So Moved: An Interview With Retiring P&Z Chair Bob Hammersley (Part II)

Robert Hammersley has been involved in politics one way or another ever since he campaigned for Ronald Reagan at the tender age of ten. He has been a Republican member of Southington's Planning and Zoning Commission for the past ten years and Chair of the Commission for the past six. After he announced that he was stepping down from office due to health reasons, the Outsider arranged to conduct an interview with him, which was held on October 9th. This is the second part of the interview; the first part can be found here. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

You’ve been on Planning and Zoning since 2015. Why did you decide to step down at this point?

I have health concerns. I was diagnosed with Stage-4 neck cancer in March of 2023. I’ve gone through several different treatments involving chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy, over the past two and a half years. Those have had various degrees of success. I was given a prognosis recently that it has kind of run its course. I didn’t think it was fair to myself, or to my town, or to the Planning and Zoning commission, or to the Republican Party, to run this year. Even more importantly, I had made a determination that I wanted to spend whatever time I had left with my family and friends, and devote my time to them.

Another part is this: I feel that, after a certain amount of time, public servants should give way to new thoughts, new people, new perspectives. This decision gave me an opportunity to fulfill all those wishes – chief among them, that I wanted to spend more time with my family and friends.

How did you get into politics in the first place?

I’ve always had an interest in it. When I was ten years old in 1976, the presidential election was between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. I was a Reagan fan so I ‘worked’ for Reagan. At ten years old I was doing my best, which was not very much, but I did what I could. I got involved at that age.

I majored and got my degree in political science because that’s what I loved doing. I’ve always gotten involved in political stuff. And I think that speaks to a larger commitment to public service. I think public service is something all people should do to the extent that they’re able to do it. And I think it makes us all better by having as many people involved as possible.

Was Planning and Zoning your first fling with elected office?

I served on a couple of different commissions, both state and local. When I was 18 years old I served on the Zoning Board of Appeals for Wallingford.

Wait - 18 years old, you just graduated high school…

I was in college then. I was appointed by the mayor of Wallingford, whose campaign I worked on in ’81, when I was a sophomore in high school.

Heady stuff for a teenager.

Yeah, it was enlightening to understand what the responsibilities were. Which goes to my point about listening - listening to what’s being said and absorbing what’s being said and finding out what your role is. Through that you start being able to provide some valuable input. So I did that.

I did run for elected office in Wallingford when I was out of college, in ’91. They had an elected board of selectmen. The selectmen's responsibility was mostly settling property disputes – really minimal – but I thought it was an opportunity to put my name on a ballot. I didn’t win that election. I tried, but it wasn’t going to happen,

From there I went to work for a variety of federal and state government entities. In 2015, I was approached by the town committee because they had an opening for an alternate on Planning and Zoning and asked if I would be willing to do that. From that I ended up running and winning election in 2017.

Do you have a favorite book, one you’ve read recently?

I just finished up Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. Devil in the White City is the story of the 1893 World’s Fair held in Chicago. I love the way he writes. I’m a non-fiction guy, so I tend toward those historical, biographical-type books. Devil in the White City is about the awarding of the World’s Fair to the city of Chicago, and the three years that the city had to put all the infrastructure in place. But it also follows a parallel track of another individual in Chicago then who was a serial killer. He used the World’s Fair to get his victims. All of this is going on separately.

There was a World’s Fair in Paris three or four years earlier, and at the fair, the Eiffel Town was given to the city of Paris. There was a guy named Eiffel and he gave the tower, which was the center of the fair. So when the 1893 World’s Fair was coming, the big focus was, we’ve got to outdo Eiffel! The architect who was put in charge was always focused on that, so you get things like the Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel was first revealed at the World’s Fair of 1893. It’s everywhere now but back then it was a novel idea. You’re able to go 100 feet in the air and look around. They didn’t have drones or anything so they were like, this is a great thing. It was a fabulous book, easy to read.

Favorite place in Southington?

My home. Honestly it is. That’s where the most important part of my life is.

I love the way that our town is receptive to people like me who didn’t grow up here, to have such a big input in our community. But I think that it speaks to the question: what is the best thing about the town of Southington? It’s the people, the community. The diversity of opinions. I live with people who don’t ideologically agree with me, and that’s fine. We have discussions about that, respectfully. The diversity of the community, the enthusiasm of the community, of the people that live here and serve in office on all sides, their willingness to give back to the community, to devote time and talent and resources back to the town, it’s a great thing to have.

Where I live geographically affords me great access to things. When I first moved here I lived in a different part of town. It wasn’t difficult to get to the store but it was more secluded, it had more of a rural feel out there. I love that we have that. If you go out to Karabin Farms, it’s very different than being in downtown Southington, but it’s still part of the same town. If you go out to Crescent Lake and you hike that area, you have all that natural beauty, but it’s different than downtown. That’s the best thing about Southingtion, that it has a diversity of environments and opportunities. It's fabulous. The educational system is fabulous. I’ve put three kids through the school system, and it’s all good stuff.