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For Rilling, mum’s the word

December 2, 2014
–
Mark Chapman
Send signed letters to news@nancyonnorwalk.com
Send signed letters to news@nancyonnorwalk.com

Bill Dunne is a member of the Republican Town Committee, a member of the Planning Board, and a recent unsuccessful candidate for state Senate.

To the Editor:

The reluctance of Mayor Rilling to offer any thoughts or guidance on major issues affecting Norwalk has become more noticeable of late.

More noticeable because of the contrast with other prominent Democrats in the city who, unlike Rilling, have not shied away from taking clear-cut positions in the wake of Manny Rivera’s sudden and disturbing resignation as schools superintendent. In The Norwalk Hour on Nov. 25, the chairman of the Democratic Town Committee, Ed Camacho, pinned a good part of the blame on three Democratic members of the Board of Education. It is a mistake, he said, “to focus entirely on these board members because I don’t think that’s the full story, but I believe the difficulties these board members presented made his mission to transform the school system more challenging.”

In a Letter to the Editor on Nancy On Norwalk, former Common Councilman Warren Pena was even more forthright. “Now there is the issue of race baiting,” he said, referring to a BOE controversy stirred up a few months ago. “If we do not change our messengers or the narrative, we are in big trouble. We cannot use the term racist just because we do not get our way or what we want.” He added, “This is wrong and should not be tolerated in our city!”

Compare that to what we’ve heard from Norwalk’s top elected official, Harry Rilling. It’s the same we heard from him on nearly every other problem the city has had to deal with since he became mayor. Crickets.

Perhaps, by not saying what he thinks about anything, he believes he’ll avoid trouble for himself. But what about the rest of us?

Bill Dunne

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Comments

10 responses to “For Rilling, mum’s the word”

  1. John Hamlin

    What’s more disturbing than a lack of words is his lack of action. Aside from changing the tone (a welcome change), what has he done? Certainly no personnel changes that might enhance the city government. Where does he see the city moving? And how would we get there?

  2. John Frank sr

    Apparently Bill Dunne does not understand the obligation that goes with being told something, in confidence. Mayor Rilling, on the other hand, does understand and honors that obligation. Dr Rivera’s primary reason, or reasons, for leaving are strictly personal, although he has admitted that working with this BOE was, in some ways, stressful.

  3. piberman

    Perhaps even morel puzzling is Mayor Rilling’s silence on comments by Democrat NAACP President and recent Probate Judge candidate Attorney Crossland as reported in the Hour that he is concerned about a Ferguson incident in Norwalk. Mayor Rilling was a former distinguished Police Chief and presumably understands the consequences of Mr. Crossland’s imflammatory remarks. Maybe the simple truth is that bizzare or unsettling statements by Democrat officials and public figures, no matter be they BOE members, Councilmen or NAACP Presidents will simply not be commented upon by our Mayor. Given his role as our City’s senior elected official that apparent stance is unsettling. Norwalk has long had an admired and well respected Police Department. To have a public figure declare that he is concerned that a Norwalk police officer might shoot an unarmed civilian is more than unsettling. To have neither our Mayor nor Police Chief object to that statement is very disturbing. Is the “New Norwalk” now all about politics ?

  4. Mike Mushak

    Leadership is taking responsibility, not making excuses or just making noise. Mayor Rilling is not at all interested in just making noise or making excuses, but is thoughtful and deliberate, and takes responsibility when necessary.

    Mayor Rilling may not be moving as fast as some us would like after years of frustration, or as in Mr. Dunne’s opinion, exhibit a style of leadership that continually takes positions on issues (ostensibly to make for an easier target politically), but to use a sea captains metaphor, he has gotten the engines re-started and is steering the ship in the right direction in a bipartison fashion. Even with the threats of mutiny we have seen, would taking sides have helped matters at this point, or just made things worse?

    Both major parties could use improvement, so to use a biblical metaphor addressed to Mr. Dunne, don’t look for the splinter your neighbor’s eye while ignoring the log in your own (advice we can all stand to heed sometimes!)

    In more general terms, instead of a climate of “no” in City Hall that we endured for years, along with plenty of excuse-making, we now have a healthier climate of “let’s try to fix things” in a bipartisan way. Considering our dysfunctional form of government with a weak mayor and no professional city manager, a strong Common Council of overworked volunteers who mostly have day jobs and families and no staff to help them, and the city being mostly run by independent department heads with little coordination (the arrogant and rogue P and Z department leadership as exhibit one where actual professional urban planning and smart functional zoning is abhorred), there is good reason for any of us to feel frustrated.

    I agree with John Hamlin in his posts on other articles that Norwalk desperately needs charter revision to change our obsolete approach to governing and managing the city (left over from an era when we were much smaller with less serious challenges), and I personally think that should be preceded by a professional operational audit to have expert municipal consultants make recommendations. It would be smart to get outside professional management help at this point as we know the status quo is not working well for any of us, which will take bipartisan leadership instead of petty bickering like Mr. Dunne’s letter represents, and that we are all guilty of at different times to be fair.

    At this point, just hearing “why not” instead of “no way” coming out of City Hall is a refreshing change from years past, and I challenge anyone to say that is not a positive direction for Norwalk.

  5. EveT

    Rilling’s detractors continually try to bait him into making public statements prematurely, on this or any other issue. If he actually did make a statement, they would be the first to criticize him for saying the wrong thing.

  6. Donald Trump

    It is fairly clear and will be crystal clear to Norwalk voters in 11 short months that protecting the Democrat party comes first and Norwalk comes somewhere else after that.

    You’re fired.

  7. Casey Smith

    I’m no fan of one airing one’s dirty laundry in public, but must admit that I’m dismayed with the profound silence from the Mayor’s Office in light of all the negative upheaval in the Democratic party.

    A lot of the issues had been building for a while, but one does wonder at the silence when the number of incidents start to pile up. To me, it seems like the Mayor either doesn’t care or is tactually supports the various statements and actions of his political compatriots.

  8. Taxpayer Fatigue

    These political spin attacks on the mayor might actually mean something if the Republicans led by example and cleaned their own house out first. Where is their righteous indignation and calls for the petty and inept Republican Zoning Commission leadership to resign? Get rid of the dysfunctional, petty Republicans off of the Zoning Commission – then you have the right to ask others to do the same – but this isn’t really about leadership, it is nothing more than petty, partisan “spin” politics led by the RTC.
    Rivera left because he got a job that will be much easier to be a hero at and is close to where he lives – just look at New London’s test scores – it is a lot easier to fix a few schools by getting them from an “F” to a “C” and be a big hero, than it will be to take Norwalk from “C” ratings to “B” ratings. Because of the State’s involvement and mandate for all magnet schools in New London, he’ll be able to shut schools as he pleases, get a few of them working at a mediocre level, and be considered a candidate for sainthood in New London. This was about his ego and the fact that he can create a better legacy for himself in New London than in Norwalk in the final phase of his career.

  9. LWitherspoon

    Based on what I observed at a debate, Candidate Rilling had a very different position on the mall at 95/7 than Mayor Rilling does. It seems to me that with regard to other matters, Rilling’s approach is to avoid taking a position unless it’s absolutely necessary, and even then he’d prefer to punt to a task force. Some might describe this as opportunistic while others would describe it as prudent. Either way, he is no different from most other elected officials. He doesn’t need to take a stance on every issue if he’s achieving results on issues that matter. There’s no need for the Mayor to publicly berate BoE members who misbehave if he is taking the necessary steps behind the scenes to create greater harmony and productivity. Failing that, he can work to influence who his party nominates for Council and the BoE, and he can work to recruit candidates who more ably represent underserved communities.

  10. Piberman

    One can imagine that as Supt a riviera reads through comments posted on NON that he’ll have no doubts whatsoever about his decision to leave Norwalk. His careful statements about behaviors in the BOE influencing his decision have clearly fallen on “deaf ears”. Calls for a Charter change direct needed attention elsewhere from the Party’s obligation to nominate BOE candidates up to the job as “public servants”.

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