Alves insists Danbury must boost its municipal spending

By Scott Benjamin

DANBURY -- Patch.com has reported that more than 100 of Connecticut’s municipalities had the same mill rate or a lower one in fiscal 2021 than they had in fiscal 2020.

Since late December the federal government has approved more than $2.8 trillion in economic rescue spending, some of which will be going to municipalities and school districts.

Thus, isn’t Danbury Republican Mayor Joe Cavo’s proposed $267 million budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 – which doesn’t have a tax increase – the best option for the Hat City, which has struggled to recover from the pandemic?

City Council member-at-large Roberto Alves disagrees.

Alves, who is one of three contenders for the Democratic mayoral nomination this year, says the proposed spending blueprint doesn’t address the needs of a city that ranks “dead last” in Connecticut in per pupil school funding and in which about half of the students in the public schools are on reduced lunch.

A 2018 United Way study reported that 32,000 households in Danbury, roughly half the city, was living slightly above the poverty line or at some point below that measure.

Alves, whose family came to Danbury about 30 years ago, said, “Our city budget needs a lot of work, and it’s unfortunate that we’ve gotten to a place where our schools have gotten the bare minimum of funding for the better part of a decade to operate and educate our youth.”

“We’ve consistently short-changed our kids, our teachers, administrators, and staff for years,” Alves explained in a virtual interview with Patch.com.

The News-Times of Danbury has reported that Cavo’s proposed budget provides “$137 million for the schools, about $12 million less than the education board had requested. But the school budget would total $145.5 million when other funding sources, including federal grants are included.”

Alves added, “The effects of underfunding our schools reach beyond overcrowding and academic problems — it affects our property values, restricts our tax base, and it affects the type of businesses that come to Danbury.”

Alves, who is a technical pre-sale engineer with Cartus – a relocation company, which is one of Danbury’s largest employers, said, “I’ve learned what people are looking for, what companies are looking for with higher-paying jobs are looking for. They want good schools and good roads.”

Regarding the recent municipal spending, he added, “We’re talking about a problem that was ignored by elected city leaders and allowed to snowball to such an unwieldy proportion,” he declared.” If we keep up our current funding practices, by 2026 we’re going to have a $31M deficit. So when it comes to the way we budget, things are going to have to change.”

Alves remarked that he appreciates Democratic President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, but noted that it is a one-time revenue.

“What happens in five years if that money is not there,” Alves exclaimed.

Alves, who was recently endorsed by the Danbury Democratic Town Committee, will face Council member John Esposito III and Sedeaka Lawrence, for the Democratic nomination later this year. Cavo, who had been the president of the City Council, ascended to the mayor’s office last December after Mark Boughton stepped down after 19 years to become the commissoner for the Department of Revenue Services.

Alves, who was part of the “kitchen cabinet” for 2019 Democratic mayoral nominee Chris Setaro’s campaign, echoed Setaro’s comments of two years ago that the police department is understaffed.

“We don’t have enough officers to work the traffic,” said the candidate, who has received concerns from voters about speeding on Danbury’s roads.

State Rep. Bod Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury, another member of the “kitchen cabinet” from Setaro’s 2019 campaign, said it is difficult to maintain the same mill rate in a city that has added about 5,000 residents in the last decade and, according to a recent study, is expected to grow in the coming years at a faster pace that the rest of Fairfield County.

“You have inflation, health insurance increases and a lot of issues to address from the pandemic,” said Godfrey, who has endorsed Alves.

Danbury ranks first in the state in sales tax revenue and first per capita in restaurants.

Danbury has a Triple-A bond rating from Fitch, the highest designation possible. The metro Danbury area was the only one of the nine labor markets in Connecticut that before the pandemic had recaptured all of the jobs that had been lost from the 2008 Great Recession.

However, from February 2020 – the month before the pandemic began – and February 2021, it lost 8.8 percent of its work force – 6,800 jobs – the second worst performance among the state labor markets.

Is it going to be a tougher climb for Danbury, which is reliant on the Danbury Fair Mall and the accompanying restaurant row on the city’s west side?

Alves said, “Retail and restaurant industries, especially their workers, have suffered through the last year with COVID and it requires innovative ideas for economic recovery. Technology is changing and as people adapt to a new way of buying goods online through places like Amazon — our retailers and restaurants have to be nimble to regain their pre-pandemic customer base.”

“There is an opportunity here for local governments to be more supportive of local businesses by creating pathways with less red tape for new businesses to open, and to analyze restrictive zoning regulations to beautify storefronts, sidewalks, and expand and create outdoor socialization areas,” he explained.

Economist Donald Klepper-Smith of DataCore Partners, who has been the featured speaker in recent years at the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Forecast Breakfast, explained, “There have been short-term obstacles, but you see that the city has economic development and manufacturing, so I do think there the long-term outlook is still relatively sanguine.”

Will the Danbury Fair Mall continue to be a magnet?

“I think it will,” said Alves. “They have a good organization.”

Godfrey said, “I was there on Sunday and the parking area was full.”

Former Hartford Courant urban affairs columnist Tom Condon wrote a largely positive profile on Danbury in CT Mirror in June 2017, stating, “Manufacturing cities that focus on a single product often struggle or implode when that industry goes away. Danbury is an exception. The ‘Hat City’ is pretty far along at reinventing itself.” Condon added that Danbury’s economy “is diverse and resilient.”

It also survived the departure of Union Carbide, which had located its world headquarters in Danbury in the early 1980s.

Does it need to reinvent itself again?

Kelli-Marie Vallieres, the executive director of the Connecticut Office of Workforce Strategy, has told Patch.com that advanced manufacturing is projected to reach “historic levels” over the coming years in the state.

Said Alves, “We currently have leading advanced manufacturers like Schaeffler, Bedoukian Research, Hologic, and Fuel Cell Energy with presences in Danbury. Each of these businesses are leaders in their fields and we should be partnering with them.”

Godfrey remarked, “Some of the companies, such as Hologic [which does diagnostic and medical imaging], can attract similar companies. That could lead to more high-paying jobs as a critical mass is created and there are more skilled workers available in these kind of collaborative fields.”

The state Work Force Council that Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) appointed in 2019 is seeking to establish public-private partnerships over the coming months, similar to the ones that have been successful over the recent years through the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board.

State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, whose district includes a slice of northern Danbury, said the city should be a “prime candidate” for public-private partnerships.

Alves exclaimed, “Absolutely! P3s (public-private partnerships) are critical to the success of any community and a regional Workforce Investment Board like the one in Eastern Connecticut would provide job training and workforce development programs. Henry Abbott Tech, another great asset in Danbury, could benefit from a partnership like that.”

He added, “The city is also analyzing the development of a Career Academy that will help train the next generation of skilled workers and create opportunities and pathways for students to train in fields that are constantly evolving. That’s a huge asset we have in the works — but we can and should do more.”

Klepper-Smith related, “People who have lost their jobs, get training in advanced manufacturing and earn $17 to $20 an hour through these programs.”

Godfrey said that following the 2019 municipal campaign, Boughton embraced Setaro’s platform for road repairs. Bonding was approved and the work has started. However, Godfrey said much more remains to be completed.

“The city still has a lot of potholes and worn down asphalt,” he exclaimed.

However, Alves said, “It is too expensive for the city to do it on its own” and federal funding will be needed.

Through the years, elected officials have said for major projects about 80 percent of the funding comes from the federal government. Biden has proposed a $2.3 trillion jobs plan that includes infrastructure funding.

Regarding the mayoral campaign, Godfrey says it is “an exciting time” for the Democratic Party in Danbury.

Bouhgton initially captured the office in 2001 by 138 votes over Setaro, who was then the president of the City Council.

Between the 2007 and 2017 elections, Boughton annexed at least 60 percent of the vote each time. Setaro ran an ambitious campaign in 2019 and held Boughton to less than 54 percent of the vote. In fact, Setaro annexed more votes in 2019 than Boughton had in 2017.

In 2012 News-Times Editor Art Cummings wrote in a column, “How can a [Democratic] party with nearly 4,000 more registered voters than the GOP continually get clobbered by a Republican in the mayoral race and elect just a handful of Dems to the council?”

“Part of that answer is Mark Boughton,” he continued.

“He has been a good mayor, he is a good politician, and he has provided no major red flags or smoking guns for his opponents to zero in on,” Cummings wrote.

Godfrey said, “Mark Boughton was popular and everybody liked him. It is hard to change things in the Land of Steady Habits.”

He said Alves is a splendid candidate.

Godfrey said that although Setaro raised an impressive $105,000 during the end of 2018 and the first three months of 2019, the $75,000 that Alves has raised during the first three months of 2021 is equal to or more than that, since Setaro, campaigning before the pandemic, was able to hold public events. For example, in January of 2019 he attracted more than 400 supporters to his campaign kickoff dinner.

“Roberto understands people," Godfrey remarked. “He is very interested in public policy. I haven’t seen this level of interest from a mayoral candidate before. Even early in the campaign he was doing literature drops.”