Simmons Focuses On Job Creation In 'The City That Works'

By Scott Benjamin

STAMFORD, CT — Caroline Simmons says if Connecticut’s boom town is to move to “the next level” post pandemic it will need to capitalize on the exodus from New York City, utilize and emulate the state Workforce Council programs and garner its share of the proposed $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure funding.

“Research shows that 25 percent of the jobs even after the pandemic will continue to be remote,” said Simmons, a Democrat who represents the 144th District, which includes parts of the Springdale and Westover sections of Stamford, in the state House.

“I think that is an opportunity for a city like Stamford to continue to build its workforce,” she said as she continues her campaign for the party’s nomination for mayor in Connecticut’s third most populated city against Democrat David Martin, who is serving his second term.

Simmons, 35, said since the pandemic began last year there has been “influx of people who had been living in New York City.”

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote in February, “Now you don’t have to be in the city. The top people are everywhere. You can be pretty much home and be the best. The office towers of Midtown are empty.”

However, The Boston Globe reported in 2016 that Connecticut's suburban character is "a natural disadvantage" when compared to the Route 128 corridor where Millennials can easily travel by mass transit.

Simmons, who is co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Commerce Committee, said, “I think now we’re going to see almost the opposite happen. People are going to move to smaller cities like Stamford” as a result of the pandemic.

Last year Yahoo named Stamford as its Connecticut boom town, noting that per capita income had increased 26.15 percent over the last five years. The city has three Fortune 500 companies, with another coming, and 13 miles of shoreline.

However, Simmons said in an interview with Patch.com that Stamford should try to emulate the bigger cities.

She noted that Amazon focused on cities with accessible mass transit three years ago when it sought applications for its second headquarters.

“Walkability and transportation are both an important piece,” Simmons related. “We need to focus on that as a city. We also need to add more broadband and Wi-Fi and have flexible co-working stations downtown.”

She said, if elected, she would establish a workforce program in Stamford and partner with state Workforce Council that Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) has established. Workforce Council Chairman Mark Argosh of Westport told Patch.com in March that by the end of the year they plan to launch eight regional sector partnerships.

Lamont began discussing workforce issues early in his 2018 campaign, telling Patch.com that there were too many job openings where companies could not find qualified applicants.

Simmons said following the pandemic, some residents will need to be retrained in other fields, many of which offer high salaries.

She said there will be a raft of openings over the coming years in manufacturing, cyber security, information technology, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, bio-tech and bio-science.

“We want to create a pipeline,” Simmons explained. “We want to create more internship opportunities. We want to better connect students with skills training. We have a really talented student population.”

University of California at Berkeley economics professor Enrico Moretti wrote in his 2012 book “The New Geography Of Jobs,” (Mariner Books, 304 pages), that the Stamford labor market ranked first in the nation in the percentage of workers with college degrees at 56 percent.

Simmons said she also wants to establish a Stamford jobs corps in which some of the unemployed would do public works projects to beautify the city.

She said that there are “racial and employment inequities that were exacerbated during the pandemic.”

“Unemployment rates have been much higher for black people than white people,” Simmons remarked. “I want to help rebuild our city in a more inclusive way.”

She said that she agreed with New York Times columnist Bret Stephens who stated last year that there were two categories of workers: the remote, the 37 percent of the population who could do their jobs from home and the exposed- for whom the pandemic was catastrophic.

“They didn’t have the luxury,” said Simmons, who noted that many of them have struggled to find child care and affordable housing.

The Associated Press reported in January that the influx of New Yorkers into Stamford has increased housing prices and “made it more difficult for many to find affordable housing in an area that rates among the country’s most unequal places in terms of income levels.” The wire service stated that there was a shortage of housing in the city.

Simmons said, “Stamford's affordability relates most acutely to lower cost units and particularly homes/apartments for the lowest-income people. Housing that would be affordable to such persons cannot be built at market rates, so their needs can only be met by housing subsidized in part by government or other third-party sources. Stamford requires 10 percent developer set-asides. Availability is also constrained by zoning rules that limit multi-unit housing construction but Stamford's rules are more permissive than most towns.”

Simmons said with real estate values now at an all-time high, she recommends that the upcoming re-valuation of properties be delayed a year.

“The market is great if you are selling your home,” she related. “For a homeowner, it can be very difficult” with higher property taxes.

On the business side, Simmons remarked that nearly 30 percent of Stamford's commercial space is vacant.

“The companies are not going to use office space as much as they have,” she added. “It’s going to be difficult to fill the spaces unless we get creative.”

However, Stamford recently received AAA bond ratings from Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. It has three Fortune 500 companies with another on the way.

“We’re in pretty good shape with the finances,” said Simmons.

Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn has told Patch.com that the rating agencies are looking for a 15 percent fund balance so that they know a municipality can overcome a financial setback.

Simmons said that as mayor she would seek to achieve that level of surplus.

The Wall Street Journal reported last fall that Fitch has rated the Connecticut state government’s pension system the second worst in the country, after Illinois.

However, Simmons said Stamford, which has “multiple pension plans” for various collective bargaining units, has an “approximate rate of funding of 70 to 90 percent,” which is considered very good.

Both former Gov. Dannel Malloy, who served as mayor of Stamford for 14 years, and Lamont have suggested in recent years that a portion of the teachers’ pensions, which have been fully funded by the state since 1939, should at least be partly paid by the municipalities since the costs are about explode.

Simmons, who grew up in Greenwich, said she opposes taking that step.

“It would be a huge burden on our municipalities,” she exclaimed.

Stamford has grown considerably, surpassing Waterbury and then Hartford in population over the last 15 years.

However, it is dotted with traffic congestion.

During his campaign for highway tolls in 2019 Lamont said some real estate professionals in the city won’t show homes to prospective buyers during the rush hour on Interstate 95.

While meeting voters, Simmons said a frequent complaint is, “Traffic, traffic, traffic. They say they can’t get from point ‘A’ to road ‘B.’ ”

She said that she is encouraged by the recent agreement between President Joe Biden and a group of U.S. senators on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. Many major road projects are 80 percent federally funded.

“I think what happens at the federal level will dictate what happens at the lower levels,” explained Simmons, who is married to former Republican state senator Art Linares. They have two pre-school-age sons.

Simmons supported Lamont’s proposed tolls plans, including the one that would have coverage all vehicles.

“I thought that we needed the revenue,” Simmons said. “The special transportation fund was nearly depleted.”

She acknowledged that little progress has been made since the 2015 ad-hoc committee that was chaired by former state Rep. Cameron Staples of New Haven recommended that the state spend $100 billion on infrastructure improvements over 30 years.

Simmons said that she “most likely” will wage a September 14 primary if she doesn’t get the Democratic Town Committee endorsement in late July.

The race has become the highest profile municipal race in the Connecticut following the entrance of former major league baseball player and manager Bobby Valentine, which generated national attention. Valentine is running as an unaffiliated petitioning candidate.

Martin defeated William Tong, now the state attorney general, in a 2013 primary and then prevailed with more than 58 percent of the ballots when he annexed a second term in 2017.

The Stamford Advocate has reported that Simmons raised $158,000 during the first quarter, about $105,000 more than Martin. She has been canvassing neighborhoods for months, and has been endorsed by CT Realtors and the Serve America Movement.

As of June 23, there were 73,510 voters in Stamford – among them, 31,114 Democrats, 13,365 Republicans, and 27,456 unaffiliated

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard, Simmons worked for four and a half years in the federal Department of Homeland Security during former President Barack Obama’s administration.

In her campaign headquarters there is a framed photograph of her with the 44th president.

A 2017 C-SPAN poll of dozens of presidential scholars, college instructors and journalists rated Obama 12th overall among the 44 former presidents.

Perhaps most notably, he was rated eighth in the category of Economic Management.

Simmons remarked, “I rate him even higher, considering that he was dealt with coming in and the number of jobs that we were losing. It was an accomplishment to have such consistent job growth. He saved the auto industry. He got millions of people back to work. He got millions of people health care. He was the perfect person at that time of crisis. He provided the leadership that we needed.”