Monday With The Mayor

Recently elected a fourth term in office, Mayor Richard Moccia has seen the city weather tough economic times and rising unemployment. Both things are starting to see progress, but Norwalk and the mayor are still facing critical issues. The mayor talked about them with Patch at City Hall.

How is the 2012 budget process going?

Moccia: Slowly and it's been difficult. It's going to be a tough year. Revenues are still down and we have increased expenditures with some contract settlements. We haven't even begun to go where the board of education is looking to get. We know they're not going to 7 or 8 percent. There's going to be a lot of hard decisions made. Unfortunately, in this city for whatever reason, we don't want higher taxes but they don't want to cut services. Don't give pay raises out, don't give this. We've had years with no pay raises. We've cut back as much as we've can. We've tried to cut back on services. The balancing act becomes harder every year. We don't want to tax everybody out of town. We're going to have to look hard and long at some areas.

On the rumors that the FBI has been in Norwalk looking at the rise in crime.

Moccia: Rumors get spread. The FBI works with this city on numerous cases. It's not like they're here on a Tuesday and then six months later they come back on Thursday for a new investigation. People say 'why do you need FBI here if crime rate is down.' No city is without crime. We have on-going operations in different areas. A year ago when we took gun runners off the street from Norwalk and Stamford, we have DEA and FBI working with the police. Somebody might have said the FBI was in town and rumors spread. There's on-going things with the FBI going on.

On the homeless problem and the apparent rift between the city and Bill Okwuosa, Executive Director of the Open Door Shelter.

Moccia: I was surprised because we've been in discussions with him. Extra money would not help because there is an overflow in the building. We've looked for buildings. It's not that easy to find a new building to move into. Their board board failed in a zoning application two years ago down the street for a bigger building. They haven't done a single thing to re-apply to see if they could come up with different way to a get a building. I'm not in position to pay rent for a non-profit. If that was the case, there's a lot of other non-profits I can pay the rent for. Their board has to do more than have a yearly fundraiser. We just don't have that kind of money to dole out. I give them $50,000, I don't know how much more they would want. They need to do some work, too.

On his recent trip to the mayor's conference in Washington D.C.Moccia: Talking to the mayors, especially from the bigger cities, there is a economic gap that is growing throughout the country. The economic disparity in the sense that nothing has really improved that much. The one thing I learned there is absolute gridlock down there. Neither side is willing to give in. It's turned into a war zone, not a work zone.