Paranoia

There have been a few articles in the newspaper lately about Alderman Mike Telesca and one of his rental properties. First he was in trouble for not having a permit to operate a rooming house, but he has since found the paperwork from 23 years ago that gives him permission to do so. But he still hasn't been paying the annual fee for a health permit for the rooming house.

This is a man who has been involved in city politics for many years. He is an elected city official. He claims to care about doing what's best for the people of Waterbury, although, as an alderman, mostly all he seems to do is complain that the Democrats are being mean to the Independents. As a responsible city official, his response to the discovery that he is not in compliance with city regulations should have been to apologize and immediately rectify the situation by paying for the required permits. Instead he issued eviction notices to all of his tenants and claims that the Democrats are being mean to him, as if he were the only city landlord expected to have the correct permits.

This is yet another big disappointment from Waterbury's Independent Party. Instead of focusing on doing good works for the city, they are, collectively and individually, bogged down in paranoia. At best, they are paranoid that new developments, like the power plant in the South End, are bad for the city and speak out against them. Most of the time, however, they seem to be obsessed with the notion that the Democrats are out to get them and waste huge amounts of time and energy complaining about it, instead of saying "so what?" and moving forward with their elected responsibilities.