What in your background serves you best in the office you’re running to hold?
As a corporate lawyer, my job is not to create controversies or make problems worse … my job is to advise my executives how to solve a complicated business problem within the law. I’ve been dong that for almost 40 years now, and you learn a lot about how to get a bunch of people with diverse skills and points of view to all pull together to get a project done. I think with Planning & Zoning, there’s a lot of similarities … my fellow Commissioners all have different educational backgrounds and life experiences, and in evaluating applications and determining what’s best for Newtown’s future, we all have to figure out a common context for evaluating the application in front of us.
What do you think are the most important traits necessary for anyone running for office to do a good job in the role of public servant?
You have to be open to new points of view and you have to listen. Often people who don’t have the most polished presentations are the people with the most compelling arguments, so you have work at listening, and you have to be willing to say “you know, I never thought of it that way.”
How do you work with those who don’t share your views to find common ground?
It’s the classic approach: find a small piece of common ground and then try to expand the circle of agreement. Keep the stuff that doesn’t matter to solving the problem in front of you off the front burner. People are often distracted by emotionally fraught issues that aren’t central or even relevant to solving the problem in front of you, and you have to have the discipline to keep those off center stage. I always have hope that if you keep up with that approach, you’ll end up with a fair outcome.
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Peter and his wife Laura Miller live on Diamond Drive in Newtown and have five grown children, one grandchild and two dogs. Peter and Laura are enthusiastic hikers and play tennis or golf when they’re not visiting with the kids or exploring Connecticut and New England’s parks and beaches.
Peter received a BA from the State University of New York at Albany, and an MA and law degree from Syracuse University. He later received Master of Laws degrees from both New York University and City University of London Schools of Law. In a career of more than thirty years, he has been a corporate lawyer for both IBM and General Dynamics Electric Boat as well as several technology firms, specializing in technology transactions and software licensing. He currently works for a global engineering services firm in its Cheshire offices, where he writes and negotiates their contracts.
Peter’s career has centered on negotiating agreements between companies to get projects done. He has learned that whether you’re negotiating with the US government to repair a nuclear submarine, working with software developers and engineers to manage a company’s IT infrastructure, or remediating a polluted field so it can be developed, you need to moderate conflict and focus on shared goals. He feels that town government needs to focus on practical, real-world outcomes that benefit everyone in the community, and that he can bring that attitude and those skills to our local government.
