Repealing NL rule will help curb costs

It's apparent New London voters have gotten change in city government.

After voters unfastened city Democrats' longtime majority lock on the City Council by splintering its membership between Republicans, Democrats and a single Green Party candidate in municipal elections last fall, city politics are all shaken up.

The 2009 landmark elections not only landed a Republican in the mayor's chair for the first time in two decades, but are also allowing the GOP to do things its way and to undo what it perceives as past mistakes. That's democracy.

Thursday night's special City Council meeting was not just good theater, but proof that working in concert with the Green Party gives the Republicans the muscle they need to lead New London in a different direction.

Flexing those biceps Thursday, the council voted 4-3 to rescind a 2008 ordinance that effectively favored organized labor by requiring contractors to participate in state-sanctioned apprenticeship programs. The Republican/Green coalition argued the ordinance excluded 80 percent of potential bidders and forced up the cost of building.

When Democrats painted the move as anti-union - with a cast of organized labor watching from the council gallery - the Republican/Green coalition replied it was simply a pro-taxpayer initiative.

The dust-up resulted after bids for start-up work on a three-year, $61 million floor-to-ceiling conversion of two city elementary schools to magnet schools were opened, and it was realized the apprenticeship requirement was forcing up costs. Contractors who bid on state-funded projects - the state is paying $59 million, or 95 percent of the New London tab - are required to be pre-qualified by the state and pay prevailing wages, so the apprenticeship requirement was "an extra burden on an already overburdened city," Deputy Mayor Adam Sprecace argued.

Mr. Sprecace and fellow Republican Mayor Rob Pero opposed the Democratic-supported measure when the council approved it in 2008.

The back-and-forth debate underscored the obvious frustration council Democrats face in their weakened position and the disdain Councilor Michael Buscetto feels towards Mayor Pero. In one interchange, Mr. Buscetto suggested Mr. Pero was getting back at the Democrats after years of being in the minority.

That certainly doesn't appear to be the case. The Republican/Green coalition did the right thing by rescinding the ordinance. New London is going to need every dollar it can find, and probably more, to complete the schools. In the early round of bidding that set off the apprenticeship ordinance debate, the city would have seen a $900,000 savings had it been able to accept the lowest bid without apprenticeship requirements. New bids will be opened later this month.

The opposing sides dug in deep in the great ordinance debate, and the Democrats came up short. There is no need to let egos bruised by this debate spill over into future council business. If the school projects or anything else of consequence are going to happen in New London, there's going to have to be an occasional meeting of the political minds.