Innovation

As one of the first Connecticut towns to establish our own electric utility in 1899, Wallingford once stood as a proud example of the power of innovation. This attitude towards the future helped usher in an era of technology-focused, industry-pushing businesses flocking to our town, laying the foundation for a strong local economy for generations. In recent times, however, Wallingford has become a mere shadow of its former self, now lagging well behind the technological curve of the rest of the country thanks to decades of resistance from the Dickinson-Cervoni administration. Riley O’Connell has made it his mission to return our town to its former glory in this regard.

Many of these proposals should be entirely without controversy because they simultaneously improve quality of life as well as provide massive savings across the board. They are only portrayed as divisive by stubborn leadership that fears change of any sort, even when that change is overwhelming positive. The age-old direct deposit debacle is a classic example of this. Wallingford has remained steadfast over the years as one of the only remaining municipalities that does not offer direct deposit to its employees, both retired and current. Not only does this pose a completely antiquated inconvenience to our employees, but it also costs the town at least tens of thousands of dollars each year. With direct deposit becoming the standard across the country as early as the 2000s, many unions will only sign contracts with the town that come with a built in paid break in the work schedule to go pick up/deposit these checks. Mayor Dickinson has stated time and time again that making the long overdue switch to a direct deposit system would cost the town up to $20,000/year (a figure that has no evidentiary basis and is heavily refuted), but the irony is that even if this figure were accurate, it still would not would not compare to the current financial losses described previously.

There are countless other examples of where we can and need to improve. Residents and local business owners have asked for an online option for paying electric and tax bills, which is different from paying exorbitant fees to a third party or bank to carry out the same task. Once again, this is a common sense standard in most other towns, and Riley promises to make this innovation within his first 100 days of office. People have also complained about the lack of public wifi in public buildings like Town Hall for years, and again no movement from this administration. Town departments have been forced to do the best they can with completely outdated technology, with some offices lacking even the capacity to receive voicemails, a technology so basic that it came into vogue in the early 1980s. The true cost of this level of neglect was made painfully apparent over the past few years under COVID-19; our municipal government was left entirely unprepared for a working from home scenario.

Perhaps the saddest thing about our current predicament is that Wallingford has always been blessed with an abundance of dedicated town officials and employees who want to make these improvements, only to be stonewalled by this administration. The Economic Development Commission (EDC) also boasts a membership of dedicated citizens, but has struggled to achieve its goals due to a lack of leadership and direction from Town Hall. In 2020, the EDC enlisted the help of Quinnipiac students to help establish an online presence for the town, but despite crucial progress being made, the program was discontinued after the semester ended. We should have been using the power of online marketing to actively seek out new businesses and convince families to move to town for decades by now, and being the last one to the table has consequences. A robust online presence is precisely what we need to provide modern solutions to our modern problems.

Our extremely limited technological capabilities also stifled our ability to fairly distribute ARPA funds to qualified businesses and non-profits. In addition to the unacceptable politicking that already plagued the ARPA program in Wallingford, when applications for these grants were finally made available, neither the EDC nor the administration had any way to efficiently and effectively notify the 2,200+ business owners in town. Whereas having an email list for all these people would fall under the category of “common sense” in any other town, unfortunately, we were once again found unprepared and outdated. This resulted in the vast majority of Wallingford businesses never learning about this opportunity, and opening the door for serious inequity when it came to the actual distribution of funds. The proper communication technologies would not have solved these problems on their own, but combined with the right leadership and proper procedures, our local government could become a partner for businesses rather than an obstacle.

If you need an accurate depiction of the philosophical gap between O’Connell and Cervoni in regards to technology, look no further than comparing this campaign website to that of Cervoni’s campaign; no platform, no plan, and certainly no mention of updating our technology. Even towns with histories as rich as ours are confined to nothing more than just that — history — if they become complacent with the status quo and fail to adapt. If elected Mayor, Riley O’Connell pledges to make it an absolute priority to not only catch Wallingford up to the rest of the 21st century, but also reestablish ourselves as a hub for innovation and prosperity.