As we endure the dysfunction in Washington, watching the two major parties fighting themselves and each other, it seems compromise is a dirty word. Work with the opposite party and you can lose your role in government just like Speaker Kevin McCarthy did.
Well in Trumbull, there's an interesting coalition emerging. It includes a Republican, a Democrat and Independent each running for a different seat, but campaigning together.
NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck sat down with David Pia (R) who is running for first selectman in Trumbull.
Mike Hydeck: This is really interesting. So on the same ticket, John DelVecchio, who's a Democrat running for treasurer. Lisa Valenti is running for town clerk. How did you guys put this together? This is unheard of right now.
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David Pia: And we're all on Republican Row B. And we also have another Democrat down ticket. She's running for Board of Finance, who's actually been on the Democrat ballot for quite a number of years now. And she's flipped over sides and she's running with us. So it's pretty cool.
Mike Hydeck: I would imagine you would think that the Democrats who are running on the Republican line might get some pushback from their co-workers.
David Pia: Yeah, I don't know how that's going over there. So I grew up in a political family. My dad was on the Board of Representatives for 30 years in Stamford and we always had campaign headquarters at our home for our district. So it was like a holiday. So it was in my blood. I got involved in 2008. I was watching the presidential primaries, I guess my juices started flowing, it's like, I want to get involved. And Lisa Valenti was one of the first people that I met there. And she's a great woman of character, and I could tell, you know, she wanted to do what was right. And things were a little political on our side, and she wasn't having it. So she became unaffiliated, actually sat on the town council with the Democrats as an unaffiliated voter. And my first town council meeting, I'm sitting directly across the aisle from John DelVecchio, a registered Democrat, and we just kind of connected, funny part about unity. The first night after our first town council meeting, everybody on both sides goes across the street to a restaurant, have a drink. And I happen to go to the bar and I happen to be standing next to John...Like all the Republicans are in the back and Democrats are in the front, like, we can't have a drink together? And John looks at me, he says, you're right, this is stupid. And he just yells out into the backroom, that's it. We're all we're up front today. And we did. We got along well, with both sides real quick. There was the infamous cookout in my truck in the town hall parking lot at three o'clock in the morning.
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Mike Hydeck: Oh my goodness. The police didn't show up there?
David Pia: We had one item on the agenda. We said that we're gonna open up the charter, we figured, hour, we're in and we're out. So I tell both sides, 'hey, listen, got my gas grill, got some hotdogs, might be some beer and wine in the other cooler, I don't know.' And the meeting ended up going on till 2:45. But it was such a great thing. We were all together in the parking lot. Three o'clock in the morning, lighting up the grill.
Mike Hydeck: That's the way Washington used to be. You can fight on the floor about issues. But you would go have a cocktail or dinner together afterwards and say, 'hey, how are your kids doing?' You'd get to know them as a person. Is that what's missing, even in local government, do you think?
David Pia: It's definitely missing. So that was our theme of United, is the three of us, three different parties. And we're united for what reason? We're reunited for Trumbull, for what's best for the taxpayers.
Mike Hydeck: So fiscal responsibility as I read through some of your campaign literature, all three of you. Fiscal responsibility is a big concern. Is that something that's been lacking in Trumbull recently? Do you think it needs to be tightened up, and how?
David Pia: So our town has spent over the last six years $30 million more since the start, and people are looking like, so where's the money going? You know, one of the things even a lot of the Democrats used to say to me, 'I love the way that you scale things down,' because I would put things into perspective, makes it easier for everybody understand. So let's just say you have some people live in the house, you have a household budget $75,000. Over six years, you spend 20% more, you spend $30,000 more, but your driveway [is] still falling apart. Maybe you built the patio, you only have one room with an air conditioner. And how did you get there? To spend that extra money, somebody's working extra jobs. You're taking it from all the people in the house, you're putting money on the credit card, you're taking money out of a savings account. So yeah, after the six years, you could say 'yeah, we're still kind of okay.' Well, not really. We're all working like dogs and ponying up and the driveway's till terrible.
Mike Hydeck: Right. Or school still needs to be rebuilt, or there are roads in town.
David Pia: Yeah. So on the bigger scale, it's that. So when you scale it down and say, 'yeah, that makes sense.' And I would always look at things like that, you know, what makes sense? What would we do in our homes and our businesses and why doesn't government do that? And if I could just throw this in, you know, I've been in business my whole life. Since I was 16 years old, took over the store when I was 21. And I remember I would always look at what do we need to spend and what would we like to buy? Okay, this is how much money we need to make. Doesn't take long before you realize that's backwards. But that's basically what government at every level does. This is what we're spending, you guys got to pony up the money. So, you know, you learn, 'hey, this is what we made last year. Let's cut that 10% because maybe we're gonna have a worse year this year. This is what we can spend, oh I guess we can't do this or this.'
Mike Hydeck: Well, that would help plan for inflation. It would help plan for a water main break, things like that. Is that pretty much the goal of the process moving forward?
David Pia: 100%.
Mike Hydeck: Tax burden is the biggest issue. A lot of the candidates say, even people on the street we've talked to have said, 'look, we need to figure out taxes.' That's a tough road to hoe. How do you kind of address that moving forward?
David Pia: It's all related to spending. Top line commercial growth. You know, if you bring in some more people that are going to take that tax burden off of the homeowners, that's one way. Watch every dollar that's been spent.
