Connecticut Local Politics

8 responses so far ↓

• 1 Jack Dobb // May 12, 2009 at 7:03 am ·

  Why would any company move to New Haven after that display? Honestly, John. What was your point?

• 2 Don Pesci // May 12, 2009 at 8:43 am ·

  This kind of street theatre happens in Venezuela on a daily basis, though it must be said that DeStefano still falls short of the anti-capitalist tirades the oil companies in that beleaguered nation, suffering under the administration of socialist Hugo Chavez, are used to.
  Lending moral support to DeStefano, according to the New Haven Independent http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/05/mayor_confronts.php, were “Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, New Haven State Sen. Martin Looney, Branford State Rep. Lonnie Reed, Fairfield County’s state Sen. Anthony Musto and members of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Fight the Hike. They called the move ‘dumb growth.’”
  Keep up the street theatre and down the line New Haven will be experiencing “no growth.”
  The expression on Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz’s face after the rant began is priceless: all smiles when the unintended bit players showed up but quickly degenerating into something approaching alarm as DeStefano unfurls his set-piece. Blumenthal always wears the same expression on these occasions, grinning concern.

  At the end of the street theatre set, a lowly worker at the company complains that parking in New Haven cost workers – who, presumably, are not as greedy as the corporation managers — about $100.00 a month.

  So ends the morality play.

  Message to DeStefano/Blumenthal: The whole (business) world is watching.

• 3 Don Pesci // May 12, 2009 at 8:52 am ·

  Sorry, parking in the building costs the workers $190.00 per month, not about $100.00.

• 4 gmr // May 12, 2009 at 10:23 am ·

  JDS was acting like some wingnut 22 year old activist, not the mayor. I can’t really figure out why UI is responsible for the parking fees. Or what that has to do with the closed down plant.

• 5 Don Pesci // May 12, 2009 at 10:46 am ·

  Just assuming here, but plants and businesses close down when their profits can no longer sustain them. Blumie’s objection to UI in this clip is that the greedy administrators of UI want to “raise their profits, not their prices” – whatever that means.

• 6 Jack Dobb // May 12, 2009 at 10:48 am ·

  United Illuminating has a duty to its shareholders, not to John DeStefano, and he doesn’t seem to get that. I can’t for the life of me figure out how or why he was bludgeoned by Jodi Rell 2 1/2 years ago…

• 7 Don Pesci // May 12, 2009 at 11:22 am ·

  In a letter to The Department of Utility Control, UI asked the department to “review the company’s distribution authorized return on equity.” UI suggested the Department could increase the return so that it could use the increased capital to improve its business. “Among other things,” the company wrote in its letter, “the Department could consider whether it would be appropriate, for example, to increase UI’s authorized return on equity and then, on a going forward basis, index its authorized return on equity to the cost of a ten year corporate debt of comparable credit quality (increasing or decreasing the authorized return an the cost of corporate debt increases or decreases.” UI also suggested that the “Department could incorporate mechanisms such as, for example, return on equity floors and ceilings, or earnings shared mechanism modifications as part of a return on equity adjustment.” These provisions and standards, all very reasonable, would make it less possible for DeStefano and Blumenthal to demagogue the issue.

• 8 Adam J. Schmidt // May 15, 2009 at 10:19 am ·

  Then DeStefano, visibly red in the face with anger, called on two top executives to take the mic.

  They did.

  At one point, the mayor went over to a crowd of a dozen supporters and got them to start chanting, “Fight the Hike!”, drowning out the UI execs’ comments.

  So he puts them on the spot and they’re actually willing to engage in a debate – so he riles up the crowd to drown out their answers?

  That’s one classy guy, I can’t imagine why he’s not Governor.

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