles about all of the Ledyard Candidates:
Elections 2011

The Norwich Bulletin has run a series of articles about the elections and has made mayor and council endorsements:
The Mayoral Candidates
Norwich Bulletin Endorsements

The New London Day provides information about the candidates and makes a mayoral endorsement:
Elections 2011 Candidate Profiles (Scroll to bottom)
New London Day Mayoral Endorsement

From my seat on the Ledyard Town Council

We are going live!  Tonight the Ledyard Town Council  begins live streaming our meetings.  Bookmark this link to the Ledyard Town Council Media Portal.  This site will allow you to review Town Council Meeting Agendas and Minutes and view the media live and on-demand at your convenience. 

Council members understand the need for better communication with Ledyard Residents and this is certainly a good step in that direction. I wonder if some day soon the viewing audience might even email questions or comments during the meeting.  

Roxanne Maher, administrative assistant to the Town Council has done all the hard work to get this project up and running and should be commended for her efforts. 

The Town Council meets regularly on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m.

Tune in!

From my seat on the Ledyard Town Council

Last week, the Town Council approved a mill rate of 27.93.  While it may appear to be a full 2.28 mill increase from the current 25.65 mill rate, that is not quite the case. Revaluation complicates things and trying to explain it gets down right confusing.  It has a lot to do with declining real estate values. 

My best advice is to simply take your new (most likely lower) assessment and multiply it by your now higher 27.93 mill rate to figure out what you will soon be paying in property taxes.  Or just wait to receive your tax bill which should be arriving in your mailbox soon. I think you’ll find we did a good job of keeping your Ledyard taxes in check.

Wes Johnson and Ledyard Patch

Wes Johnson, former Mayor of Ledyard, died in November 2008.  In a blog post that I’m sharing again below, I recalled how real estate brought us together and politics cemented our friendship.  One thing that I didn’t share but found myself thinking of lately, was our desire to start up a Ledyard Newspaper.  We were half serious about the idea but our busy lives never allowed us to do more than think about it.  A few years later,  “The Home News” was published which combined Ledyard and Montville news.  It was about as close as Ledyard ever came to having its own newspaper.  It thrived on good political stories and we had a young Ledyard reporter, Steve Adams, with a nose for political news.  Although popular, it couldn’t support itself, and was only around for a few years. Wes and I enjoyed it while it lasted.

The idea of an online newspaper wouldn’t have even been on our radar back then. Heck, the internet as we know it wasn’t even invented yet. Which brings me back to the point of this blog post;  I think Wes would have loved Ledyard Patch. I do say that with some hesitation because Wes hated computers. There are lots of stories about Wes as Mayor and his computer at Ledyard Town Hall.  He growled at it a lot.  I do think though that Wes would have come to appreciate Ledyard Patch for what it might become for Ledyard -  the place to go for real Ledyard news.  And I can’t help but think that Wes and I would have been the very best political reporters for Ledyard Patch in our old age; Wes, the Democrat and me, the Republican. If I could have just gotten him to use his computer.

I wrote about Wes in the blog post below in November 2008, just a few days after his death.

Wes Johnson and I worked together at Boyer Real Estate in Gales Ferry back in the early 1980’s.  We instantly became friends when we realized we had something in common; our passion for politics.  Wes encouraged me to get involved in the Ledyard community. He put my name forward as an appointment to the Parks and Recreation Commission, and then as a member of the Ledyard Republican Town Committee.  Yes, he was a good Republican back then.  Turns out he wasn’t such a good real estate agent, and years later joked about how he would take the bus to the office so he wouldn’t have to show houses.

With just a little nudge from Wes, I decided to run for a seat on the Ledyard Board of Education. He served on the Town Council during my tenure. Wes and I loved talking politics; local, state and national. We analyzed every race and poured over post election statistics. In fact, for many years, our tradition was to meet for breakfast the day after the election. I was his campaign manager the first time he ran for mayor, and despite a disappointing loss, we met for breakfast to analyze the results. It was tradition, win or lose.

In the early 90’s, Wes and I become disillusioned with the leadership of the local Republican party and we made the front page of the New London Day newspaper when we ceremonially went to town hall together to change our party affiliation. Wes became a Democrat. I really wanted him to remain unaffiliated but he needed to contribute his time and efforts to a political party.  I became unaffiliated for a few years and then went home to the Republican Party when the leadership changed. It was awkward to find myself campaigning against Wes but I know he understood. It was politics and no one understood that better than he did. Being political opponents ended the days of discussing strategy and analyzing election returns. Years later, we found ourselves on the opposite sides of the aisle as members of the Ledyard Town Council. During his last term of office, we’d often reminisce about the “good old days”.  No one could tell a story or a joke better than Wes. When we were on opposite sides of an issue, I’d see a twinkle in his eye.  He was pretty easy on me but he wasn’t so kind to my fellow Republicans.  No one knew Robert’s Rules as well as he did, and he often used them to his advantage. .

Despite his illness, Wes was recently appointed to the Ledyard Charter Revision Commission. We had served on a previous Charter Revision Commission together in 1985.  Several weeks ago, I sent him a card and mentioned our past service together. His most recent appointment was just one of a very very long list of contributions to the Town of Ledyard. 

Wes Johnson died Sunday morning.  I can’t help but think of all those “a politician went to heaven” jokes.

Ledyard Town Budget – What say you?

As reported in The Day this morning, the Ledyard Town Council is looking for the opinion of Ledyard Residents as we get a head start on the 2011-2012 budget.  A public forum will be held at 7:00PM Monday, October 4th, to hear ideas.  The unstructured meeting to be held at Ledyard Town Hall will be an opportunity for councilors to consider changes prior to official budget meetings when little time is left to implement change.

This is your opportunity to sound off, speak up, and tell us what you are thinking:

1. Is the level of service you get for your taxes about right?

2. Are there services provided by the Town that you don’t feel are necessary?

3. Are there any services that aren’t provided that you feel should be?

4. Is there anything that you think the Town could do more efficiently?

5. Are you satisfied with the availability of the services that are provided?

6. Based upon your experience in other places you have lived or information that friends in other towns have provided, should we try a different way of doing things?

If you can’t make the meeting, you can also provide input at the Ledyard Budget 2011 Page on Facebook.

From my seat on the Ledyard Town Council

I wrote a blog post on June 3oth about town budgets.  My main point was this:

“ How towns deal with reduced services will say a lot about a town, its leadership, and its citizens. Ledyard can make the worst of a crappy budget or the best of it.

I hope Ledyard gets it right.”

Posted on the door of the building department, is a hand written note that reads “The Town Council cut the Building Officials hours to 20 hours per week.  If you are unhappy with services being performed contact the Town Council!”

Ledyard is not getting it right.  Sad.

 

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From my seat on the Ledyard Town Council

The Ledyard budget was approved  by an overwhelming margin; good news considering other towns in the area had a harder time of it. Although Ledyard citizens will face some reduced services, their taxes were not increased. More hard work is ahead as we transition into the implementation phase. While the council holds the purse strings in Ledyard, it is the mayor’s responsibility to implement the budget approved by the voters.

To avoid inconvenience to our citizens, they must be informed of any changes that will effect how they will be conducting business in town hall in the future. I stopped in my local bank last month and was given a business card with the bank’s new reduced hours. A simple gesture.  Ledyard needs to make similar gestures. There is nothing wrong with closing an office within town hall at lunch time, or requiring an appointment to speak to a land use professional. Other towns have conducted business this way for years. 

For this reason, the Ledyard’s website will become an important resource for citizens. Ledyard’s MIS Director, Regina Brulette, is encouraging all town departments to add more information to the website. The hope is that more news, forms, permits and applications will be available on line.

In recent news, Ledyard was selected to participate in a pilot project to use social media to enhance their outreach with the public.  The Town will receive $8000 in consulting services from a social media consulting firm. It is hoped, that in addition to the Town website, you’ll soon be able to follow Ledyard news on Facebook and Twitter. Maybe I can even convince the rest of the Town Council to start blogging!

On July 1st, municipal leaders around the region, will begin implementing their budgets.  How towns deal with reduced services will say a lot about a town, its leadership, and its citizens. Ledyard can make the worst of a crappy budget or the best of it.

I hope Ledyard gets it right.

From my seat on the Ledyard Town Council

I’ve been involved in local government since the mid 1980’s and my frustration level has never been higher. When I read this morning’s editorial in The Day, Ledyard Must Tighten Reigns on Mayor, I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. Maybe hit me in the head with a two by four is a better description. You see, I should have written that editorial or at least spoken those words. Doggone it, I’m mad at myself. For the sake of party unity and respect for the office of the mayor, I have remained mostly silent. Remaining silent isn’t the right thing to do.

The subject of the editorial was mostly about legal fees. I made a campaign promise that I would try to curb the town’s over reliance on using lawyers for routine matters. I happen to like our lawyers a lot, but speaking through them, or having a lawyer present for an interview with the newspaper, is not a prudent use of tax payer dollars. I complained privately, but I didn’t take action publically, despite the fact that, as Councilor Diaz has pointed out, the Town Charter lists overspending the budget by a certain percentage as cause for removal.

Legal fees are only the tip of the iceberg as to what is going wrong in the Town of Ledyard. It’s a mess. Honestly, some of the things going on, I couldn’t make up if I were writing a novel. For the past couple of months, I have warned that I was about to jump. Who would have thought it would be an editorial in the newspaper that would push me off the edge?

After each council meeting, an “action list” is prepared for the mayor and includes the following: In addition to the above actions, the Town Council would like to bring to your attention that the following items were discussed or have been discussed with you at previous meetings and a status is requested at your convenience. Dates are shown for previously identified, but yet unresolved, issues.

At your convenience?  Items on the list date back almost a year and include things like FOI complaints, Land Use issues, Staffing, WPCA, and the ongoing dispute of using a receptionist at the front desk, despite the fact the position was cut in the budget.  How is that possible? (Yes, I’m yelling!) As a start, I am going to request that a review of the action list be added on the next available council agenda for discussion.

The last paragraph of the editorial knocked me down for the count. “Through it all, Mayor Allyn has continued to thumb his nose at the council, walking out of Wednesday's meeting before members finished discussing the legal-fee issue. But while he's showing that lack of respect to the council, really it's the taxpayers who are short-changed.”

Yes, the taxpayers are being short changed. In these worst of economic times, The Town Council owes it to the taxpayers to provide leadership. If not us, then who?

Please note:  While I’m ready for the criticism this post may bring, especially from my party, I want to clarify one thing. I have no aspirations for higher office. None. I really enjoy my job, playing golf, and taking photos of Ledyard. I’d probably sleep better and have a lot more time for them if I gave up this council gig. I'm sure there are more than a few that would encourage me to do so.