13 | HAIL ALE May 22, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 21
15 | MOVING OUT
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Stamford mayor seeks fiscal rewards without pursuing risks
westfaironline.com
Creative Connections builds cultural bridges with student art exchanges BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com
A Stamford Mayor David R. Martin governs by the motto on his desk. Photo by Phil Hall.
BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com
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tamford Mayor David R. Martin was not shaking hands with visitors in his office. Instead he offered his elbow for a greeting bump. “I have a spring cold,” he confessed while sitting at his desk with a large bottle of hand sanitizer positioned before him. In some ways, the mayor’s effort to avoid spreading cold germs is typical of his approach to his fiscal work: a view of a bigger picture that does not involve creating or expanding a risk, in this case a seasonal cold. While other governments — operate within a red ink environment, Martin is aware of being responsible for a finite supply of taxpayer funds. “I don’t care what you are allowed to
spend,” he said. “If you don’t have the revenue, it doesn’t matter.” This approach to running the city has generated positive results. Since his election in 2013, Stamford has maintained an AAA bond rating and the fiscal year 2018 budget is projected to carry a $4.8 million surplus, with no planned cuts to the municipal workforce. Martin’s budget, submitted in late March, had a gross capital budget request of $27.4 million. Martin, a Democrat seeking re-election for a second term in November — the Republican Party has yet to name an opponent — said Stamford has operated at a surplus ever since he became mayor. “We’re working our ass off — and, yes, you can quote that,” he said with a laugh. “We’re working our ass off to make our government more affordable, to deal with the unfunded liabilities of the past and still
provide the services that people deserve.” Beyond fiscal politics, Martin’s view of Stamford’s direction has been shaped by conversations with local CEOs, many of whom identified transportation and the workforce as their key concerns. On the transportation front, Martin admitted that while he had no ultimate control over the federal and state governments’ input, he has made the city's response a top priority. “I am not in charge of Metro-North or I-95, but I completely reorganized the transportation function of the city and I am putting additional resources behind it,” he said. “We’re doing a (traffic) light synchronization project. The ability of people to move in their vehicles is an issue from a safety standpoint and a flow standpoint and an economic development issue. I am doing what I can do to make » Stamford mayor, page 6
lan Steckler can claim a unique perspective on education, having worked as a teacher in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom. In his view, the American kids could learn a few things from their counterparts across the Atlantic. “When I came back from teaching in England” in the late 1980s and early 1990s, “I found the middle school students I was working with in the states were very insular in their views of the world,” he said. “They kind of stuck with their own culture and didn’t know or care much about the world. Having come from England, where kids were much more globally minded, I thought that was not quite right and something was needed to awaken the young people to the world around them.” That something was the launch of Creative Connections, a Norwalk-based cultural education nonprofit that recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Now oper» Connections, page 6
Polly Loughran, program director, and Alan Steckler, founder and president of Creative Connections, display student artwork from around the world in their Norwalk office. Photo by Phil Hall.