Waterford incumbent first selectman challenged

Waterford - With a 2010 charter change, the man elected Tuesday to be first selectman will serve for four years rather than two.

And, unlike in 2009, incumbent Republican Daniel Steward has a challenger, petitioning candidate Kevin Ziolkovski, an unaffiliated newcomer to town politics.

Despite these twists, the main issue in Waterford this year is a perennial one: managing money.

For years, town coffers have been buoyed by Millstone revenue, but after deregulation and revaluation, tax revenue from the power plant, while still significant, is not what it used to be.

Instead the town's financial focus has turned to servicing the debt on the school construction projects and negotiating contracts with municipal unions.

Steward said overseeing the debt the town has incurred in building three elementary schools, and renovating the high school and Clark Lane Middle School, will be his main focus if he is re-elected.

"We have to pay for these schools," Steward said. "It's what the town wanted."

The schools project has had a ripple effect on other infrastructure plans, Steward said.

In the past few years, the town has had to "downgrade" the capital plan, he said, putting several projects on hold to pay for the schools. Lean budgets have also put the brakes on further spending.

Steward said that in coming years the town will have to address the need for a new public works building, repairs to the firehouses and the lingering issue of a new regional animal shelter.

"We need to get that back up to gear," Steward said.

The new first selectman will also have to negotiate new contracts with five of the 10 unions.

Steward said he would like to use the recently approved teachers union contract - where health insurance co-pays rose and the rate of raises went down - as a guide in the town's negotiations with the unions.

The challenger

A volunteer at Quaker Hill Fire Company for nearly all of his adulthood, Ziolkovski is making his first foray into politics.

Like many first-time candidates, Ziolkovski was spurred to run after he became frustrated with Town Hall over what he thought was the town's neglect of flood damage to his property and the Quaker Hill neighborhood.

"I wasn't getting the response that I wanted," Ziolkovski said. "I decided to get answers, I had to be in charge."

Ziolkovski collected the signatures necessary to appear on the ballot, and has conducted a low-key campaign, appearing at charity events and reaching out to voters on Facebook.

Ziolkovski, who was dismayed at the small percentage of voters who come to the polls, also hopes to increase the turnout this election.

But he also wants to change the role of the first selectman.

If elected, Ziolkovski said he would advocate for a charter revision commission to study hiring a town manager to perform some of the first selectman's current duties.

Ziolovski said that, too often, the first selectman's race is unopposed, which could, in the future, lead to a lack of credible candidates.

"I find it hard to understand that the Democrats and the Republicans have problems getting people to run," Ziolkovski said. "Let's hire someone that knows the business."

Ziolkovski also said he would donate part of his salary to keep Town Hall open longer so that the selectman could be available to the public.

Other races

In the Board of Selectmen's race, both incumbents, Republican Paul Suprin and Democrat Paul Konstantakis, are unopposed.

The Republicans will seek to maintain their majority on the Board of Finance, the body that conducts painstaking reviews of the town budget each March, while the Democrats will seek to solidify its majority on the Board of Education.

The entire Representative Town Meeting, now evenly split at 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans, will also be on the ballot.

s.chupaska@theday.com