Mahr For Middlebury

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jennifer Mar It's Mar for Middlebury unaffiliated candidate for Middlebury
first Selectment. And I appreciate you reaching out yesterday. It's
nice to meet you.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hi, Benny, It's nice to meet you too. Thank you
for having me this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
You know, all this morning, as I've been promoting that
you're coming on, I'm just struggling with middle because I've
been on the air for years and you're always getting
corrected from townies, you know, by the way you pronounce it,
and I've always said Middlebury and a lot of people
from there will be like, it's Middlebury, please, it's Middlebury.

(00:35):
So I've just been mangling it all morning. So let's
start there, like, which is it okay to to say Middlebury?
Or should I go Middlebury?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I think it's what's ever? Good for you?

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah? All right? Don't this is controversial? Are you? Are
you a controversial candidate?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I could be a controversial candidate. Yes, I've been finding
a controversial project in this for almost three years now,
so yes, I guess I can claim the controversy.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah. No, I've seen that, And good for you. How
long have you called Middlebury home?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Since twenty twenty we moved the weekend that Connecticut went
into lockdown for COVID wild.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Wow to a great town. To a great town, I
must say, you know, quiet little town here in Connecticut
from where.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Jen I was in. We were in Middlebury. So my
husband and I were both in the Coastguard serving as officers,
and that's how we ended up back in Connecticut. I
was teaching at the Coast Guard academy. He ended up
taking a job in dan Berry, and then we lived
in Middletown because it was literally the middle of the
of the communes that we had to both take in.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, and you are the first ever female first select
woman correct.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
If elected, Yes, I will be if elected.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
You will well. But I saw yesterday that you were
selectmen in twenty twenty three.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yes. So the outcome of fighting the distribution facility that's
planned for the former TIMEX headquarters is that it became
very apparent that the Republican Party is very entrenched in
Middlebury and they had stopped listening to what the people want. So,

(02:26):
for example, just yesterday last night in Cheshire, of fifty
eight acre cold storage facility was unanimously turned down. But
here in Middlebury, all of our boards approved this at
the time, it was almost a seven hundred thousand square
foot warehouse facility, so no one in town wanted it
except for all the people on the boards and the commission.

(02:49):
So that disconnect is what led me to run in
twenty twenty three. It was overwhelmingly elected to be the
voice of the people to stop this kind of project.
And this is the next for me is you know,
the last two years have been about the party in
power opposing the people, still not listening to what they want,

(03:09):
and so that's why I'm here.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Running apologies for this. Feel really silly about this. So
that's selectmen versus first selectmen or select woman as it were.
What is the difference between the two? What is I
apologize for such a silly question, but I see that
you were a great success as a selectmen, but now

(03:32):
you're running for first selectmen.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
All right. So in larger towns will have a mayor,
that's the executive function of the town. Smaller towns have
a board of selectmens, So the first selectmen is that
executive function in the day to day running of the town.
The board of selectmen can be three five, however many
it is, but that's the legislative or a nightmare of
the body.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
That just sounds just that just sounds like a recipe
for disaster. And that's actually what I've got in my town,
the town that I moved to in twenty thirteen. I
don't understand why we go that way in some of
our towns, but we do. Tell me about the rubber
stamp controversy.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, our turner says that before any text can be paid,
that they have to be approved by the Board of Selectmen.
But what has been happening is that the first slectmen
and the other selectmen were the one signing the text
and I was left out of that. And so when
I inquired is to why it was that I was

(04:34):
signing text and house texts could be signed in the
absence of the other selectmen, it turns out that there
was a rubber stamp that was made and it was
used when the other selection was not there instead of
just asking me to do it. But I pressed the
first slecment on it, he said that he didn't trust

(04:54):
me to sign text because you know, I'm part of
the in a straight of appeal that is challenging the
Planning and Zoning Commission's decision about the distribution facility.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
It was a rubber stamp actually made for this literal
rubber stan that's extraordinary. One of our biggest problems, I
believe in the country is too much rubber stamping in
general and not really looking at the paperwork that you
will I think. But I would digress right now, Jenna,
if you allowed me to. So let's not do that.
You know, I believe that's one of our biggest problems
with child services, with our veterans, is just rubber stamping

(05:33):
of documents and not really looking at them. So to
hear you say somebody went out of their way to
manufacture one just to get around you, someone who might
want to, you know, read this paperwork drives me insane.
I think it's one of our biggest problems.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
And you know, I have found other mistakes in town
that it was because people didn't read the paperwork totally.
And when I pushed back on that, then I get
the no, you just you know, you're just complaining. Everything
was fine in Middlebury until you started complaining. And and
the truth is is that I'm just funneling the voter's

(06:10):
voice for change, for transparency, for clarity, and what it
is that their taxes paid for and that's meant great
resistance here in Middlebury from the party in power.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
It's interesting. So you know, I went and did a
little bit of homework and again wrong with Jennifer Maherr.
Unaffiliated And that's what we're going to get to right now.
Candidate for Middlebury first Selectman would be the first ever
female first select woman. And you're clearly conservative. You know
your Google search name that comes up you back the
blue as we alshould. I don't even know how that

(06:43):
got politicized. That tragic in and of itself, But you
are running unaffiliated and why is that? I think I
was the answer. I think I'm gonna love You're gonna
love the answer.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
I was a former Republican and as I and you know,
I'm originally from the South side of Chicago. You know,
that's the land of Lincoln, that's the Reagan Republicans that that.
You know, my family came from a little bit further
south in farm country, and so like like the the
you know, be responsible, do what you can for your country.

(07:22):
You know, I served my country in the military. Like
those are very strong values that come out of my background.
My dad was a teacher, my mom was good. Excuse me.
My mom was a nurse, and so the idea of
service to your country that that's like bred into my bones.
And so I came here. I got involved with a
group of residents who are very passionate about posing this project.

(07:44):
And what we heard all the time is we were,
you know, repeated meeting after meeting was you can't question
the volunteers on our commissions because they're working hard. They
they're just volunteers. So it's their decision that makes the difference.
And if we challenge them or if we are critical
of them, then no one's going to want to serve

(08:05):
on boards and commissions. So I went to a Republican
town committee meeting and was completely ignored. Not a hello, hey,
how are you hey, so glad that you're that you're
new and that you seem to be want to get
involved in public service. Nothing. They just acted like I
either had the plague or I was invisible. And so
I decided that that was the sticking point here in

(08:29):
Middlebury was that small group of people that really don't
want outside, no one to penetrate their group. And so
I decided that I was going to just become unaffiliated
I was going to step completely out of party politics,
and I was going to do the job that the
people asked me to do.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, because as someone who's been doing what I've been
doing for as long as I have one thing I
can say as a Connecticut lifer, but also as someone
who's been on the air for this longest. One of
the things that frustrates me is the infighting the Republican
parties concerned in Connecticut. They can't all get on the
same page. Until they do, we're just going to keep

(09:08):
spinning our wheels in some serious mud here. But there's
a lot of backstabbing, there's a lot of duplicitousness, and
they just they can't get the rack together. Connecticut's GOP
and that's frustrating for me. And I thought that might
play a role, and I guess to a degree it does.
But you've moved to a town where they're not letting
you really feel like part of the community, and it

(09:31):
sounds like it's more of that, and you want to
make significant change.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, and the change is really just very simple things, right.
It's about transparency, it's about access, right. And so if
you have the same group of twenty five people who
pick the same people for decades on all the boards
and commissions. You just you can't make any significant effort
to bring fresh ideas and to look at the same

(10:00):
problems in different ways. Right, So there are people who say,
there's nothing wrong with our town. It's a beautiful town.
It has nice amenities. Everyone gets along. But you know,
that's kind of like saying, don't just look at the
outside of ve near and don't look deep down inside.
You can't find paperwork if you want to look at
the budget. You know, we don't. We're not even doing

(10:24):
a great job preparing our agendas properly to comply with FOYA. Right.
We just had a police commission meeting that it had
an executive session for an employment contract, but it didn't
say that it was the police chief's employment contract that
was being considered for renewal. And the people have a
right to know that those things are being discussed, right,

(10:45):
So instead of hiding it and keeping people out of
the decision, like we need, we have to be talking
about these things out in front and what the people
collectively want. Those are the things that we should be doing.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, it's a little it sounds like it could be
a little bit uphill too for you, Jenn And I
only say that in the sense, you know, again saying
as someone born and raised in Connecticut, you and I
know what I will often I've lived I've moved to
the town I live in now in twenty thirteen, and
I'll still get hit with the You're an outsider, you know,

(11:20):
from from a towny from here, You're not how long
do I have to live here before I'm not an
outsider anymore? And it sounds to me like you're getting
You're probably getting hit with that from a few people.
You've been here for five years. You're an outsider, Stop
making waves. You're probably getting that a lot, aren't you.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
I am getting that. I am getting it a lot,
and you know, unfortunately, like for I guess that argument
is that there's a lot of new people in town,
you know, the last five years and COVID and the
response to the housing market, Like people have moved around.
They've looked for places to live that support their values.

(12:02):
That are, you know, more quality of life than just
necessity of life, you know. I one of the bad
parts of being about being in the military is is
that I can't say that I've been from the same
place for forever, because the government moved me several times
according to the needs of the service. So you know,

(12:23):
I gave up that. I gave up that right to
have that kind of the stability of this is the
town I'm from from forever and ever because I served
my country. So you know, to then say that all
the training and the education that federal tax dollars poured
into me is now not acceptable to be used on

(12:47):
behalf of you know, the general public in whatever town
I landed in, like that seems to be like sort
of a ridiculous waste. Right, Like I was trained to
be a leader and to do the thing that I'm
now asking the voters to support me to do, and
overwhelmingly that answer has been yes. Right, So to face

(13:09):
that wall of opposition just because of geography and where
my job led me like that seems to be a
little ridiculous, And.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
That's very well said. You know, my thing has often
been when I come up against it, I moved here
for for I didn't move here to change it. I
moved here because I loved it. I wanted to deliver it.
But I see it changing, and I want to stop
it from changing because I moved here for a reason.