Crovo run for mayor? Maybe

TORRINGTON >> Former city tax collector Robert Crovo is considering a run for mayor, he said Monday afternoon, although he has not yet made a firm decision.

“The truth is, I am thinking about it,” said Crovo.

The idea first came to him, he said Monday, after the Torrington branch of the University of Connecticut closed — Crovo has ties to both the university and to the city, which his family has had ties to, he said, for more than 100 years — and people have asked him about the idea since.

When asked why he would choose to run, Crovo said that there were a number of issues in the city — mentioning, among others, high taxes, a decline in real estate values, a lack of building permits, and the recent arrest of two Street Department employees during the conversation — and noted his connections, charitable work, and years of living in and being around Torrington.

“I think there’s been a lack of leadership for the last 10, 12 years,” said Crovo.

Crovo said that he had been a member of the Republican Town Committee in decades past, but had changed his affiliation to the Democratic Party over the summer.

When asked what prompted this decision, Crovo said that was the party he would prefer to run with.

Crovo served as the city tax collector from 1999 through May 31, 2015, and is currently involved in a lawsuit with the municipal government stemming from his tenure in the position.

This legal dispute recently expanded to include the responsibility for releasing paid-off tax liens, Mayor Elinor Carbone said last week.

Crovo declined to discuss this lawsuit Monday, saying he would talk about it if he officially chose to run.

He does not expect to make a firm decision on whether to announce his candidacy for mayor, Crovo said, until the nominating process was complete.

“I think Torrington needs a change, absolutely,” said Crovo.

Mayor Elinor Carbone, a Republican, was elected to a four-year term in office, her first, in 2013.

Carbone has not yet announced plans to run for reelection.

In December, she said that she was considering the idea.