LYME–At a Republican-sponsored candidates’ forum held Saturday with no representation from Democrat-endorsed contenders, it was left to husband-and-wife running mates Tom St. Louis and Mary Powell-St. Louis to spar among themselves.
The Democrats, under whose banner unaffiliated first selectwoman Christy Zelek is running, declined to participate in the forum. Instead, they opted to knock on doors so they could speak one-on-one with voters.
St. Louis, the Republican first selectman candidate, and Powell-St. Louis, who is running for selectwoman, headlined the forum billed by moderator Don Gerber as a “cordial event.” Gerber said there was no reason for people to be upset with each other.
“I’ll be quick to shut it down if I see that coming,” he said.
Gerber’s only opportunity to put his policy into action was decisive. It came in response to one of the roughly 30 people in the room, who asked St. Louis what he thought about his opponent’s ability to manage a budget.
“I think that it’s more appropriate to have that question answered by the candidates, who are not here, rather than for us to speak for the candidates that are running against them,” Gerber said. “So I would pass on that question.”
St. Louis thanked the resident for asking. “We really hoped to have an ongoing dialogue so that we can have that discussion,” he said.
Gerber called for the next question.
Hydrilla Hypotheses
St. Louis and Powell-St. Louis during most of the roughly 75-minute forum agreed on key issues, including the need to keep taxes low and to assert local control over zoning decisions. But one area of disagreement involved the hydrilla scourge overtaking the Connecticut River and tributaries, including Hamburg Cove and Selden Cove in Lyme.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state and regional partners are involved in a years-long project to investigate the safest, least toxic way to stem the hydrilla infestation. But the project has taken flak from critics opposed to use of the herbicide diquat in some of the test cases.
St. Louis has spent 37 years as an engineer at Pfizer, while Powell-St. Louis’ career as a physician includes roles in private practice and the pharmaceutical industry.
St. Louis said he’s comfortable with the idea of treating hydrilla with herbicides.
“I would never want to just wantonly treat a natural environment with a chemical,” he said. “But I look at this situation and say that ‘do nothing’ is not an option. We know what ‘do nothing’ entails. It means losing the cove.”
He said studies show there are no unreasonable adverse effects to human health or the environment.
Powell-St. Louis took the microphone to disagree.
“So we have a different set of opinions here, even in the same household,” she said.
She called on her background in medicine and public health, as well as her attendance at two presentations on the federal hydrilla project, to back up her skepticism.
“They’re either not revealing all the data, or the data isn’t there,” she said.
Financial Acumen
Asked by audience members for more areas of dispute between the couple, Powell-St. Louis said she’s the one with more opinions on the school district where she was elected for two terms to the school board, and where the couple sent their three sons from kindergarten through grade 12.
“I think that I probably have more knowledge and expertise, and maybe more opinions, about what has gone on within the school district,” she said.
Her husband countered that he’d likely be the one to try to “dive more fully” into Board of Finance issues, especially ensuring healthy contingency funds.
But Powell-St. Louis countered that previous experience on the school board and her current role on the building committee for a $57.5 million Lyme-Old Lyme Schools renovation project gave her plenty of insight into the issue of spending and saving.
She referenced advocacy during the spring budget planning process for the reinstatement of a music teaching position that had been stripped from a draft spending plan. Her recommendation at the time was to use a portion of the district’s reserve funds to dampen the impact of debt service on the budget in the coming years.
While the school board found savings elsewhere rather than acting on her suggestion at the time, she said the topic of how much to save was an extensive conversation at this week’s school board meeting. That’s when members decided to return more than half a million dollars of the district’s surplus to Lyme and Old Lyme to blunt the impact of future tax increases.
Powell-St. Louis credited her advocacy with keeping discussion about the reserve fund front and center.
She said while St. Louis is talking about diving into conversations about finances, she’s already orchestrated those conversations.
“Not you. I did it,” she told her husband to laughs from the crowd. “OK, so give credit where credit is due, please.”
St. Louis got more laughs when he asked “Are you done yet?”
The back-and-forth came amid criticism from the Democrats for running a married couple at the top of the Republican slate.
A post from the Lyme Democratic Town Committee on social media shows Lyme’s sample election ballot with “husband” and “wife” stickers pointing to the couple’s names.
“If this Republican husband-and-wife team is elected, the control of the Town of Lyme’s Board of Selectmen will be in the hands of one family,” the message said.
Powell-St. Louis on Saturday was adamant that the three-member Board of Selectmen is inevitably composed of three independent people with different backgrounds and areas of expertise.
“And so I have my own opinions,” she said. “I am capable of making decisions on my own independently, and I will do so, plain and simple.”
United on Housing
St. Louis and Powell-St. Louis on Saturday remained unified in their fears about the threat to local autonomy presented by looming state mandates requiring all cities and towns to take up some of the responsibility of creating new affordable housing opportunities.
St. Louis, a current member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, framed the issue as an example of government overreach that inspired him to run for first selectman.
A comprehensive affordable housing bill was vetoed by Gov. Ned Lamont during this year’s legislative session in Hartford. He promised a special session to revisit the issue.
The need for affordable places for people to live has emerged as a priority in the state as demand continues to outstrip supply. The National Low Income Coalition in its 2025 housing profile for Connecticut estimated there are 94,000 more low-income households than there are places for them to live affordably.
A home is considered affordable when the people living there don’t spend more than 30% of their income on rent or mortgage payments.
Among the provisions in the failed bill was the “Fair Share” framework, which would have required municipalities to plan for a prescribed number of affordable housing units within their borders.
St. Louis said such mandates override local zoning controls that limit residential growth to one, two or three acre lots.
“We should own our zoning code,” he said. “And so to that end, I’m going to be an advocate for the town. I’ll work with town principals. I’ll work outside the town with state representatives, representatives from other towns to make sure the governor gets the message that we want to own our land use decisions.”
He said the number of affordable housing units estimated as Lyme’s “fair share” in the failed bill ignored limitations including a lack of public water, sewers and transportation.
Powell-St. Louis stepped in with the numbers.
“So in that House Bill 5002, the recommended target number for what was called ‘fair share’ housing for Lyme was 176 affordable housing units,” she said. “176.”
“Right,” he said. “Versus the total housing units we have in town: less than 1,200.”
The forum included brief remarks from school board candidate Lannie Mossberg and alternate Zoning Commission candidate Steven Deveaux.
Absentee ballots for the Nov. 4 election are available now. Early voting begins Oct. 20.