Editor’s note: following is an opinion submitted by Westport resident and Board of Finance member Liz Heyer.
Local elections are about choosing the most qualified candidate. I was glad to see the RTC put aside partisanship and nominate the person with the best experience to be First Selectman, Don O’Day, and I am proud to endorse him. Don has deep knowledge of how our town operates and long tenure working in local government. He communicates clearly and directly, works successfully across party lines, and has a proven track record of results. While I respect the other candidates, they simply don’t have anywhere near the level of experience or expertise that Don possesses, and is necessary, to lead Westport.
Don doesn’t play party politics, and he has been committed to non-partisan leadership throughout his service. While on the Board of Education, Don championed bipartisan leadership on town boards by recommending the minority party hold the Vice Chair seat, a Westport tradition that continues today. While he was a Democrat, he endorsed a Republican candidate for First Selectman because he thought that candidate was the strongest. Running as an Independent candidate is not meaningful unless you can demonstrate an ability to collaborate with people across the political spectrum to deliver results, as Don has done.
Don is celebrated for leading the Coleytown Middle School Building Committee and the hallmarks of his leadership were his level of transparency and the communications he provided to the community. Stepping up again as a member of the Long Lots School Building Committee, he weighed conflicting needs of stakeholders and made a difficult decision about how to best utilize the Long Lots property for the new school, the same decision the other two candidates made, and that was also unanimously approved by members of every town board. While Don explains the complexities that contributed to the decision, I am dismayed to see the other candidates waffle about their support for the Long Lots project. I have yet to hear them clearly state where they stand now, or what specifically they would have done differently, despite having opportunity to do so in their roles during project deliberations.
Don’s running mate, Andrea Moore, is a Westport native who has spent more than a decade working to preserve and enhance Westport through roles on school boards, town committees, the Board of Finance and the RTM. As our current Second Selectwoman, she is the only candidate with direct experience in the role. She fully understands the critical, daily management responsibilities of the job and will be instrumental in facilitating a smooth transition. No learning curves, no need for listening tours to understand how departments operate; Don and Andrea will hit the ground running.
Through their many roles in local government, Don and Andrea have helped shape the Westport we all love and enjoy today, with a competitive tax rate, cherished amenities and services, exceptional schools, a vibrant senior community, a thriving downtown and expanding opportunities for new business. We face big decisions ahead with respect to our ambitious capital plan, large development projects, and state mandates. And though the pandemic is in our rearview mirror, we now know we need leaders who have the wisdom and maturity to lead in a crisis. This is not the time to take risks on unproven leaders.
While serving on the Board of Education and the Board of Finance, I have had the opportunity to work directly with all the candidates. Only one team has the experience and leadership required for the job, and that’s the team of Don O’Day & Andrea Moore.
Liz Heyer
Salem Road
Westport
I just can’t. 🤢.
The record of deceptions related to the Long Lots school project are too egregious.
So I’ll just refer again to my column “I was There, Don.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/tonisimonetti/p/i-was-there-don?r=1dhpe&utm_medium=ios
Or the one, Long Lots Appropriation Numbers, which revealed O’Day’s secret piece of paper he left behind in an auditorium then proceeded to accuse others of “purloining” it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tonisimonetti/p/long-lots-appropriation-numbers?r=1dhpe&utm_medium=ios
I just can’t. 🤮
Or my very first take on the mucky murky track record of Don O’Day, “Do the Right Thing.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/tonisimonetti/p/do-the-right-thing?r=1dhpe&utm_medium=ios
I respect your feelings about the garden and understand it’s hard to appreciate what is holistically best for the town. That’s why our town government is comprised of multiple boards with a diverse group of members that function with checks and balances to decide town issues. Town boards unanimously voted to approve the construction of Long Lots with the associated site plan. I hope you can accept the decision and find a productive way to move forward.
Accusing or blaming Don for the garden, while not holding Kevin equally responsible is disingenuous and hypocritical. Kevin, as a BoE member and the BoE representative on the Long Lots Building Committee, was involved in the project all along. I appreciate Kevin’s service in those roles and agreed with his support and vote in favor of the LLS project. If Kevin believes that Don, or any member of the Building Committee, acted in a questionable manner as you allege, he should have spoken up then or he should publicly say that now. Otherwise, I hope he would refute your disparaging remarks and false project narrative.
Further to the issue if the Republican driven autocracy-in-progress..,
This morning, the Republican-led ICE gestapo raided a car wash in Hamden, Connecticut. It is reported that among those abducted and taken to unknown whereabouts was a young couple, leaving behind their two young children in school, now to fend for themselves.
This Republican majority autocracy-in-progress is outrageous and immoral. Anyone who casts a vote on the Republican ticket is complicit. Shame.
Thank you Liz. Spot on, and thank you for your service to our community on first our Board of Education and now our Board of Finance.
Toni, our town is run by people, not parties. We work together as one to get things done. I never mind, or get upset at criticism for my vote, or position on issues that we both may not agree with.
Please, the Republican stuff is getting old. I don’t sit here an say don’t vote for Democrats because the legislature in CT is trying to ruin our local zoning laws. Our Dems go to Hartford (minus Ceci Mahar) to fight for us.
No, I did not vote for DJT if you are asking. I actually wrote my name in on the last Presidential Election.
Issues, Experience, and Ability to take on challenges and get things done. This why I support Liz Heyer’s letter and Don O’Day and Andrea Moore for First and Second Selectman.
Jimmy Izzo
RTM 3
Not all experience is always meaningful. With Don O’Days extensive BOE history especially, I think it’s imperative he answer a few questions as he is/was uniquely involved to do so.
1) How did the BOE mandate to build or refurbish Long Lots come to include a regulation soccer field on adjacent property that was not school property?? Why was this fact kept from the public until a FOI email illuminated the plan as well as destruction of The Garden? WHO initiated the plan and exactly who’s decision was it to keep it under wraps?
2)Why was the renovation of Coleytown not done immediately following the Kings Highway mold remediation. Why did you let it fall into such disrepair?
3) With both the Coleytown and KH lessons learned at great expense healthwise to students and faculty, as well as dollar wise, why was Long Lots left to rot for so many years when he was on and chairing the BOE? These deteriorations did not happen overnight.
Your “experience” would indicate you well understood interest rates would not stay close to zero forever yet during your tenure you saw no timely reason to push for remediation to all physically failing schools which were quite apparent.
4) Why was our Building Department overlooked in the Long Lots build?
What else will Don O’Day kick down the road? What good is experience if it is not utilized wisely?
5) How exactly did the contractor who erred by an acre clear cutting LL land to the neighbors property line misunderstand the designated boundary? How do you explain your concerns for neighbors of a proposed Baldwin Deck( stated in your Debate) vs your seemingly lack of concern for Long Lots neighbors with both the new field? and the egregious unsupervised clear cut error?
6)Transparency is the current war cry of our citizens. What improved transparency in Government can we expect from you if you do happen to be elected? That was something I did not hear you advocate for in The WJ debate?
To Andrea Moore… It is imperative for voters to know how you differentiate yourself from Jen Tooker?
1) On what issues did you disagree with her and why? What was the outcome? How is your vision for Westport different than Jen Tookers especially since you grew up here?
2)How could it be possible that both you and Jen Tooker ignored communication from CT DOT regarding input for the build of their new facility on The Connector?
Why did you and Jen Tooker hand the Chiabri Bridge back to the CT DOT to figure out when you well knew the controversy surrounding
a fix and the importance of Town input to protect the possibility of 18 Wheelers included in thru traffic?
Chris Vatis
The comments above seem deranged. ‘nough said.