The City of New Britain receives proposals from would be developers, often.

FRANKSMITHSAYSNB EDITORIAL:
<
Some of these proposals are for city owned properties. The proposals received are sent to the various appropriate departments for their study and recommendations. Favorable recommendations are passed on to the appropriate Council subcommittees for their comments. Public hearings are held for citizen input and then the proposals are sent to the Common Council for final action. Case in point, the Costco proposal.

Since this proposal first came to light this past Spring, many citizens, ¬ and some who are not ¬ pro and anti have come forward to voice their opinions. Most people were respectful while some even went so far as to threaten - with a no vote in November¹s election ¬ any Council members that supported the plan. After almost 6 months of meetings, public hearings, information sessions and the like, the Common Council voted for the proposal
(11 ¬ 3) with seven Democrats and four Republicans in favor. That¹s significant! Why?

From the beginning, the Costco proposal has been opposed by some New Britain folks; e.g., Bob and Cindy Pleines. As the months and meetings went on Bob and Cindy were consistent in their opposition right up to and including the
10/12 Council meeting where the proposal was approved. Also notable in his opposition, FROM THE BEGINNING, was mayoral candidate/State Rep., Tim O¹Brien. Remember, from the beginning! Very soon, candidate O¹Brien for mayor signs went up on the Pleines¹ lawn. Nothing at all wrong with that.
Remember the threats to supporters.

This past week, a notice from the DTC went out announcing a fundraiser to be hosted by the Pleines¹ at their home benefiting O¹Brien and the members of the O¹Brien team (remember, 7 of them favored Costco); again, absolutely nothing wrong. However, the hypocrisy of those who issued the ³no vote² threats to supporters is very apparent. Apparently the no vote threat applies only to Council Republicans.