Her opponent’‘s response: I call back, too.
Answering constituents’ phone calls, and acting on their complaints, is a major plank of Claudette Robinson-Thorpe’s campaign.
The 53 year-old political newcomer (pictured), who grew up in the old Elm Haven projects, is launching a Democratic Primary challenge Saturday to incumbent 28th Ward Alderman Moti Sandman in the Beaver Hill neighborhood. The launch event begins at noon at her home at 319 Norton St., a block in from Whalley.
In an interview at her home, Robinson-Thorpe, a social worker with a private agency in Guilford, said she doesn’t know of any citywide legislative issues on which she disagrees with Sandman.
She’s running because of a need for “change” in Beaver Hills, and because she wants to “give back” to a community that helped her rebuild her life.
She turned to drugs in her early 20s while wrestling with her mother’s death, she said. She lost her home. She went on welfare. For a while her sister had to raise her first daughter.
Eventually a social worker pointed her to a program that helped her earn degrees at Gateway and Southern while working her way to a managerial office job at Yale. She eventually earned a masters in social work, raised four now-grown children, and became a homeowner.
“I know it’s possible for people to do better,” she said. “Look at me.”
She was motivated to run for alderwoman after, she said, she tried contacting Sandman about snow-plowing problems in the neighborhood and about a neighborhood barbecue she was organizing. Sandman never called her back, she said.
“I went to his house. I left him messages,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know who the alderman is. That’s an issue.”
“There’s a lot of foreclosures going on in the area. The taxes are outrageous,” she said. “Sidewalks are a mess.” She vowed that if elected, she would focus on navigating the bureaucracy — something she had practice doing both as a welfare client, then as a social worker helping clients — to help constituents who contact her with such concerns. She said that as alderwoman she’d also push for more youth programs.
“I Apologize”
Moti Sandman was anything but defensive when told of Robinson-Thorpe’s claims.
He said he “keeps a log” of everyone who phones him and strives to call back within 24 hours.
“I don’t remember” Robinson-Thorpe calling, he said. “If the number got lost, I apologize.”
Sandman, who’s 33, first won the seat in the politically active, racially diverse neighborhood north of Whalley Avenue in a special election in 2006. He was reelected to a full term in 2007.
He has spent that time tirelessly addressing neighborhood issues, he said. And enjoying it.
He gave examples of concrete work he’s done in the ward in response to neighbors’ concerns:
• He helped craft a solution to complaints about noise at the police firing range. The cops will begin using a soundproof enclosed trailer there in a few months to keep the noise down.
• He helped get public money for a catch basin at Beaver Pond Park and convince parks workers not to park on plants put in by neighborhood volunteers.
• He has joined an effort to halt construction of a SCSU parking garage at Boulevard and Crescent.
• He helped negotiate a deal with the city to match $10,000 in new assessments paid by Whalley Special Services District merchants to beautify the avenue. That’s part of a larger campaign to improve the streetscape and make Whalley “prettier” and “pedestrian-friendly.”
• “I got streetsweeping on a more regular schedule in our neighborhood,” “streets repaved,” and “sidewalks done.”
Citywide, Sandman said, he joined in the successful push to freeze property tax revaluation as well as tax hikes for lower-income elderly homeowners. And he drove to New Britain (pictured) to urge state regulators to turn down a gas company rate hike request. (They did.)
Sandman said he “commends” Robinson-Thorpe for wanting to be an alderwoman and give back to the community. He said he likes the job, too, and would like to continue doing it. “It’s not always easy,” he said. But “I meet people I never would meet. These are really good people.”