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Hours before Dan Malloy won the Democratic nomination for governor, he walked a picket line at a Hartford nursing home where members of the Service Employees International Union have been on strike for months. It was a smart move for a candidate seeking a Democratic nomination, but now that he has it, the strikers shouldn’t expect Malloy back on the line anytime soon, as they say.
He was there because SEIU’s District 1199, the most powerful health-care union in the nation, had endorsed him over Ned Lamont and, as he marched with the strikers, Malloy reminded them why he was the right choice.
As the union picketers sang, “Up with the union, up with Dan Malloy,†Malloy told a Hartford Courant reporter he thought closing some nursing homes and having the state assist families with less expensive home health care would be “a gigantic mistake.â€
That was a great applause line on a health-care workers’ picket line, but it won’t play very well in the coming campaign when Malloy has to attract more than the Democratic Party base to become the next governor. There are 800,000 unaffiliated voters who played no role in the party primaries but will make all the difference in the contest between Malloy and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley.
And it would be safe to guess more than a few of them might think helping a family keep grandma at home instead of exiling her to a nursing home might be a swell idea, even at the risk of offending health-care workers and their union.
Independent voters may also have a problem with Malloy’s support for a bill that would make Connecticut the first and only state to require businesses with more than 50 employees to provide paid sick days, which Democrat Lamont opposed on the grounds it could hurt small businesses.
During the primary race, Malloy played the traditional — and winning — role of Democratic liberal while Lamont, the hero of the left when he ran for senator against the Iraq War and that old devil Lieberman, became the centrist Democrat concentrating on jobs and the businesses that create them.
But now, the primary is over and Malloy will have to take positions closer to Lamont’s if he is to go beyond his primary winning liberal base.
His Republican opponent, Tom Foley, wants to get public employee unions to accept concessions for both current and retired employees and also wants to repeal binding arbitration, which has been especially helpful to teachers’ unions. He will also force a debate on privatizing major government programs like road maintenance and some social services, issues that will have some appeal to independents and moderate Democrats in these difficult economic times.
It’s been nearly 25 years since this Blue State elected a Democratic governor, and in normal times, this would be a Republican year. But these aren’t normal times and even after a dozen years of Rowland and Rell, many voters cling to the belief that a labor-dominated, Democratic General Assembly needs the moderating influence of a strong Republican governor.
If he hopes to be elected, Malloy will have to convince them you don’t have to be a Republican to play that role.
Dick Ahles is a retired broadcast journalist from Simsbury. He may be reached by e-mail at dahles@hotmail.com.
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.