Rosenthal Picked To Help Represent Connecticut’s Small Cities On National Agendas

By John Voket

If you think Newtown represents the quintessential American small town, then you will be happy to know Newtown is now well represented among small towns across the nation. During a recent trip to Indiana, First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal was named as one of two Connecticut municipal leaders to represent the state among members of the National League of Cities (NLC) Small Cities Council.

According to the NLC website, the Small Cities Council (SCC) was created in 1976 to ensure that the interests of small communities are reflected in NLC’s overall policies and programs. Its membership is made up of elected officials from municipalities with populations of less than 50,000 from each state.

Mr Rosenthal explained that these officials, who are appointed for staggered two-year terms by their state municipal leagues, serve as NLC’s voice for all small cities.

“We’re really there to help the national agency focus on the particular needs of small cities and towns,” Mr Rosenthal said. “We meet as a group during the two annual National League of Cities gatherings. This year the conference was in Indianapolis, and the big national meeting where we work on forming our legislative agenda is held every year in Washington, D.C.”

Mr Rosenthal said he and Connecticut’s Elizabeth Patterson, the mayor of Mansfield, were the only two state representatives among nearly 100 serving the council this year.

The charges to SCC representatives include sponsoring special events and workshops for small cities at NLC’s annual conferences; sharing examples of successful small city programs and initiatives in the NLC weekly newspaper; ensuring that members of the SCC are well informed about NLC and can be effective spokespersons about the roles of small cities in NLC; exploring ways to make NLC more financially accessible to small cities; finding ways to connect small cities directly to key NLC agendas through the SCC and to policy and legislative issues that have a direct impact on small cities; advising NLC on the development of special services and products for small cities; strengthening connections between the SCC and state municipal leagues; and helping to recruit more small cities to become direct members of NLC.

The Small Cities initiative was not the only thing that brought Mr Rosenthal to Indianapolis, however. As a participant in the NLC’s 81st Annual Congress of Cities, the first selectman also participated in lectures and discussions on issues related to growth and maintenance of cities, towns, and villages, and ways to collaborate with the new Bush administration and Republican controlled Congress.

Mr Rosenthal got to hear about the national political perspectives, while rubbing elbows with former senators Alan Simpson and Bill Bradley, and noted author and Presidential historian Michael Beschloss. He also attended workshops on topics from community policing to job retention, to economic revitalization.

“It was interesting that while we were there, many of the communities were assessing the full impact of federal budget cuts,” Mr Rosenthal said. “One of the Connecticut municipalities that attended found out they might be losing as much as $12 million in Homeland Security cuts. Last year they were told they were getting $12 million, and now they’re getting zero.”

He said Newtowners were more fortunate in that the community is more financially as well as geographically insulated from Homeland Security and other federal program and budget cuts.

“We just don’t have as much to lose,” he said.

However, this won’t stop Mr Rosenthal from joining fellow SCC leaders from following through with the NLC’s mission of aggressively lobbying for federal funds.

“When we go to Washington for the next conference, we’ll be right there in Congress, standing beside our representatives lobbying to help influence legislation on behalf of all of Connecticut,” he said.

During the conference, Mr Rosenthal became particularly interested in workshops that had local or regional angles. He attended one panel that discussed Superior and Circuit Court decisions, including an eminent domain case that pitted a private company against the City of New London.

Another workshop examined three national success stories on brownfields redevelopment projects.

“We learned about how these key private-public development partnerships overcame environmental challenges and helped boost economic development,” he said.

During the trade show segment of the conference, the first selectman said he learned about new ways of melting ice and snow, especially in environmentally sensitive areas, without the use of harmful chemicals. At another vendor’s station, he examined some coordinated designs of decorative benches, planters, and streetlights, with the Sandy Hook streetscape project in mind.

He also spoke to a vendor about the possible installation of a new reverse 911 system for the town’s emergency and police services, another about alternative waste water treatment and disposal issues, and even attended a workshop session about church and state separation issues.

“The speaker looked into a recent Circuit Court decision on prayer at public meetings, and another case involving zoning and land use issues as they relate to religious institutions,” he said. “We may have a situation locally with a particular religious organization where we may end up in court, so it was relevant to hear how the eleventh Circuit Court handled its local matter.”

Mr Rosenthal said he visited other workshops on reducing juvenile crime through youth investment, how municipalities can better support an aging population, trends affecting American cities, and a session focusing on the nation’s job crisis and its relationship to human resources outsourcing.