McQuaid: Rilling, Norwalk council will work together

NORWALK, Conn. – It’s going to be a good two years, Norwalk’s town clerk said.

“I think the mix of this group that’s been elected is great,” Rick McQuaid said.

McQuaid, a long-time councilman and council president before winning election as town clerk two years ago, said he does not expect discord between Democratic Mayor-Elect Harry Rilling and the Republican dominated Common Council. He also doesn’t expect wholesale changes at the outset.

McQuaid served under Democratic Mayor Alex Knopp, and Republican Council president Doug Hempstead, so it has experience with this situation.

“It has its points,” he said. “Anybody that is in the majority and mayor is the opposite party are going to always want to have their agenda pushed and there’s still a mayor…. I think that the new people that are coming on should really take some guidance from some of the senior members that have been there.”

Common Councilman David Watts (D-District A) knocked on many, many doors in his successful drive toward re-election. This is what the electorate wanted, he said.

“They were thinking divided government,” he said. “The people of Norwalk want cooperation between the two political parties. That’s what I heard over and over. They want people to work together to solve their problems. That’s what spoke loudest to me, that they wanted us to do, to try to really tackle the problems that are facing Norwalk.”

Rilling has a message on his website, which he posted to Facebook Saturday. People worked hard to get him elected because they senses a need for change, he said,

“Change is what you are about to get, whether in development, education, poverty program oversight or civility, there is change coming down the pike,” he wrote. “The first step in making it happen is to put together our management team, and the wheels on that have already started to turn. It just takes time.

McQuaid said that doesn’t mean an “off with their heads approach” toward department heads right off the bat.

“He’s been around a long time, he knows how the city works and he knows that if you change everything at 12:01 on the 19th at 12:05 on the 19th your job is going to become very difficult because now you’ve changed everything and now what do you do? But, you know what? I wish him well and I think the council is going to doing to well. I really do,” McQuaid said.

Watts said a few weeks before the election that incumbent Republican Mayor Richard Moccia was polling well in District A, seeming less confident than other Democrats of the outcome. That tide shifted, he said.

“Did I see that Harry had momentum? Yeah, I saw it at the last minute,” he said. “Undecided voters tend to break toward the challenger. When voters still haven’t made up their mind it is widely known in political circles that undecided voters at the last minute tend to break toward the challenger. If you’re an incumbent and people are still undecided at the last minute you know that you’re in trouble because those people tend to break away.”

McQuaid had predicted surprises in the election.

“The most surprising thing to me was almost getting 10,000 votes but that’s just me,” he said with a laugh, about the 9,972 votes he got to retain his town clerk job.

What else?

“Surprises? There were a few people that I thought were going to, not do better, but I think the city overall wanted a change but they still wanted it to remain the same,” he said. “It was almost like, you know we like the big city but let’s keep some of our little village structure.”

Emily Wilson ran well, he said, though she fell short when she came in third in the District E council race. It was surprising to see John Kydes get more votes than incumbent Councilwoman Michelle Maggio in the “interesting” District C race. He was also surprised that newcomer Oliva Dardy didn’t make it in the council at large race, he said.

“Something simple like a Deb Goldstein, who won over in Third Taxing District was a surprise to me,” he said. “But you know what it is – you get out there and you work. It’s a different world now. Before you were dependent on a party lever and you don’t have it anymore.”

Goldstein, who has lived in Norwalk for just three years, will be the new TTD commissioner. Knocking on doors helped, McQuaid said.

“The Board of Ed? I couldn’t have wrote that story. There is no way I could have wrote that story,” he said. “I think what we should do next time is just take the 10 names and let them run with no party affiliation or anything and just let them run, let them pick the four because that’s what happened. But twice again there you have working family party. That helped.”

New comers need to go to “grandfather of the council” Doug Hempstead for advice, he said.

“He brings so much knowledge to the table that he can help the new mayor, he can help a lot of people,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a lot less controversy trying to get things put through. I think that would be my advice to the new people, whichever party side they are on, is to look for Doug for guidance. Not telling them how to vote or how to do things but just how to act as a council person and how to act in the public and how the public’s going to perceive you. A lot of people were looking at the civility thing as being a problem – you have a nice choice of new people being there that can make the change people are requesting.”

That includes Shannon O’Toole, formerly a member of the Oak Hills Park Authority. There’s a new mix coming out of the “overall good election,” he said.

“You have Shannon and Michelle – I think they’re going to be vocal,” he said. “I think they’re going to get things done. I think they bring different ideas. John Kydes, I think that is a voice of reason that is coming because he comes from a total outside of everything perspective. He can bring great things to the table, you know, a new face. A lot of the players are old faces in different positions. But you have John Kydes, Shannon, she’s from Oak Hills. John brings a new view. He doesn’t come from another board, he doesn’t come from another position.”

Newcomers might also go to the town clerk’s office for advice.

“If anybody needs my help my door is wide open,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”