Voters decide on Tuesday; Many races on this year's Election Day ballot

Written by Brad Durrell
Friday, 30 October 2009 09:43

Easton voters go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to elect a first selectman, two selectmen and a town clerk as well as Board of Finance (BOF) and Region 9 Board of Education members.

Other positions will be on the ballot as well, but none are contested. Polls at Samuel Staples Elementary School will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Debates during the past week have helped to shape the race, and the two main political parties are gearing up their get-out-the-vote efforts.

Easton has 5,421 eligible voters. The voter registration breakdown is 2,289 unaffiliated, 1,734 Republican, 1.185 Democrat and 26 other parties.

The top race is for first selectman, where first-term Republican incumbent Tom Herrmann is being challenged by Democrat Chris Neubert.

Herrmann said he has been accessable and non-partisan. “That’s been the hallmark of my administration the past two years,” he said at the Citizens for Easton (CFE) debate.

He also said taxes have gone up much less than in prior years and the town has received the coveted AAA bond rating from Standard and Poor’s.

Neubert said his goal is to keep any tax increases at a minimum while allocating more funds to education so the town’s schools don’t fall behind those in comparable towns.

He is worried the town may be shortchanging its schools and that could hurt property values. “It’s time for a change — and that’s not a critical comment,” Neubert said at the CFE debate.

Town Clerk Derek Buckley, a Republican, is being challenged by Democrat Michael Kivell. Town clerk candidates traditionally don’t debate in Easton.

Buckley has highlighted how he has modernized the office through technology improvements while Kivell has promised to open the town clerk’s office for more hours.

Both a Republican and Democrat are running for selectman. The Board of Selectmen has three members, including the first selectman. Both the selectmen candidates are usually elected to the board, but a losing first selectman candidate may win a board seat if he or she outpolls a selectman candidate.

Republican Scott Centrella, an incumbent, said Republicans have led the town through the worldwide recession and still kept taxes down. “That’s a ringing endorsement to sound fiscal management,” he said, also emphasizing the nonpartisan approach they have taken.

Democrat Bob Lessler, an incumbent, urged people not to vote the party line but instead get to know the candidates and their positions. “Vote for the person,” he said, calling for longer hours at the town clerk’s office and more support for education and town services.

Board of Finance candidates

There are two separate races for BOF. Republican incumbent Mark Pompa is being challenged by Democratic incumbent Tom Partridge for a two-year seat, while four candidates — Democratic incumbent Elise Broach, current Democratic alternate Art Laske, and Republicans Christine Calvert and Christian Griffin — are running for six-year seats.

Only one Republican can win a BOF seat this year due to minority-party guarantee laws. The BOF candidates recent debated at a PTA-sponsored forum at Keller School.

Pompa said the town needs to do more long-term planning and to use zero-based budgeting, where departments don’t start with a set amount every new budget cyclem but must justify all their funding needs.

Partridge said Republicans on the BOF disregarded public sentiment when they made budget cuts this spring. “The problem is when the public speaks, you have to listen,” he said, claiming the GOP hadn’t done that.

Broach also said the BOF Republicans had become fixated on passing a zero-increase budget regardless of the consequences to school programs and town services. “Zero clearly was the wrong number,” she said.

Laske suggested voters could change things by electing three Democrats this year, and called the GOP approach to budgeting this year “an awful process” that negated the need for real dialogue with BOF Democrats.

Griffin said he would bring a fresh approach and would reach out to his colleagues, regardless of party. “There’s a lot of common ground but it just wasn’t being reached,” he said.

Calvert said it was a tough year to balance the town budget because some residents were hurting financially while the need for services — especially in the schools — was as strong as ever.

Region 9 candidates

In the Region 9 school board race, only one incumbent is running again — Republican Catherine Gombos. The other GOP candidate is William Baker, and the Democrats are Margot Abrams and Ryan Walker.

The top two vote-getters win, regardless of party. Region 9 oversees Joel Barlow High School, while Staples and Keller are run by the Easton Board of Education.

Gombos said she has worked to improve Region 9’s financial operations, playing a role in negotiating teacher contracts that she described as being beneficial to taxpayers. She also wants to expand online offerings for upperclassmen.

Baker, a medical doctor, said he wants to focus on improving math and science skills in the schools, in light of the threat of global competition. “We aren’t doing well worldwide in people working with numbers and solving problems,” he said.

Walker, a recent Barlow graduate and student president, said he’d bring the perspective of someone who recently attended the school to board proceedings. He said that insight could help the system spend its money more wisely.

Abrams said she wants the school to have a guidance counselor dedicated to college admissions, with concerns local students aren’t getting into top-tier colleges at the same rate as those from similar towns. She also wants teaching training upgraded.