Mayoral Debate at City Hill Middle School Won't Happen

Naugatuck Patch has attempted to set up a mayoral debate between Republican challenger Jim O'Sullivan and incumbent Mayor Bob Mezzo, a Democrat.

The editorial team at Patch first began thinking of organizing a debate in early September and a reporter made contact with Mr. O'Sullivan on Sept. 9. We said we would look to set up the debate at a facility that would hold us in the community in mid-October. Mr. O'Sullivan agreed to that after we told him that we would "keep him in the loop on where we stood." 

As it turns out, just this week we were able to secure the auditorium at City Hill Middle School as a venue. We went to the school on Tuesday, Oct. 8, to see if we could hold the event at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 15 (this coming Tuesday). We filled out necessary paperwork to schedule the venue, and negotiated with the business manager for the Borough of Naugatuck to have the borough's insurance carrier cover us in case there is an issue.

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, borough Controller Bob Butler confirmed that we could do that. His email to Naugatuck Patch reads: "...confirming my voice mail, Travelers covers both the BOE and Town for general liability. As there are no fees with the proposed event to be held on Town property and the Patch is merely a promoter, coverage falls to the Town/BOE policy."

Our thought at Patch, as it always is, was to give the community a free informational platform: a free debate offers candidates an opportunity to share their ideas and, most importantly, for the public to determine which candidate they believe has the strongest ideas. Many voters are saying they know very little about Mr. O'Sullivan because he is a newcomer to the local political scene, so we wanted to give them an opportunity to hear his ideas. We also wanted to offer Mr. Mezzo, who is seeking his third consecutive term, an opportunity to discuss his ideas.    

It is the belief of this reporter that many voters do not vote the party line any longer. In fact, a majority of Naugatuck voters are registered as unaffiliated, despite the fact that you cannot vote in a primary in Connecticut without being registered with a major party. We think that means a majority of Naugatuck voters want to know about a candidate before they cast a ballot. That was our reason for wanting to hold a debate.  

Mr. O'Sullivan has indeed agreed to debate Mayor Mezzo at a forum sponsored by the Naugatuck Chamber of Commerce, which will be held from noon until 2 p.m. on Oct. 29 at Jesse Camille's Restaurant. Because it is sponsored by the Chamber and held during the day, a majority of the working class voters will not have an opportunity to see it unless they pay $40 or $30 if they are a Chamber member. 

On Tuesday, Oct. 8, when we wrote about the Chamber debate scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 10 (today), being postponed because a well-known local businessman had passed away and his services were to be held in the daytime, we received a comment on the Naugatuck Patch site from someone who asked if there would be an opportunity for the general public to hear the two mayoral candidates debate. 

Paul Singley, senior local editor at Naugatuck Patch and Oxford Patch, replied, saying the the local Patch editorial team was working on setting one up and that we would keep people informed. Our idea was to have voters reach out to us with questions they may have, as well as to have other local media outlets submit some questions. The editor of the Citizen's News had agreed to do that. We feel confident that the Republican-American in Waterbury would also be interested. 

Mr. O'Sullivan assured us on Thursday that he would post his platform online in the next couple of days after saying he had issues with his website. Mayor Mezzo's platform is here.

Naugatuck Patch attempted to contact Mr. O'Sullivan Wednesday night to tell him that we had a venue set up and asked if he could make it: he said he was unavailable. His official quote on the record when a reporter talked to him on Tuesday was: “I am not available. The calendar is full. I wasn’t happy when they (the Naugatuck Chamber of Commerce) changed the date to Oct. 29.”

We asked if Mr. O'Sullivan would be able to debate Mayor Mezzo in public at any time before the election, and he said that his calendar is full through December.

Mayor Mezzo, who also practiced law for several years, responded on Thursday:

"I certainly respect the constraints on Attorney O'Sullivan's schedule and understand that balancing the responsibilities of family, a law practice and a campaign can be challenging," he said. "I do believe, however, that public debates serve a vital role in informing voters during elections.  I would be glad to work cooperatively with Attorney O'Sullivan to find mutually-agreeable dates for debates open to the public without charge."

Naugatuck Patch is also willing to work collaboratively with both candidates to hold a debate. Our idea is to gather questions from readers and other local media outlets via Facebook, Twitter or email at paul.singley@patch.com. 

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Editor's note: We are willing to organize a debate between the candidates on any night that both candidates have available. Wednesday nights are not good, and Mayor Mezzo said he has a campaign meet-and-greet on the night of Tuesday, Oct. 22.