For DeLandro and Against Columbus: Activism Planned for Council Meeting

With two major issues before the City Council on Wednesday evening, activists are organizing.

One issue activists are organizing around involves the apparent moves by Republican Mayor Erin Stewart and Council Republicans to block the appointment of Democrat Veronica DeLandro to fill a Democratic seat on the City Council. In the other, activists are pressing for the Council to override the veto by Stewart of the resolution to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus from a prominent city park.

The Council agenda for January 13, 2021 includes an agenda item, to be introduced by the Council’s Republican leader, Daniel Salerno (R-AL), on filling the at-large Council seat vacated by newly elected State Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24) before he took office in the state legislature.

Moves by Salerno and Stewart pushing aside the widely supported appointment Democrat Veronica T. DeLandro to the City Council, have led many to speculate that Republicans have plans to overrule the Democratic Party’s own choice for the seat and name someone loyal to the Stewart Republican political machine, instead. While the seat must be filled by someone who is registered to vote in Democratic Party primaries, Republicans, with the Council majority, have the power to install their own choice, thereby increasing the Republican controlled seats on the Council from eight to nine.

Democrats, including Rep. Sanchez, himself, have supported DeLandro to be his successor in the seat. Democrats, from the other Democratic Council members, to Democratic state legislators, to the New Britain Democratic Party to others all agreed that DeLandro was their choice for the seat. DeLandro has been supported by Senator Rick Lopes (D-6), State Representative Peter Tercyak (D-26), State Representative Bobby Sanchez (D-25), Board of Education member Violet Jiménez Sims (D), Democratic City Treasurer Ron Jakubowski (D) and others.

But, at the December 9, 2020 Council meeting, despite a two and a half hour long Council public participation session in which forty-five people gave resounding support in favor of DeLandro, Council Republicans tabled the resolution that had been introduced by Council Democrats to appoint DeLandro.

“It has become clear to me that the Republican Majority Leader who called himself the ‘gatekeeper’ during the December 9th Common Council meeting,” DeLandro said, referring to Salerno, “is doing everything in his power to suppress the voices of the people in New Britain.” She added that,

Instead of listening to the residents of this city, they are instead spending an excruciating amount of time creating and establishing a newfound process that is not noted in the City’s charter nor was it consistent with the way in which a vacant Democrat BOE seat was recently filled. I put my name forward for the city council vacancy because I care about this city and I know I can provide a unique perspective on the council. The people of New Britain have sent emails and made phone calls in support of me filling the seat, yet they’ve been ignored. The vacant seat on the Council should already be filled so that time and energy can be put into other matters impacting the residents of New Britain, rather than this political sideshow. No matter the outcome Wednesday, I will continue to speak up and speak out for the people of this city.

Supporters of DeLandro are calling on members of the public to call into the Council meeting to support DeLandro during the public participation session that begins at 6:45pm.

But before the vote on the Council seat happens, the Council is set to consider overruling Stewart’s veto of a resolution to move a statue of Christopher Columbus from a prominent city park.

The issue of moving the statue has been the subject of intense debate for months during 2020, with community activists advocating for this removal. The New Britain Racial Justice Coalition has been advocating for the city to remove the statue since July. The group held a protest against the statue in July and has been pressing for its removal since.

“As a community, we cannot continue to praise a man who stole land and continually chose to dehumanize native people,” New Britain NAACP President Ronald P. Davis said in comments he also made in July. “Why should we have a statue, or a street dedicated to anyone who stands as a symbol for the violence?”

With nationwide protests against racism and inequality including a focus on bringing down symbols of racism and colonialism, renewed attention to accounts from a priest, Bartolome de las Casas, and others, telling about enslavement, murder, rape and other brutality upon native peoples under Columbus’ conquests have led to successful calls for statues of him being removed in some cities.

The Council voted to approve the resolution, introduced by two Democratic Council members, Ald. Chris Anderson (D-AL) and Ald. Colin Osborn (D-2), calling for the removal of the statue of Columbus from its present location on city parkland at the corner of Main and North streets and replacing it with another symbol honoring Italian Americans in New Britain.

But then Republican Mayor Erin Stewart vetoed the resolution. In her veto message, Stewart mocked the City Council for the five months that the issue of removing the statue has been under consideration. Yet advocates for moving the statue had been pressing for swift action on doing so since the summer, criticizing Stewart’s city hall for dragging its feet on the matter. Stewart also said that removing the statue would not advance a, “goal of social justice or racial equality.”

But, when the resolution was approved by the Council at its meeting on December 9, 2020, it was by a 10 to 4 vote, with four Republican Council members joining the six Democrats in approving the measure. The Council can override a veto and pass the resolution against the mayor’s wishes, but only if ten Council members vote to do so.

That vote is set to occur at the beginning of Wednesday’s Council meeting.

“After 6 months of organizing, last month the Common Council in New Britain voted to remove the Columbus statue,” the New Britain Racial Justice Coalition said. “Unfortunately, Mayor Stewart defied the will of the people and vetoed the council’s vote.”

“Join us for a protest at Central Park in front of City Hall at 6:30 PM,” the Coalition says, of the action planned for Wednesday. “We will collectively call into public participation at 6:55PM.”

While stressing that, “If you are attending the protest please wear a mask and respect social distancing,” the Coalition says that, “If you cannot join us in person, please join us from home by calling into the meeting and telling the council to OVERRIDE Mayor Stewart’s veto and REMOVE the statue.”

The January 13th Council meeting begins at 7:05pm, but the Council agenda says that,

Due to the current public health concerns, this meeting will not be open to the public. Members of the public may view a live broadcast via the live stream link: http://www.newbritainct.gov/meetings

Individuals seeking public participation may join the queue beginning at 6:45 pm by calling 1 (609) 663-5783.