This week lets start with a pop quiz: What is a P3?
Is it a new ski boot? The latest fad diet? A new sci-fi alien or super hero?
I could give you unlimited guesses, but unless you were watching or attending the first selectman candidates debate Thursday night, the answer would most likely elude you.
Times up: A P3 is a catchy acronym for public/private partnerships. I do not know if Republican Fred Camillo coined the term, but he used it frequently during the debate with his Democratic rival, Jill Oberlander. As a journalist, I would like to thank Camillo for saving me multiple keystrokes on my laptop.
Oberlander was first to arrive on the GHS Auditorium stage Thursday evening. She took her place at the small table armed with a sheaf of notes and a bottle of water. Camillo arrived many minutes later, a bottle of water his only prop. This was going to be a night of Ms. Good Government versus Mr. Townie Good Guy. It proved to be the best municipal debate Ive seen in the last 10 years.
Over the course of the evening, Camillo had to walk a fine line between being true to his belief that Greenwich is the best run town in the state while claiming that some things would change at Town Hall were he elected to succeed First Selectman Peter Tesei, who is leaving office after 12 years on the job.
For her part, though Board of Estimate and Taxation chair, Oberlander is not nearly as well known to voters as is Camillo. Her debate objective was to convince voters that she could do the job better than her opponent, and that she had been a careful guardian of town money as BET chair.
Camillo would rely heavily all evening on his belief that P3s are an inherently good concept. Oberlander also embraced the private sector, but said she sees its role as providing supplemental funding.
The Republican had to be happy that the first question was about the now delayed Greenwich Plaza redevelopment, a P3 that is more public giveaway than partnership. Camillo answered first and put some distance between himself and Tesei by bemoaning his effort to give away a valuable town asset. A controversial aspect of the plan as currently devised involves the town transferring air rights above the plaza to the private developer that owns most of the properties involved. But as a true P3-er, Camillo said he holds out the hope of coming to a better deal.
Oberlander said the plan falls far short of being the gateway to Greenwich it should be, largely because Tesei kept negotiations a secret process and did not call on real estate, land use and municipal finance experts to help protect the towns interests.
If you are undecided about whom to support in November, you should look for a replay of the debate on GCTVs YouTube channel. I have a hard time deciphering the GCTV schedule, but one can hope they post the video quickly.
Without going back and forth on the specific issues addressed, such as the chronically mismanaged Parking Services Division, the politicization of the town auditors function, and the Harbor Management Commissions inability to work with the state harbormaster for Greenwich, the debate did put in sharp relief the different approach to governing each candidate would adopt.
Camillo is cut out of the GOP townie mold (as a townie myself, I dont consider it a pejorative label). They have led the town for years, and feel it is their birthright to govern. Several times during the night, Camillo emphasized he knows everyone in Hartford and in Greenwich government. He can pick up a phone and call a friend to get what the town needs. Those relationships, and a bottle of water, are all he needs to run the town.
Oberlander is a lawyer who spent 10 years in NYC municipal government. Like many people in town, she and her husband moved here for the schools and the community. I have put down roots here, she said. She will govern with a bottle of water and a sheaf of notes.
More than any municipal election in generations, this one will tell Greenwich if it is still a townie run, Republican stronghold, or if the electorate has changed; whether it is still reliably Republican or if the unaffiliated voters are looking for leadership, not party labels.
And, it will be the true test of the political strength of a new class of activists and voters energized by what I call the Trump Experience. Indivisible and other groups have transformed Greenwich elections and politics over the last two years. Tesei, on his radio show this week, called Indivisible Greenwich one of the most divisive groups the town has seen. He said it is great they exist, but considering Indivisible was created to oppose the Trump agenda, Tesei said, One has to draw the conclusion that youre very divisive people.
The groups success at the polls certainly ended his run as first selectman; now it is time to see what comes next.
More here:
Bob Horton: Election will define where and what Greenwich is - CT Insider
