Meet the Republican: Charles Paonessa

"Meet the Candidates" is a feature on Berlin Patch designed to help you get to know your local candidates before you take to the polls this November. Each profile was submitted directly by the candidate. 

Take a moment to review each profile so you can be informed and prepared when you go to the polls on Nov. 5, 2013.

This week, we are looking at the Berlin Town Council candidates:

Name: Charles Paonessa
Age: 60
Party, Board Seeking: Republican, Berlin Town Council
Family information: Married
Occupation, if applicable: Self-Employed Contractor
Political Experience: I have never held a political office, but I have been active with the Berlin Republican Town Committee for seven years.
Other Experience: President of the Board of Directors for the ReCONNstruction Center (a non-profit organization located in Newington), Member of the Berlin Ethics Commission

Why are you running for office?
I am running for Council to try to bring back honesty to local government. I feel the voters have been mislead and certainly ignored when they participate in a referendum. I think the voters in Berlin deserve much better representation and honesty from their leadership.

If elected, what would be your primary areas of focus?
See that the voice of the voters is represented in our Town Council.

What do you feel is the biggest issue facing Berlin today?
In my opinion, completing the major projects (i.e. the High School) already started and bringing information to our citizens so they can make important decisions about future projects (especially our water and sewer systems).

What skills do you have that you could bring to the community?
My 40 years as a businessman, and training as an engineer, have given me experience in setting and keeping goals, problem solving, and completing projects at hand.

(Optional) Anything else you would like to share?
Investing in our schools is investing in our future, but building fancy buildings and paying extremely high salaries for management will not guarantee a good school system. We must focus on our students using responsible spending. Berlin needs to be a place for all of our citizens. Taxing long-time residents out of their homes is not a path we should keep following. Our water and sewer system has huge fiscal issues pending, and it seems our roads have become unattended. We must help businesses locate in our town, not chase them out with selective zoning, depending on what some town officials may like, or dislike. Our farms are being left out of programs available to them because of zoning restrictions. It is time to fix our town.

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