This article provides three previews into the campaigns of town council members Antonia Moran, Brian Q. Coleman and Ben Shaiken.
Antonia Moran
The current Mayor of Mansfield, Antonia Moran, is campaigning to continue progressing the town’s services and accommodate to all its residents.
“We are running on a campaign of smart growth, great schools and strong community,” Moran said. “These phrases are significant because they directly relate to policy issues and ultimately link to budget issues.”
Moran ran for a seat on the council after she retired from being a local government and law teacher at Central Connecticut State University for 20 years. While teaching, Moran also managed the external relationships for University of Connecticut faculty as the state coordinator for the American Association for University Professors.
“I’ve been interested in government for almost my entire life,” Moran said. She added that deciding to run for town council after retirement was natural because she knew about budget issues, volunteer loss, shifts in welfare and changes in school programs.
“I came in as a generalist without a particular idea but committed to efficiency and quality and serving the public,” Moran said.
Throughout her multiple terms serving the town council, Moran has witnessed a fluctuating dynamic between the town council and UConn. She said that she refers to Mansfield as a “company town” where the employer sets the tone for the whole community.
“There’s always been a concern about the University taking over the town, and I think we have a very good working relationship with the University right now, but it’s under tremendous pressure,” Moran said.
The updates to the Mansfield Plan of Conservation and Development, which come once every decade, serve as a guide to the town in making policy decisions around environmental protection, housing, growth and more. Moran said attitudes have changed around UConn since the last plan.
“The old plan, people were really resistant to the University, and it doesn’t really show up in the plan very much,” Moran said. “The plan talks about Mansfield as a rural community. And this plan is going to be talking much more about us as a university community in a rural setting.”
As an 82-year-old, Moran says that she loves her job on the town council but has been thinking of her succession plan as she ages. The new crop of candidates who have run this election gave her confidence in finding a successor, but she said she won’t give up her council seat willingly.
As Mayor of Mansfield, Moran takes pride in two recent developments for the town.
One of those is a gold certification award from Sustainable Connecticut being presented to Mansfield. The other was hiring Ryan Aylesworth, who Moran said has “been a real highlight” as town manager.
Antonia Moran’s next event as Mayor of Mansfield is to attend the Sustainable Connecticut awards celebration at the Goodspeed Opera House this Tuesday.
Brian Q. Coleman:
Brian Coleman is running for his third term on the Mansfield Town Council with a campaign focused on accountability for the people and taxpayers of Mansfield.
“All our projects go over budget. Every single one of them. Some of them go over 100% of the budget, so we need accountability,” Coleman said. He added a list of areas where the town needs accountability, like bidding, contracting and spending.
Coleman was raised in Andover before attending the UConn Ratcliffe Hicks School of Agriculture where he met his wife Tamra Coleman, who grew up in Mansfield. They would eventually marry in the old alumni center in 1986.
Coleman’s family-in-law owns a family business in Mansfield called De Boer Apartments, which Coleman began managing around 2001. He said that his management role, combined with the strong education provided by E.O. Smith High School, compelled his family to move to Mansfield in 2008. Coleman said he left his position as manager in 2023 due to family drama.
The schools in Mansfield would later be one of the reasons Coleman would run as a Republican for the town council. While he initially ran for council for the first time in 2013, he was appointed by Republicans in 2021 after focusing on concerns with the development of Mansfield Elementary School.
“I’ve been outspoken about a lot of things, and mostly I’ve been outspoken about the elementary school and some of my issues over there,” Coleman said.
Coleman says he was concerned over issues like lead contamination in the water and the cost of the project. Raising those issues over a brand new school is what Coleman believes led to anonymous emails he described as blackmail, which Inside Investigator reported on.
“There’s one [town council meeting] where I made a motion to disband the school building committee and rehire new people. That was in October 2022, I think, and then right after that is when the blackmail came,” Coleman said. The blackmail threatened to expose him for various things like an illegal marijuana growing operation, according to Inside Investigator.
Coleman served as the vice chair of the Republican town committee in Mansfield from 2013-2017. After being appointed by Republicans for town council in 2021 and 2023, Coleman decided to campaign as unaffiliated in the upcoming election.
“I didn’t get a lot of support from the Republican Town Committee. They referred to me as controversial, as asking too many questions,” Coleman said.
Coleman added that his approach to the budget distinguishes him.
“Fiscal responsibility sets me apart from everybody… no one argues the budget. The town manager makes the budget. Revenues are going up 30% and spending is going up 30% in the last four years. So, we’re not really watching our purses that closely I don’t think,” Coleman said.
One recent issue in which Coleman’s conflicted with Mansfield’s budget management is the appropriation of money for a new bathhouse at Bicentennial Pond, according to town council minutes. Instead of funding the project, Coleman says the money would be better spent on upgrades to the “outdated” senior center.
“We could do better for our seniors,” Coleman said.
Now that he’s unaffiliated with a political party, Coleman’s primary goal is to listen to the people of Mansfield, who he said feel like they aren’t being heard by the current town council.
Ben Shaiken:
The current Deputy Mayor of Mansfield, Ben Shaiken, is running for his sixth term as a Democrat on the Mansfield Town Council with a focus on the cost of living in Mansfield and improving facilities.
“I think we’ve done a really excellent job prioritizing the needs of the community, growing around the world around us so that we can continue to offer excellent services while keeping Mansfield a relatively affordable place to live,” Shaiken said in an interview on Monday.
Public safety was one of the services that the town council has made a point to improve recently, according to Shaiken. Those efforts included things Shaiken said were “some pretty dramatic expansions in our fire department in terms of personnel.”
Facility upgrades are one area that Shaiken said the town council should focus on in the future to bolster these improvements. The fire station and a new senior center were the two municipal projects where Shaiken said upgrades should be prioritized.
“These buildings are complicated and probably expensive, and so figuring out how we prioritize them, how we make sure they get done relatively quick, is a big thing,” Shaiken said.
Shaiken graduated from UConn in 2010 and then moved around Connecticut for a bit, living in towns like Vernon and Manchester. After returning to Mansfield, he was offered the opportunity to run in 2015 and decided that the council could use some younger voices.
There was an increase in the number of candidates running in the Mansfield municipal election this year. Moran said that they even had to turn down some people for council due to the number of applicants.
“I am much happier to have a lot of people interested than to have to be really shaking the trees to find new people,” Shaiken said.
Shaiken added that while the interest in local politics always fluctuates, the national political situation created a unique demand this year. “It’s really excellent to have this much interest in local politics.”
Around the same time Shaiken joined the council, he also began working for the Alliance Voice of Community Nonprofits. The Alliance’s mission is to “advance excellence in community-based nonprofits through advocacy and capacity building,” according to the nonprofit’s website.
Shaiken is the director of public policy at the Alliance.
“The work that I do is really centered and grounded in making sure that everyone in the state, even if there’s someone with a disability or mental health issue, is getting prioritized,” Shaiken said.
Out of the candidates included in this profile, Shaiken is the only one who works a day job in addition to volunteering for the council. Despite the two occupations not being directly related, he said he’s able to channel his work experience into the council.
“I think the skill set and the sort of priority that we place as an organization on giving a voice to people whose voices aren’t always heard is the biggest thing that I take into my role in the town council,” Shaiken said.
One concern of Shaiken’s tied to UConn is the impact of a growing student population on housing availability and cost. He said that one way the council is addressing this is the Affordable Housing Trust Fund policy that developers can contribute to and receive benefits like density bonuses.
“It doesn’t always feel like it, but we’ve made progress [in affordable housing]. Over the last couple of years, 80 units of affordable housing have opened,” Shaiken said.
The Eagleville Green housing on South Eagleville Road was one development that Shaiken said the Affordable Housing Trust Fund helped because it set restrictions on residents to have proof of low-income status to live there.
Despite the progress, Shaiken said that the town council has a lot of work to do in welcoming affordable housing for the coming years.