Tesoro: We Will Restore Trumbull Day to a Summer Event

Democratic first selectman candidate Vicki Tesoro said that there would be many changes made to how town government operates.

Among some of the items she mentioned was restoring Trumbull Day to a summer event planned primarily by volunteers.

“The decline of the event was avoidable,” she said in a statement. “It has frustrated the community and become a case study in mismanagement. We will restore the Trumbull Day Commission and staff it with community volunteers, starting in our first month in office, and we’ll plan for a 2016 Trumbull Day months in advance, not weeks.”

The town council recently voted to spend $15,000 on the event instead of the initial budgeted amount of $40,000.

Tesoro said that the town’s leadership style over the last five years has turned off would-be community participants from activities.

“That’s going to change with a Tesoro Administration. No longer will community volunteers be vilified for having a different opinion than the person who occupies the corner office at Town Hall,” she said. “We will strengthen our community, build bridges across generations and put the fun back in Trumbull.”

She also said that her administration would look into making Trumbull Day and other community events into self-sustaining programs.

Below are some other initiatives Tesoro proposed.

• We will restore the Trumbull Youth Association (TYA) to an independent line item in the budget and study the development of a community theater. We will treat youth theater and the arts in general for what they should be—opportunities for valuable education for young people and enriching experiences for the whole community. We will also restore the Youth Director position.
• We will focus on expanded programming and enhance participation at the current senior center. We believe the existing senior center could serve the community better and has suffered from official inattention and from failure to utilize existing funds for improvement.
• We will explore the need for a community center by creating a committee that brings people of all ages together and delivers a set of viable options within six months. This process will seek input from a true representation of our entire community, because our goal is to create true and lasting cross-generational interaction.
• We will hold quarterly open forums with the public. In order to allow for maximum community participation, these forums will be scheduled on weekend days. The dates will be set well in advance. These meetings will be community-driven conversations where residents can share their thoughts and concerns and receive direct responses to their questions and comments.
• We will methodically and regularly survey our residents for their input about new events and festivities. Participation depends on encouragement, on support of interesting ideas, and on celebrating the spirit of community involvement, not crushing it by attacking volunteers.
• Modest investments for our community will be paid for by cuts to line items where spending is excessive, such as legal fees.