Joy's Craven Campaign Concoction: A New Low in City Politics

It is truly unfortunate that Mr. Joy’s faltering campaign has chosen to put its interest above those of Milford and to exploit the recent disaster to win political campaign points.

Today Mr. Joy issued a press release proclaiming the compassion in his proposed ordinance which would waive permitting fees for Milford residents rebuilding in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

Yet, the evidence shows clearly and unambiguously that Joy’s motivation is nothing more than a cynical and craven campaign concoction. Look no further than the fact that he never bothered to speak to the Director of Land Use, who oversees the permitting process, to gather her input and feedback on the proposal, a proposal she and her department would have to implement and manage.  If this proposal was, in the least, a sincere concern of Mr. Joy’s he would have certainly vetted his proposal with people who know more about the issue than he does. Instead he never even called the department head for input or feedback.

Furthermore, when Joy heard that the Director of Land Use vehemently opposed the proposal and had written and published a well thought out and detailed memo against it, rather than to ask about her concerns or address her questions he saw to it that her memo was buried and not shared with fellow Aldermen and that she not be allowed to attend the Board of Aldermen meeting to share her concerns about what she called, a “bad idea.” 

These facts lay bear that Joy cared little about good public policy or about how this could be implemented or managed, or even if it could be implemented and managed. Instead he cared only about creating a campaign issue and a press release he could exploit to win campaign points and maybe even attack Ben Blake, if Blake had the courage to speak out against the ordinance.

Mr. Joy is new to city government and we should give him the benefit of the doubt that he just doesn’t know any better. Details matter, implementation matters. Fortunately, Alderman Ben Blake took the time to meet with the Director of Milford’s Land Use to discuss the feasibility of the proposal.  After gathering input from experts, he cast an informed vote against Joy’s campaign the ordinance.

Fortunately, the people of Milford see through Joy’s gimmickry. It is truly sad that Mr. Joy has chosen to engage in negative campaigning. I had hoped that he might prove to be above attack politics and desperate campaign tactics.

See the Director of Land Use's 11 Reasons Why Joy's Proposal is Bad:

http://milfordmirror.com/news/milford-features/local-news/79175-land-use-directors-11-reasons-for-opposing-waivers.html