Going To The Boards: An Interview With Town Councillor Valerie DePaolo

VALERIE DEPAOLO PHOTO

Val DePaolo’s exploits on the high-school basketball court led to her induction into three different Halls of Fame: the Southington Sport Hall of Fame, the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and the New England Basketball Hall of Fame. Since then she has pursued various careers, from practicing real estate law to teaching yoga at the YMCA. In 2018 she was elected to the Southington Town Council as a Democrat.

Val sat down with the Outsider to reflect on her experience on the Council and life in the town. It will be published in two parts, the first focused on political topics. The transcript of the interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

After three terms on the Council you made the decision not to run again. What was behind that decision?

A few things. Looking at where we are nationally, statewide, locally, and the fact that for three terms our Democratic caucus has been in a 6-3 minority, it’s been challenging. I’ve enjoyed the challenge, but you get to the point where you feel like you’re advocating, but you’re not moving the needle. I felt it was a good time to take a break. I retired a couple of years ago, so I’m at the point where I can enjoy travel –- I have one son in Chicago and one son in Tampa –- so it will free up some time to do that. And, it will free up time to work with organizations I haven’t had the chance to be involved with yet.

What was the main highlight of your time on the Council?

I would say the new library. I first moved back to town in 2001; soon after that I served on the Library Board for a six-year term. I’m a lover of books and libraries, and I was able to see even at that point that a new library was needed for a town our size. To be involved with the whole process of advocating for it, helping out with the referendum (the referendum was successful) and seeing it move forward, was a highlight.

And now you can see the fruits of your effort.

I just love it. The library staff waited a long time and now they have a nice new facility where they can offer a lot more programs and do more in the building.

What was a lowlight?

I would say, just like Bill Dziedzic said, Covid. It happened during my first term, so I was still learning everything that goes into running a town: how the budget works, how to take care of infrastructure, everything that goes into managing a town our size. When Covid came along, our focus was on keeping people safe. It was such a scary time, a sad time, with people losing loved ones to the disease. We were trying to help small businesses continue, working with the Board of Health. And all that people were going through: I would see them at different places and just listen to them. Everyone was struggling financially, emotionally. That was a difficult time.

I think the Council came together in a good way. We didn’t have an increase in taxes that year, but it was a difficult time.

Do you think we learned something from that experience?

I’m an optimist, so I want to believe we learned that we can work together. We can put our affiliations and differences aside and say, what is the best thing for our community right now. During that time we learned that. Will it continue? I don’t know. We’ll see if something like that happens again. But I think we learned to be flexible, and to work together.

What is your take on the school system? Are there changes you would like to see going forward?

Right now, there are some buildings that need to be renovated and that needs to be done. But we have a really good school system.

Still… that’s a tough question. There are so many issues at the state and the federal level about monies we may or may not receive. I would like to see more work done at the state level to help. I think our Board and our Superintendent do a great job with the money they have. But we’ve lost some special-ed funding. I’m just hopeful there are ways they can help out the towns. The costs of everything have continued to rise, and that’s a big piece of our town budget. We can’t change that.

The council voted this year to increase the mill rate. Did you support that?

Our caucus, the Democratic caucus, did not support that. We supported the Board of Ed budget; the Board was unanimous and we were supportive of that. But as for the general government side – when you’re the minority party, it’s hard to offer your support because you feel that you’re not being listened to. Of all the issues we have had, the general budget is one where I would have liked to see us work together more. The Board of Finance will have workshops, the Board of Education will have workshops, but the Council doesn’t do that. And we’re very stubborn in our caucuses, so, when you are three voices to six, you don’t get what you’re looking for. That’s why we didn’t vote for the general government budget. I’ll leave it at that.

Suppose you were put in charge of Southington and given the ability to change some practical things. What would you focus on?

My wish list? I think housing is a huge issue. I know it scares people when they hear the word ‘affordable housing’, but we need more affordable housing in town. We need housing where younger individuals or younger families that want to stay town can afford to live. Having practiced real-estate law and managed closings, I’ve seen how difficult it can be as the costs go up.

We have a good amount of over-55 housing. We have senior housing, but we obviously need more of that. And I agree with people who say that we have some ‘naturally occurring’ affordable housing that doesn’t fall under the state’s definitions, like mobile homes. But this is really a state issue. I’ve read that they’re looking to set up committees to figure this out. I do believe in local control, but it has to be a combination of state and local.

I don’t want us to forget about the 2026 Plan of Conservation and Development. It’s a great way for our residents to get involved. Over the past six years I’ve learned the importance of community engagement and participation. The survey is closed now but there are going to be upcoming meetings. That is where people can say what they believe ‘affordable’ means – what’s affordable to me could be different from what’s affordable to you. Go talk about what kind of housing you’d like to see in our town, or about transportation, commercial or residential development, environmental issues, open space.

It’s a great opportunity and I hope residents will jump on it because it’s perfectly timed, given what’s going on. People forget they can go to the meetings, they can talk to committee members outside the meeting, or send an email. Sure, everybody’s busy – I’ve had those days where I felt like all I was doing was driving the kids around; I was ‘transportation’ and that was it. But if you can take a little time, do so, because the local stuff is what impact us the most. We hear about the national and the state, but the local impacts us most. Look out at this [the former Peck Stow lot at the intersection of Center and High Streets]. We’ve been waiting for this area to be developed. I would love to see what we can do with that, maybe apartments, maybe retail right here on the canal trail.

It would also be great if the state could get the bus to go through town. That’s really on the state right now. They had told us they were planning to do an assessment. The bus comes into Stop-and-Shop and turns around, connecting some people to Plainville and Hartford. Do an assessment to see if it makes sense to go through town. And I’d make the same point again: on the Plan of Conservation and Development, if the people talk about transportation, that shows our town leaders that this is important. The bottom line for me is that people should have access to public transportation. It’s an accessibility issue.

We do a lot of things really well in town We have wonderful nonprofits and organizations. Lou Perillo does an excellent job at economic development. Public safety, the police department, the fire department, and open space are all great. It’s these other quality of life issues that we need to work on.