Riverside Files: How's This For Transparency?

Approximately an hour prior to Mayor Finizio’s scheduled for this past Friday evening at 5PM, called to discuss "the potential purchase and sale of real estate by the City of New London'', I received a phone call from the mayor’s front man,  Allyn de Vars.

Unaware that the Special Meeting was being cancelled due to FOI violations, de Vars revealed the purpose of the meeting and asked that I “give the mayor some breathing room” in order to allow him to complete negotiations with the regarding the sale of .

At some point in our conversation, I told de Vars that I understood that the mayor already had a deal in the works for $5 million and the promise that the Coast Guard Museum would be located in New London.

“Try $15 million.” was de Vars response.

For what seemed like a very long time to me, I listened while de Vars explained the unfortunate circumstances that necessitated the breaking of yet another mayoral promise.

Those circumstances, according to de Vars, included the fact that the city would be “bankrupt by June” and that the state would take over running the affairs of our city, that the city would suffer more humiliation and scorn such as was heaped on New London as a result of the Kelo v New London case, that neither he nor the mayor really wanted to sell the park but that previous corrupt and inept officials
had forced the city into this financial crisis and there really was no choice and
did I want to see our city end up like Camden, NJ?

Camden, NJ has not been a regularly scheduled stop on my trips to Tybee Island, GA, but, in any case, I suspect that I don’t want New London to be like Camden but neither do I want it to continue on the path it is being led down by the lack of transparency, honesty and accountability that I have seen in the past few months, in particular surrounding the issue of Riverside Park.

In an earlier blog, , I name just a few of the power brokers behind this newest attempt by the Coast Guard Academy to, once again, dip into New London’s limited land supply for their expressed, but unsupported by any evidence, need for more land.

Absent from that list, since he had not yet made his appearance, was Governor Dannel Malloy who, in a January 19th meeting with The Day’s editorial board, said, in answer to the question  “Have you had the chance to speak with New London's new mayor?

MALLOY: Yes I did, I had a conversation with him a week or two ago about the Coast Guard Academy and offered to be as helpful as we could. Understanding that the community did not want to exchange the waterfront portion of the property[emphasis added] (I) certainly urged him to, which he had already acted on, to reach out to the academy and find a way for us in this region to meet their needs and offered to play any appropriate role.”

I don’t know who Governor Malloy has been listening to but it was certainly not
the people who pay his salary or who voted not to sell Riverside Park to the federal government for nowhere was it mentioned that our primary concern was “…the waterfront portion of the property…”

Our primary concern was, and is, the preservation of the remaining 18 acres of
Riverside Park for the use and enjoyment of this and future generations of New
Londoners.

Also absent from my list of power brokers in Riverside Files Final Installment is Adm. Robert J. Papp, Jr, Commandant of the Coast Guard who, in a Day article
said “…the school has reached its capacity at its current site along the Thames River…” and although he went on to say that he didn’t see the relocation of the
Academy as a possibility, he did “…think there are certain functions that are here within the walls of the Coast Guard Academy that we could justifiably and
reasonably look at moving to other locations.”

“Papp said he sensed during the deliberations that there is a constituency that views the Coast Guard, or the federal government, as being intrusive into the city's affairs and taking its property. He said he wants to "be sensitive" to that and is looking at sites both in and outside of New London for the future museum.”

That intimidation, couched in the kindest and most diplomatic of terms, is all it took for a number of New London residents, led by Mayor Finizio, to become victims of a Chicken Little Syndrome – “Oh, dear me. The sky is falling!”

There is something more important than the ownership of Riverside Park at stake here and it is this - We have been down this road before with the Fort Trumbull
debacle where a neighborhood of unsuspecting, generational and taxpaying residents lost their homes, businesses and property, all in the name of economic
development, all forced on us by our own government and all for the supposed
good of the larger community.

Ten years later and we have yet to recover from that mess.

One financial disaster after another in New London and all decided by, not the taxpayers of this city who bear the burden, but our officials, elected and otherwise, who, ultimately, don’t give a damn what the votes want if it’s in opposition to what
they think is best for us.

For those of you who support the sale of Riverside, don’t think for a moment that the same can’t happen to you, your home, your neighborhood or your park.

If those people who were elected to represent us one day decide that they have a better use for Toby May, Ocean Beach or homes or land in your neighborhood than you do, you are going to have one hell of a fight on your hands.

HOLDING THE COAST GUARD ACADEMY EQUALLY RESPONSIBLE

Listed in the Coast Guard Academy’s Core Values is the following “Honor - Integrity is our standard. We demonstrate uncompromising ethical conduct and moral behavior in all our personal actions. We are loyal and accountable to the public trust.”

Yet, as it becomes increasingly obvious that the question of the sale of Riverside Park will be revisited, regardless of the result of the referendum vote, many citizens, including myself, have questions of our own concerning not only the honor of the Coast Guard Academy and their commitment of loyalty and accountability to the public’s trust but the honor of our newly elected mayor as well.

By their recent clandestine actions, this time, representatives of the people have forced many members of this community to have serious concerns regarding the honor and trustworthiness of those sworn to act for the benefit of the citizens of New London.

You only have to look at the history of New London to realize the truthfulness of that statement and beware of governmental largesse and hypocrisy, lest you become the next victim.