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This is a New City
At the 'center of the universe,' Waterbury's Jarjura works to rewrite city's troubled recent history
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Business New Haven
7/7/2003
By: Melissa Nicefaro
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Born, bred and educated in Waterbury, Michael J. Jarjura took over the mayor's office 18 months ago following the downfall of Philip Giordano. His job is not just political, it has the added layers of dressing wounds left by three former chief executives - all of whom departed City Hall on less-than-favorable terms involving criminal misdeeds.
What is your vision for Waterbury?
I have a great affinity for this city. I know it sometimes appears as a rough-and-tumble city from the outside looking in, but in many respects, it's got a very small-town feeling and the people here really care for one another and really look after one another.
What are the priorities for your administration?
We obviously have been through a very tough period of time from an image standpoint. The last three mayors have all been indicted on federal charges and two have served very serious time for municipal corruption. And the city has obviously suffered financially because of a couple of decades of mismanagement and corruption. I've been trying to correct a lot of structural systemic deficiencies. One of the things is, before you can be of help to other people, meaning the private sector, you've got to have your own house in order. Waterbury city government was greatly dysfunctional from every aspect. There were no efficiencies, no rhyme or reason, management practices were nonexistent or archaic, financial accountability and reporting was a total mess.
How do you begin to effect meaningful change?
I've been really rebuilding the organizational structure of city government from the ground up. You have to do this and maintain the running of the city. It's not an operation where you could say, 'I'm going to shut down for a month and get everything fixed.' We're providing necessary human services. So that's well underway. We've been in office now for 18 months and we've had to navigate some very, very treacherous waters financially and otherwise. We're moving forward now to the next exciting steps, which is to really take advantage of the great attributes that make up Waterbury.
What would you identify as the greatest of those attributes?
One is our location. We're halfway between Boston and New York. We've got an excellent infrastructure and highway system at the crossroads of Route 8 and I-84. We have a very motivated and productive workforce available to companies that are looking and need that stable and skilled labor force. We've got skilled, semi-skilled and people of management level, too. We have some very good and affordable housing stock. I think our best attribute is our [housing] affordability. When you look around Waterbury, just within the ten-mile radius you've got Southbury, Roxbury, Middlebury and Cheshire and home prices there are just staggering at $500,000 and above. When you come into Waterbury, you can get a very nice home with large square footage and not pay an astronomical sum.
Waterbury's a livable city. It's got culture, art and parks, swimming facilities. And we have great schools. All cities take a bad rap about public schools, but we've got a great investment in our public schools. Our crime rate has dropped five-percent in our latest studies, so I think the ingredients for greatness are there. What we need to do is believe that we can succeed.
You sound plenty confident, but what's the general feeling among residents? Is there much emotional repair work to be done?
Waterbury always thinks about, 'What happens if something goes wrong?' You can't blame them - they've been so beat up and their psyche has been so damaged. They're only thinking about failure and never give success a consideration.
When is the new Waterbury UConn campus scheduled to open?
It's scheduled to open in September. We had an almost $200 million investment in our downtown area in three major projects that are all linked up. The UConn campus is moving from Hillside to downtown Waterbury, the new Arts Magnet Middle High School, and the re-renovated Palace Theatre. These three are showpiece, spectacular facilities. We believe that is going to help us build that critical mass to re-configure and bring great vibrancy to the core central business district.
What will happen to the current UConn/Waterbury campus?
We are going to be turning that over to a private school for the Yeshiva, a Jewish preparatory school. It's not just a matter of the city leasing it them, they're also committed to bringing in upwards of 200 families into the Waterbury area. Part of the consideration is that yes, they'll lease the property and keep it maintained, but they're also going to add a stable family community in an area that was traditionally always populated by a lot of Jewish-Americans. As their success grew, they moved out to some of the suburbs and they've already had a great impact on our economy.
UConn aside, what are the principal economic development projects currently in the works?
Yankee Gas is installing a $16 million project that is a liquefied natural gas facility. They own about 27 acres and have been a great corporate citizen in Waterbury for many years. That's about a $40 million-to-$60 million expansion on the grand list.
There is also a renewable energy project. What they do is take green brush products, and with no admittance into the atmosphere, they heat it and are able to produce energy through the gasification process. That looks to be about a $200 million project. That looks very promising.
Those are two huge projects that will add great value to the grand list and relieve some of the growing tax burden here.
It's not just about bringing in new companies, but also about retaining them. We've got a very good corridor of small machine shops and manufacturers that produce some good quality, unique products that are used across many other industries. We're all about retention, too. We continue to have great success with our service and retail areas.
Is IT a potential economic niche for Waterbury?
We have a very vibrant information technology zone. There are some super benefits attached to [companies locating in] that zone. I can't relay each and every one to you now, but I know they get some very good incentive benefits. It's really a niche market. We've got this high-speed DSL Internet network that SNET has run throughout the city. I've had the privilege of touring some of the companies that are here, and they're running things across the world from right here in Waterbury, Connecticut. It's incredible to see.
How permanent is the damage to Waterbury's reputation from the misdeeds of not just one, but three.
I'm sure that we have suffered a loss of standing within the greater Connecticut community and probably across the country. More importantly than that is that the trust in the institution in the government in the city of Waterbury has been greatly compromised. A lot of what we've been doing is taking that honorable privilege of restoring public trust. The way you do that is you conduct business at the highest standard and you conduct everything out in the open with the full light of day shining on everything. Of course, hard decisions have to be made and sometimes they're very unpopular, but you have to believe in your road map, believe that your staff and your administration has done all the background work. These decisions may not be readily understood by the general public, but in the end, you've made the right move - not political moves, but governmental moves - and tough public-policy decisions that are long-term, then you'll have to take solace in that, whether it costs somebody their political career or not.
We have been battered by the misdeeds and criminal acts of highly placed individuals, but what I say is that they have disrespected and brought disgrace to their own family names. The people of Waterbury are good people, church-going and generous people. Unfortunately, our trust has been betrayed by several times and hopefully now we have put that behind us and now we're taking major steps.
Have you re-written the city charter?
Yes. It's been completely updated after 70 years. A lot more accountability has been placed in the provisions of the charter. It was the first thing I undertook and completed. The people of Waterbury voted in favor of that in the last election overwhelmingly. Responsibility to act, authority to act and accountability for the actions are clearly delineated in the charter.
I have going before the boards in early July an entire new procurement and purchasing ordinance which would take away all of the shenanigans that were allowed to persist with regard to change orders, no-bid contracts and very lucrative lease deals without any sort of public disclosure. All of that is being addressed in a new ordinance, and it's not just words. We have to implement this. It will take time. We're changing an entire culture of employees that are so used to doing things because that's the way they always were done.
Another huge thing for Waterbury is a very tough and far-reaching ethics and conflict-of-interest ordinance that's before the aldermen that requires public disclosure of your financial interest of the elected and high-ranking managers here. I think we are on the cutting edge of a great government. We could be leading the charge for good government.
What about efforts to make Waterbury more attractive to businesses?
It's in its infancy. One of the things we've never had in Waterbury is a department with a mission to market the city. How sad was that?! I think the tragedy in Waterbury was a lot of missed opportunities during some very vibrant economic times. The past two mayors here have served during the greatest economic expansion the nation has ever seen. Giordano served during great economic times, but they never took advantage of these opportunities.
We've put in place a Waterbury Economic Resource Center [WERC] and it has hit the ground running with a Web site that lists all of the commercial properties and incentive packages available. It really works to market and get the perspective business owner through all the maze of city government. That can be a very daunting process. We really want to put out the welcome mat to people involved in commercial and industrial development, and also residential. This is a new city. It's on the move.
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