Three Candidates for First Selectmen Largely Agree on Issues

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First Selectman Candidates 2015

Darien candidates for first selectman (from left): Rob Werner, Chris Noe (both unaffiliated candidates) and incumbent First Selectman Jayme Stevenson, a Republican. There is no Democratic nominee this year.

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There were few differences of opinion between the three candidates for first selectmen at Tuesday night’s Darien League of Women Voters forum held in Town Hall.

First Selectman Candidates 2015

Darien candidates for first selectman (from left): Rob Werner, Chris Noe (both unaffiliated candidates) and incumbent First Selectman Jayme Stevenson, a Republican. There is no Democratic nominee this year.

While Democrats did not put forward a party-endorsed candidate to oppose First Selectman Jayme Stevenson, a Republican running for re-election, unaffiliated candidates Rob Werner and Chris Noe will be on the ballot as alternatives.

About 60 people attended the candidates forum in Town Hall Auditorium, and the event was broadcast live on Darien TV79.

All three candidates agreed that state interference in local affairs, such as zoning, is generally a bad idea, that it would be good to get more affordable housing in town, particularly for those without more children who would be going into the schools. All three said cooperation between people from different political parties is a good idea.

Noe, who wore a jean jacket and dungarees to the event, departed from usual Connecticut politics not only in his choice of clothing, but in what he said on some issues. For instance, at one point he said that personal firearms should not be discouraged on public school grounds (although if someone is found with an unregistered gun on a school campus, that person should get a mandatory five-year prison sentence, he said).

“Our children’s safety and education is my first priority. […] I look forward to my first day in office,” he said. “Not a moment will be wasted. I promise I will not rest until I have fixed everything. Vote yes for Noe.”

“I have a plan to underground power lines,” Werner said. “I have an aggressive plan to fight off state interference, I have an environmental plan, and I have a plan to bring nonpartisanship to this town. With your help, we can get it done.”

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Here are the candidates’ websites (or, in Noe’s case, Facebook timelline):

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Asked what they would do on the first day after election, Werner said he’d put together a group to help get the town’s power lines underground. The next thing he’ d like to do is get permanent lights at Darien High School for night sports games and practice. The temp lights are noisy, they pollute, they don’t work that well.

“I’m really not satisfied with the safety of our schools,” Noe said. “I think another Newtown [where a school massacre took place] is just a moment away every day, and I want to adopt a new policy […]

“We have gun free zones. I want gun safe zones which is going to allow licensed gun owners to not have to check their weapons if they have to go to school to pick up their children. […] I think the problem is not guns, it’s nuts with guns. […]

“One cop at the high school with a pot-sniffing dog is not going to protect anybody,” he said. “You need to protect yourself. […] It’s going to be met with a lot of resistance, I know it is, but I know what we have to do.” If anyone shows up without a licensed gun on school property, that person should go to jail and not even get bail before a trial, Noe said. “You go straight to jail for at least five years. […] Until we’re able to defend ourselves, we will be victims.”

Stevenson said: “On my first day of my third term as first selectman, I would like to take the time to go around to my employees and reaffirm my commitment to them to be the best possible selectman that I can be.”

Werner said the town should have bought available properties, including the site across the street from Darien Railroad Station where Lanphier Day Spa now is located, and have affordable senior housing built on them.

Noe said he looked into Connecticut housing statute 8-30(g). In the law, he said, “there’s nothing that says you have to build housing for unwed mothers with three bastard children. That’s not the case. You can actually turn the tides of 8-30(g) in your favor. […] All these 8-30 projects that have been built all have a 40-year timespan […] so we’re going to have no affordable housing.”

Years ago, Noe said, he and others in the construction housing put together a concept for housing in which 200 units would be built for  young people, 18 to 25 years old, that would have been put up where the Heights is located today.

Stevenson said “We’ve begun to embrace the idea of some housing choice, because we have some parents who might want to stay here,” along with recent college graduates and children growing into adults who have developmental disabilities and need housing.

There are quite a few more housing options in Darien now, and more are being proposed, Stevenson said. “We are making progress,” she said.

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Editor’s note: Candidates for other offices also spoke at the forum. Darienite.com will mention them in a future article and have more information on what the candidates for Board of Selectmen had to say at the meeting.

Other seats on the Board of Selectmen are the only other offices in which there is more than one option for voters to pick a candidate, since five candidates are running for four open seats on the board, and if either candidate for first selectmen wins more votes than the board candidates, that first selectman candidate gets a seat on the board.

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