Mrs Wasserman’s Humble Service

When politicians retire from office after long service, they often exit in a squall of accolades. Most, having won the respect sufficient for repeated reelection, are deserving of the honors and are suitably grateful and appreciative for the public recognition. On such occasions they call themselves “humble servants.” But few careers are as ego-driven as a career in politics, and the air of modesty of such “humble servants” sometimes seems a trifle false. But State Representative Julia Wasserman’s modest announcement this week that she would be leaving the Legislature at the end of this year after 18 years of service, seemed entirely in character. She tried to do it quietly, notifying her political sponsors on the Republican Town Committee on Monday night, and then going home. No press releases. No public statements. There you have it, let’s move on.

Mrs Wasserman’s no-nonsense, low-key style has made her Newtown’s most effective and locally beneficial state legislator in memory. Her aversion to political showboating, exaggerated credit-taking, and limelights of any sort quickly won her the trust and respect of both her colleagues in the Legislature and the career bureaucrats in Hartford, who exercise great influence over whether the promises made by lawmakers are waylaid or delivered. She had a special interest in public health and environmental issues and is particularly proud of legislation she pomoted regulating forest practices in the state. Her longstanding alliance and friendship with one bureaucrat, Richard Nuclo of the Strategic Management Division of the state’s Office of Policy and Management, reaped immense rewards for the town. Working together for more than a decade, these two oversaw the transformation of an outdated and, eventually, defunct state mental facility at Fairfield Hills to an outsized opportunity for the people of Newtown.

As a result of their efforts, the state would, in time, transfer to the Town of Newtown 189 acres of the main campus at Fairfield Hills, then 20 more acres for the site of the Reed School, followed by 22 acres along Deep Brook, which is now the most environmentally critical component of the “Al’s Trail” greenway. That was followed by another four acres giving access to the Deep Brook parcel, and then 38 acres for economic development off Commerce Road. That was followed by a row of houses along Queen Street that earned the town a profit. Another 34 acres of open space was added as a buffer to the economic development parcel, and then five more houses on Mile Hill South. Then 12 acres were added to the town holdings between Commerce Road and Mile Hill Road, along with 23 acres north of the Garner Correctional Facility bordering the Potatuck Fish and Game Club.

Any one of these ten property acquisitions, totaling nearly 350 acres with a value of tens of millions of dollars, would have been the highlight of a typical legislator’s career. For Mrs Wasserman it was simply part of a process of reconciling the interests of her constituents with the interests of the state for their mutual benefit. No one was hoodwinked. No one was outmaneuvered. No one was finessed. That is how one secures valuable partners in any enterprise. As an honest broker, she built benefit upon benefit for Newtown, year after year.

You won’t hear Mrs Wasserman talking about her legacy to this town as she winds up her legislative tenure this year; she would rather talk about the dogs and goats at her farm on Walnut Tree Hill Road. But in the long run, we believe her humble service will yield the kind of impact on the town not seen since the Newtown’s original and most celebrated benefactress, Mary Hawley.