The Town Council Didn’t Listen or Seem To Care!
Special Town Council Meeting on June 12th
Public Forum Video on Revised Election District Boundaries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHDDCES7S2
The Monday, June 12th, Stratford Town Council agenda called for OUR councilors to meet to vote on:
“AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING REVISED ELECTION DISTRICTS (#23-07)
Sponsored by: Stratford Town Council
Preamble
Whereas, the Town Charter requires the Town Council to appoint an Election District Revision Commission to rearrange the boundaries of the existing ten election districts of the Town; and,
Whereas the Town Charter requires the Town Council to enact an ordinance to establish revised election district boundaries in accordance with said Commission’s recommendations; and the analytics used in their decision.
Whereas, Connecticut General Statutes require that any such municipal reapportionment plan shall be based on population data for such Municipality from the most recent decennial census of the United States.”
The chambers were packed with residents weighing in on their thoughts on the proposed redistricting.
We can only go on what we think are the new boundaries and parameters they used to make the decision, as to date the District Revision Commission has yet to release the final map and the analytics used to draw the map.
All of the residents that spoke were against the new redistricted map. The attached video will give you their thoughts. If you don’t want to watch the video here are snippets of their thoughts:
- There are questions of legitimately
- Parisian
- Disgraceful
- Capricious
- Takes away our voices
- Highlights the disrespect given to strong women in this town
- Reckless
- No rationale
- No public process
- Fails to meet community standards
- Adversarial
Republicans have denied the changes are targeted and have defended the redistricting plan as unavoidable due to shifting population levels over the last decade. In addition to Shake’s district, the plan also slightly alters the borders of a handful of other districts. The Democrats contend there was no legitimate reason to redistrict, as according to the US Census numbers there was only a 1.9% increase in population in Stratford.
The most scorching remarks were aimed at Councilman Jim Connor from the 8th District, who is listed as a Human Resources Consultant, for his interview with the Connecticut Post:
“Stratford council member could lose seat under redistricting plan — ‘She’s collateral damage’, by Richard Chumney, Connecticut Post Staff Writer, May 21, 2023.
Connor, the council’s Republican majority leader and the chairperson of the revision commission, said the plan was created to better balance the town’s 10 council districts. He denied the changes were designed to target Shake, calling the proposal “logically and legally sound.”
“She’s collateral damage because she lives there,” Connor said. “She has a couple options: she can run against the incumbent Republican or she can move back into that new district and run again.”
The quote from Connor which suggests that Councilwoman Shake should sell her house and move also drew criticism.
So get some popcorn and listen to what your fellow Stratford residents had to say!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHDDCES7S24
