Devoto sought a nomination to the
Middletown Democratic Town Committee slate as a candidate for Planning
and Zoning on the 2013 election, however, was denied a seat after a vote
was taken at the town committee meeting. Devoto is petitioning the
slate, and upon gathering 519 signatures from registered democrats, can
call for a primary to take place for the Democratic seat prior to the
general election in November. Devoto is currently seeking signatures for
such a primary. Devoto wrote as under the pseudo name Fishmuscle for the Middletown Eye Blog for the first two years of the blog as most writers did before using his real name Stephen Devoto. (Blogger changes all usernames so this only shows in cached data.) From 2008 til now, he has hundreds of posts on the blog covering local arts, politics and mainly municipal meetings ofthe Planning and Zoning Commission.
Dr. Stephen H. Devoto, Ph.D is aprofessor of Biology ( degree from Rockafeller University) at Wesleyan University and has resided with his family in the Westfield section of town for the past 16 years. Dr. Devoto is proprietor of Devoto Vineyards LLC located in Kelseyville, CA with property also in Lakeport CA. The vineyard specializes in award winning Rieslings. The 142 acre vineyard, established in 1972 boasts of organically planted vines since 2005.
Devoto is a local activist, Middletown Eye Editor, and co-founder of the No Strip Mall No Wrecking Ball activist group (see facebook message board) along with BOE member & Blue House LLC founder Ed McKeon. Blue House LLC supposedly outbid the Connection Inc. to purchase a multi family house at 150 College Street in order to block the nonprofit from possibly making it a group home. He is aiding the group in fundraising for Jennifer & Jared Proto who have a lawsuit against the P& Z commission's legislative actions concerning the passage of changes to the MX zone adopted in April of this year.
Devoto has been active in local politics as an activist; he is a board member of the Westfield Residents Association and lead the group in its opposition to the original site of the Army Reserve Training Center on Freeman Lane. This group proposed that the Army consider the Mile Lane location where it currently resides. Devoto is also locally known for his advocay for safe streets for cyclists and pedestrians, himself an avid cyclist, is often seen attending municipal meetings with his bike. Devoto brought forth the "Right to Dry Act" Committee Bill # 5995 concerning cessasion of the ban on clothesline use in certain private homeowner's associations in Middletown specifically and other communities in Connecticut that have restrictions against them.
Below is his letter re posted as a courtesy to readers, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Middletown Insider staff.
Below is Devoto's public letter as published in the Middletown Patch : http://middletown-ct.patch.com/groups/your-take/p/earning-middletown-democrats-nomination-candidates-perspective.
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By Stephen Devoto
Last week, when the Middletown
Democratic Party convention nominated candidates to appear on the ballot
for the November municipal elections, I tried to gain one of its three
nominations for Planning and Zoning.
I failed, and am now collecting signatures for a primary.
What follows is a personal story of trying to get on the ballot, along
with some personal opinions on the municipal democratic process. Please
note that this is not intended to be journalism: I believe everything to
be accurate, but I am not a disinterested observer. I have invited the chair of the Democratic Committee to submit his own perspective on the nominating process.
- Part
1 (today) will briefly cover why I am running for Planning and Zoning,
as well as my experience trying to be nominated by the Democratic Town
Committee.
- Part 2 will cover the process of petitioning for a primary.
- Part 3 will be opinion and analysis of ballot access issues.
----------------------------
Why run for Planning and Zoning?
The
two most important activities of City government are education and land
use regulation. Other city actions like snow removal, public safety,
and water supply are obviously important, but their impact rarely
extends beyond the lifecycle of an election. In contrast, land use
decisions shape the nature of our city for generations to come.
I
believe that informed residents who consistently watch government make a
substantial contribution to the process of municipal governance,
because they provide some accountability for both the elected and the
appointed city officials. In the area of land use, Katchen Coley and
Arline Rich have been recent exemplars of this type of civic
contribution.
I started following our city’s land use decisions
very shortly after moving to Middletown 16 years ago. I became active in
the Westfield Residents Association, and whenever the Planning and
Zoning Commission considered a Westfield property, we examined the
proposed plans and attended the public hearing.
The Middletown
Eye provides a venue to expand this kind of watchdog citizenship. Anyone
who is willing to observe a public meeting can post a record of the
deliberations and decisions, to inform others in the city. In the last
five years, I have done this for land use, attending nearly every
meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission, many meetings of Inland
Wetlands, and a few meetings of Design Review and Historic Preservation.
I filed a report on each meeting for The Middletown Eye (
search for "Planning and Zoning" in The Eye's search window on the upper left).
During
my time watching and reporting on Planning and Zoning, I have seen a
nearly complete turn-over of Commissioners, Les Adams is the only
Commissioner who has been attending meetings longer than I have. In the
last 5 years, I have a better attendance record than any of the current
Commissioners.
During this time, I realized that I was qualified,
and that I have the energy and level of commitment necessary to be a
Commissioner. In addition, I grew increasingly frustrated by what I was
witnessing on the Commission. First, the Commission was doing no p
lanning,
in the past two years any discussions about the future of our city have
been driven by proposals of developers, only occasionally by the
appointed staff, and never by the initiative of the Commission. Second,
the Commission was too deferential to the lawyers paid for by the
developer, and too dismissive of the testimony by Middletown residents.
The balance was wrong.
I realized that if I wanted to change any
of this, I needed to be part of the Commission. I decided to run for
office. Naturally, the first step would be to get my name on the ballot.
Dear Chairman Pickett: I am writing to express my interest in a nomination …
The
most common path to the ballot is a nomination from the Democratic or
Republican Town Committee. The Democratic Town Committee is elected
every two years: it consists of elected officials, the spouses and
children of some of them, and others actively engaged in electing local
democrats. The DTC meeting in July is held as a “nominating convention”
at which endorsed candidates are submitted for the November ballot.
I
wrote to Dan Pickett, chair of the Democratic Town Committee,
expressing my interest in receiving one of three Democratic nominations
for Planning and Zoning. I described my background and experience (read
my letter
HERE).
Every
person who expresses an interest in being on the ballot as an endorsed
Democrat is interviewed by the nominating subcommittee of the DTC. This
year, the nominating subcommittee consisted of Pickett, Richard
Pelletier (sitting Planning and Zoning Commissioner, not up for election
this year), Dan Russo (sitting P&Z Commissioner, up for election
this year). Two members of Middletown
Young Democrats,
Alison Cleary and Will Arther, participated but they were not members
of the Town Committee (they were elected to membership after the
nominating committee's work was done).
In my interview, I was
asked to describe my experience and interest in Planning and Zoning;
this discussion took less than 10 minutes, perhaps because there is such
an extensive public record of my involvement.
The remaining 20
minutes of my interview was spent on my level of commitment to the local
Democratic party. These questions all came from Dan Russo, who
has been the chair of the DTC.
Some of the questions I expected, and I do not think are unreasonable. I
was asked if I would commit to raising at least $500 to support all
non-mayoral candidates. Russo explained that this was to cover the cost
of brochures, phone lines, office rental, etc. I said ‘yes’. I was asked
to enumerate what I had done for local Democratic candidates in recent
elections. I admitted I hadn’t done much, later I explained that as a
news correspondent for municipal meetings it would have been
inappropriate for me to campaign for municipal elections. I encouraged
them to weigh the strength of my background for the governance aspect of
Planning and Zoning against this weakness.
Russo then asked me, “Do you pledge your support for
ALL candidates
endorsed by the Democratic Party?” At the risk of appearing hopelessly
naïve and/or idealistic, I confess I was not prepared for what was
clearly the most important question to the Nominating Committee.
With
5 Democratic operatives staring at me across the table, the ‘correct’
answer was obvious, but I could not bring myself to say it. I hemmed and
hawed for awhile, to try to disguise my shock and frustration that I
would be expected to give blanket approval to the as-yet-unknown
recommendations of the three-man nominating sub-committee. I finally
replied that the question was unfair, I could not honestly express my
support for candidates that had not yet been named.
I left the
interview hoping that the committee would recommend my nomination based
on my experience and qualifications for governance, even while it
recognized that my background in electioneering was less than other
possible candidates.
I was disappointed when Chairman Pickett
phoned me on the morning of the nominating convention and said I would
not be recommended for a nomination. However, this was not the end of
the process, and I made it clear to several DTC members that I hoped for
a nomination from the floor at the nominating convention.
The Nominating Convention.
The
Democratic Town Committee met last Thursday to nominate candidates. The
nominations for Mayor and Board of Education went according to the
recommendations of the nominating committee. The nominating committee’s
recommendation for the 8 Common Council candidates was followed with one
exception, Quentin Phipps was removed from the recommended slate, to be
replaced by Jim Streeto. This was pre-arranged, as Phipps voluntarily
declined the nomination and Streeto was immediately nominated.
When
it came time for the Planning and Zoning Commission nominations,
Chairman Pickett announced the recommendation of Dan Russo, Rob
Blanchard, and Paul Turenne. Dan Russo is a former DTC chair and was the
dominant force on the nominating committee; Rob Blanchard is a former
paid employee of the Malloy campaign, and is currently a driver for
Attorney General Jepsen; Paul Turenne is the associate registrar at
Wesleyan.
After reading the list of recommended candidates,
Pickett asked if there were any further nominations. I was nominated and
seconded from the floor, and therefore the 40 delegates to the
nominating convention (all members of the DTC), were tasked with voting
for 3 out of 4 nominated candidates. One of the DTC members asked that
delegates hear from each of the 4 candidates, and Chairman Pickett
agreed. This was highly unusual, the delegates normally vote without
ever hearing from the candidates.
Russo, Blanchard, Turenne, and I
each spoke for 3 minutes. Russo spoke primarily about his work for the
DTC, Blanchard and Turenne spoke of their love for our city, and I
reiterated my experience with Planning and Zoning and other land use
regulative bodies in the city. I also pledged, if I received the
official endorsement of the DTC, to support the other Democratic
candidates for office.
Ballots were then handed out, one by one,
to each of the 40 DTC members present. Each ballot was pre-printed with
the three endorsed candidates, votes for me required the voter to write
in my name. This was reasonable, because Chairman Pickett had no way of
predicting who might be nominated from the floor.
What was more
surprising was that each ballot was also individually marked with the
name of the DTC member who would be voting. This was not anonymous
voting, every voter would know that his or her vote would be known to
the Chair and presumably others. The DTC
has in the past battled over whether balloting should be secret or not.
When
the votes were tallied, I received votes from almost half of the DTC
members, but this placed me last among the 4 candidates (Russo, 32;
Blanchard, 35; Turenne, 27; Devoto 19). Later I learned that DTC members
are expected by the party to vote exclusively for those endorsed by the
nominating committee. In that light, I am grateful to have received as
many votes as I did.
This is not the end of the nominating
process. Any Democrat who fails to get the endorsement of the nominating
committee has the right to petition for a primary in which all
Democratic voters will decide which candidates to put forward in the
November election.
Stephen Devoto
Middletown Planning and Zoning Petitioning Candidate
