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Reputation is Everything

The name East Haven conjures an image that at the very least, portrays an opaque picture of a community that on the one hand could be counted upon to extend a helping hand to a neighbor, while in the same breath, seemingly embrace an outlook that’s altogether harmful to its own interest.

Take the political marketing of low mill rates.

For more than a decade, the current administration has consistently promoted the notion that low property taxes, in and of themselves, serve our greater interest, for which reason Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., and his fellow Republican party members, deserve re-election; the majority of us obliged.

What did we get in return?

Well, let me count the ways. Titillating scandals for one, as well as expensive lawsuits, indifference in government, and most damning of all, an even-more ruinous reputation we and our children clearly do not deserve.

And they call that a fair exchange? Reputation is everything, for it provides a compendium of information we use to make a value judgment. A good image, which equals good reputation, could mean a higher value for our home when we sell it, or conversely a greatly devalued one.

Imagine which house is more likely to be sold at a higher price, comparatively speaking: a property in town or the one from our closest shoreline neighbor? It doesn’t have to be that way, for, as a dear friend from North Branford, Tom Walker, once quipped, “East Haven should be a place where you want to live, not where you have to,” which speaks volumes, I thought, about our reputation.

The fundamental question in this mayoral election is simple enough: governance ruled by arrogance and indifference symbolized by both political parties or one representing a fundamental change, for the better, that I alone, represent.

Oni Sioson

East Haven

Oni Sioson is a petitioning candidate for mayor in the November elections.