Thursday, October 27, 2011

Personal Note From Rocco Frank

Elections and election years have been an adventure for me.I have stood by my convictions as a free thinking Milford Independent, and to the best of my ability made that widely known in the last Four elections. As this year concludes, and I look back, I must ask myself if I regret the efforts that I and the MITC have put forth. Having often questioned my choices, my decisions, your challenges, and the financial sacrifices that our team has made, I can without a doubt conclude that there are great people and heroes out there who share in our common vision of one day having a truly honest, fair, and receptive local government.

Never did I tell anyone how to vote, nor did I seek to instill a misplaced belief in what I perceive to be the art of aggressive campaigning and vote mongering. We instead maintained our simple belief that we need to focus on the big issues, and support “honest people.” Each and every year, I did the best job possible in delivering those individuals to the ballot and yet every election we hear similar self promoting words that sell candidates. Words like: “Experienced,” “Qualified,” “Responsible,” “transparent,” “efficient” and the unanimous self proclamation of “love” for our city.

These words mean different things to different people, for instance, those who receive large salaries and great public benefits are one group with a strong affinity for our community. They are also the most protective over their prosperity and financial well being. On the other hand there are those of us who will be opening up our tax bill in 2012 and wondering where the additional money will come from to pay for food, medicine or transportation. Each of us read, share and learn what we can, we talk to our friends, and often with great angst and confusion, blindly vote for a candidate or political party not knowing if we made a good/bad decision.


For this reason, I believe that one of the most important parts of being a leader is to be a person of good character, a person who is a fair and capable problem solver. With so many of you in a “world of hurt” I cannot help but feel sad. In doing so, I have maintained that Character matters more than experience, it matters more than education, how successful you are, how much money you have in the bank or how politically connected a candidate is. It’s about asking the tough questions. Questions about Seniors, Veterans, a $4.95M appropriation on a small N.H. Ave. firehouse, or the $2M appropriation on a Grove St. sewage pump. It’s about questioning no bid contracts, nepotism, and undeserved bonuses. What makes me different from my opponents is that I love the people of this community more than I love the Government.

When voting remember what you heard this year, countless petty “Penny Foolish” battles over office chairs, Halloween décor and discontent, trash museum controversy, and 9/11 conspiracies relative to campaign signs. Thanks to your encouragement, you have kept us going… therefore I hope and pray that more of you stand with me at the polls this November 8th.

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