Town Treasurer Levaniel “Lee” Griffin, 55, brings his many different perspectives to his campaign for mayor: Father, police officer, firefighter, board of education member, Town Councilor, “financial analytics” specialist and investigator with ADT, Aetna, CIGNA and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft companies to name a few.
But it is probably the first role- father – that propels his interest in East Hartford’s top job at Town Hall.
Griffin has three adult children. But he sat down for an interview at McAuliffee Park as Benjamin, age 4, played nearby. His girlfriend’s son, Lee is “co-parenting” and motivated to make East Hartford a better community by embracing the strengths of the town and taking its thinking a bit more outside of the sandbox.
In order: Embrace law enforcement and public safety, cease budgeting by crisis management, build a better housing stock, and restore the town’s traditional sense of neighborhood and community. Backing the community role of local law enforcement would seem a natural inclination for a man who spent 15 years on the East Hartford Police force. Before that Griffin served as a volunteer firefighter in Windsor, long enough to be a pumper operator. He was inside a burning structure where he experienced a flashover – the spontaneous combustion of material in a confined space. In fact, being inside when the unexpected might happen perhaps sums up this mild-mannered Democrat.
“Until you experience it, there is no way to describe what it is like. It is unreal,” Griffin relates. Becoming a police officer in East Hartford also gave him that inside perspective non-law enforcement citizens also can’t fully fathom. Unless they do it. Lee has done it, and now he wants to bring the importance of supporting the law enforcement community to the fore of his campaign.
“Fear is a bad deal. If we in law enforcement don’t know, don’t understand the situation the normal thing is to lean back. East Hartford needs to lean in,” said Griffin. As the town has changed, the relationship between residents and local police officers has also changed. Familiar faces are no longer part of the department as they were when Griffin was growing up.
“There is not a single citizen in the town today that can name two or three police officers here that they knew as they were growing up.” The world has changed, he observes, but all the more reason why there needs to be “a closing of the gap taking place” between citizens and officers. Efforts along those lines have been present in the “Coffee With A Cop” and similar, albeit brief community conversations. Commendable, and Griffin wants to expand that effort in two directions.
“It doesn’t have to be something formal. Just go to lunch. This is East Hartford,” says Griffin, a town that has traditionally supported its police department. He sees it as a straightforward solution. “As you take away the support for the police, the energy leaves law enforcement. Get out and tell the police ‘we got your backs.’ And the police will have yours.”
Griffin is running against Michael Walsh, the town’s longtime finance director, in seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor. With the town committee convention later in July he feels like he is receiving strong support within the party. But most are anticipating a party primary for the wide open mayoral race after incumbent Mayor Marcia Leclerc declined to seek a sixth two-year term. Winner of the Democratic party’s choice will face off against the Republican party’s choice for mayor. Matt Harper, a former pastor at Truth Baptist church, announced earlier this year he is seeking the GOP nomination for mayor at their upcoming July town committee meeting.
Another issue he faults is the town’s spending on things only after they fall apart: Roads and town buildings. “Crisis management. We should fix and repair roads, not wait until they fall apart,” Griffin said. Another thing that he feels is important is to take great care in the earliest stage of any new project.
“The critical part of every project is how that project starts out. If you are off in the first 10 percent of the project you can predict the whole project is going to be off.” He notes the town is “still waiting” for the promised $10 million Senior Center to officially open to the public. (The Senior Center is still awaiting some ‘finishing touches’.) Griffin also wants to bring back East Hartford’s Memorial Day parade and July 4th fireworks celebration.
“The parade provides a time to thank all the people and civic groups that we have and tell our service men and women, police and fire that they have not been forgotten. It’s important, from public works employees driving their trucks to the kids marching in the high school band,” said Griffin.
The 2021 campaign, like the town, is emerging from the pandemic. Griffin feels the Democrats this year are focused on the issues “and it’s about restoring the dignity of East Hartford” – even if that requires “taking a 90-degree turn” from the industrial past to do what will benefit the town long-term. But he doesn’t buy into silver bullet solutions.
“The idea that every cure has to be a financial transfer to a checkbook is where we make a mistake. We underestimate our value and assets as a town,” Griffin said. To grow the grand list, attracting new businesses has been the town’s focus. “But the reality is residential property is the driver in East Hartford’s grand list. What East Hartford needs is newer housing at the high end – $250,000 and up,” he says. Bettering the quality of life also comes about by supporting strong sports programs and recreation. Certification of coaches, teaching more people CPR, becoming more of a magnet for all kinds of sports teams at all levels from the new sport of pickle ball to traditional flag football are things Griffin wants East Hartford to offer more of. In return, the town gains access to having more residents involved town-wide.
Of his Democratic opponent, Walsh, Griffin says “we have a solid respect for each other. It can’t be understated. We began this in the climate of the COVID-19 pandemic and with everything closed down and no students in schools. Now I hope we can come out in the open and debate. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone came out and heard us?”
