Last week, while covering the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new multi-multi-multi-million police station, the mayor made the following comment which made me to a double take...
BOUGHTON: ...of course, as mention my the chief, I want to thank the voters of the citizens of Danbury, who OVERWHELMINGLY supported the acquisition of this property, who understood and got the vision of what we were trying to plant here, the seed of not just a police department, but of re-development on Main Street.
This building will serve as an anchor for future re-development efforts and our voters understood that and voted twice overwhelmingly to support the construction of this facility.
...once again, the mayor is misleading the public as when it comes to the public "overwhelmingly to support the construction of this facility" based on their voting for the project, a quick look at THE ACTUAL NUMBERS tell a different story.
Lets go back in time and take a look at the HatCity BLOG archives and take a look at May 8th 2006:
Today in Danbury, voters will decide if the city will get a new police station, a parking garage and an updated sewer plant. If anyone has driven past the police station on Main Street, it's obvious that the station is too small to meet the needs of the city (the police cars parked on the lawn tells the story).At the end of my post, I wrote the following..."Danbury's (police) headquarters is old, out-dated and worn out," said Chief Alan Baker. "It was built in 1971 for 75 officers and right now our strength is 152."
There is very little parking space, so the lawns at the department double as parking lots.
Baker said the old department was built before each desk had a computer. It was built before much of the modern forensic equipment was created, and its heating, ventilation and air condition equipment is faulty.
"We have six holding cells, and we'll frequently have 11 or 12 people in lock-up after the weekend," Baker said.
The city's police officers have been giving public tours of their building during the last month to show people their working conditions.
The police portion of the bond is $33.8 million. The city's voters have already committed $2.7 million to this project, and the city is in the process of buying the land needed for a new headquarters on Main Street near East Franklin Street.
...it's up to you to do your duty as citizens of Danbury and vote.
Now, lets take a look at the vote count for the 48 MILLION DOLLAR BOND PACKAGE*.
From May 9th 2006:
Voters voted in favor of the bond package yesterday. Here are the results.
New police headquarters 1,263 to 335.
New parking garage 1,065 to 500.
Upgrades to sewer plant 1,235 to 322.
Now, lets do the math...
1263 (in favor) + 335 (against) = 1598 total residents voting
I would HARDLY call a turnout of 1598 residents in a city where the population is over 70,000 OVERWHELMING SUPPORT for the police station. In fact, I would call it a disgrace that 1598 people are allowed to make a 48 million dollar decision which will effect the entire population for years to come.
Now, I can hear the last honest man in Danbury now saying that the embarrassingly low turnout was due to the vote not taking place during a municipal, state, or federal election. Well, lets just kill that excuse real quick by looking back at another vote that happened in 2006, received MUCH LESS PUBLICITY, and only involved one political party.
From March 10th 2006, I give you totals of the second ward Democratic town committee feud:
Here's the final count (in decending order):
Michael Seri 189 Leadership 2006
Eileen Coladarci 187 United Danbury Democrats
Eugene McNamara 186 United Danbury Democrats
Helena Abrantes 180 United Danbury Democrats
Bernard Gallo 176 United Danbury Democrats
Chris Cerda 158 Leadship 2006
Paul McAllister 158 Leadership 2006
Susan Ward 142 Leadership 2006
When you add up THOSE numbers, the total number of people who voted in the SECOND WARD comes to 1376...202 votes less than the CITYWIDE vote on the police station that took place a few months later!
Now don't get me wrong, as I stated back in '06, I think the building of the police station was long overdue as I actively supported the project on this site. What I have a SERIOUS problem with is when a mayor misleads the public with statements that sound good but are not entirely accurate...and when the media just goes along for the ride without holding Boughton accountable for his words.
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