City Council candidate Nate Simpson says he wants, “to improve the overall quality of life, level of transparency, and further democratize our city.”
Simpson, another in a growing wave of Democrats announcing campaigns for city office, says that he plans to seek, “a cross endorsement from the Democrats and the Working Families Party.”
Simpson says that he intends to seek an At-Large seat on the Council. The Council includes five At-Large seats, elected citywide. The city’s five Council wards are each represented by two Council members, for a total of fifteen Council members.
Simpson was elected to the city’s Board of Assessment Appeals in 2019 and was elected Assistant Treasurer of the New Britain Democratic Party in 2020.
While Simpson says that he, “reaching out to residents and local organizations for their input,” in his issue agenda, “we expect to include policies geared towards equity, accountability, representation, maintaining positive intercommunal relationships, being anti-gentrification, among other forward moving policies.”
“The form those policies take needs to be both effective and understood by the people of New Britain,” Simpson says. “This begins with establishing a stronger connection between the policy making process and the people who are historically and currently isolated from the entities that help govern the way we live.”
Simpson says that one issue he plans to focus on, “is the responsibility of sidewalk maintenance.”
“While I do not think the city has enough resources to fully absorb sidewalk repairs right now,” Simpson says, “I recognize the economic conditions our residents are in after this past year.” While he says that, “raising taxes is not on the agenda,” he may, “look for grant options and as a last resort, small bonding measures to help our homeowners meet their obligations with the side effect of growing the grand list little by little.”
Simpson says that, “I am running to make our relationship with the government more of a partnership to improve the overall quality of life, level of transparency, and further democratize our city.”
Party endorsements for city offices are in July. Any primaries would be September 14th, and the general election is November 2nd.
