Common Cents for 2-4-09

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM PROBLEMS

I think everyone who resides in New Fairfield has become aware that our conscientious first responders have some major issues dealing with “dead zones” in New Fairfield. Something must be done to fix the problem and I agree with our 1^st Selectman on that. But that is the point where my agreement with our CEO ends.     

The $2 million dollar “upgrade” project that got shot down at referendum a little while ago is not the way to go, but John Hodge does not seem convinced of that. The $2 million dollar band-aid is analog, the very same kind of transmission that is about to vanish from the television industry. Why put a lot of money into a system that will receive less and less tech support in the coming years? Analog systems are fine for Jurassic Park, but not for New Fairfield’s first responders. Besides, the $2 million dollar expenditure was estimated by the supplier to improve coverage by a whopping 2%. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to realize that spending $2 million dollars for a 2% improvement in coverage is far from being cost effective. 

On top of that, trying to obtain an estimate of the annual maintenance costs for the $2 million dollar system was akin to nailing Jell-O to a wall. What can we expect to pay for the annual cost of maintenance on the system? Finally, there is no guarantee the system will work and it is mind boggling that firm was not dropped like a bad habit when they would not provide any written performance guarantees. 

New Fairfield is fortunate to have a RF Communications Engineer as a resident. He owns and operates a cell tower off Route 22 in New York and has done quite well financially with it. I mention that to support my conviction that Ron Graiff knows the wireless communications industry very well. Mr. Graiff has served the town as a Selectman and was solely responsible for salvaging the Communications Tower Project a number of years ago that has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars for New Fairfield after its successful installation and start-up that he managed for us. 

On December 14^th, Ron Graiff made a presentation to the Board of Selectmen [BOS] for a system that will do as good or better job of improving the current 95% coverage area and “will require a capital expenditure that is a small fraction of what was requested at referendum.”  This sure sounds like a win-win situation for the first responders, but there seems to be no interest in saving the town money while rectifying the deficiencies of the current system. Why? You’ll have to ask John Hodge why he has stonewalled Ron Graiff’s offer. My take on the reason is below. 

Unfortunately, personality clashes have raised their ugly heads again. For some reason, a handful of the first responders are blaming Mr. Graiff for the poor communications system they have been living with for too long. Objectivity has been sorely missing and has been replaced by speculation, prejudice, and personal ridicule. Unfortunately, all of us have been adversely affected by the “My way or the highway” attitude of the powers that be. If these nay-sayers are so sure Ron Graiff is wrong, I challenge the BOS to take Mr. Graiff up on his offer and then ridicule him when his system upgrade does not work. They will not take me up on this challenge since they know Mr. Graiff’s revisions to the system will work and they do not want a political outsider to get credit for a successful upgrade. This is yet another example of the dark side of politics in New Fairfield. 

A consultant has been hired to give the town some guidance on which way to go, but I have not seen a written scope of his work assignment and things like that always gets me nervous when the current administration is involved. Meanwhile, time marches on….

There was quite a rush to get the $2 million dollar system approved in order to potentially save lives but, after it went down in flames, Mr. Graiff’s generous and civic minded offer to immediately manage an inexpensive solution has been ignored. Why? 

BLAME THE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT! 

John Hodge recently had to gain approval from the Board of Finance [BOF] to transfer money to the Squantz Firehouse’s utilities line item to cover the higher than expected utilities costs ~ after spending $90,000 of our tax dollars to replace the HVAC equipment and properly insulate the building last year. Why? John Hodge blamed the personnel who man the building for not being conscientious with the thermostat controls. WOW! Of course this money transfer and related finger pointing was done at a hastily scheduled BOF meeting that he knew would not be televised. 

The $90,000 HVAC project was approved at another Town Meeting Railroad Job in September of 2007, basis Hodge’s typical scant information regarding the reason for the need for urgent approval and the details of how much money would be saved by this “quality investment.” 

I believe our 1^st Selectman owes us taxpayers an explanation of why the savings he told us would result from the expenditure did not happen. I do not believe the Squantz Firehouse personnel were at fault, but that is only my opinion. They were thrown under the bus when not there to defend themselves and, while that is certainly not fair, unfortunately it is Standard Operating Procedure for the current administration. 

Finally, when you purchase and install a system that only had one pre-approved vendor bid on the job, bad things can happen. The project should have been rebid after only one bid was received. There are 6 ½ pages of HVAC companies listed in the Fairfield County yellow pages. Good business practice would have initiated a rebid but the usual Hodge rush to approval trumped common sense. I doubt if the real reason for the unacceptable HVAC system performance will surface through the town hall smoke screen, but hope springs eternal. 

QUOTABLE QUOTES

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.  When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.” - Dr. Adrian Rogers , 1931 to 2005 

Doug Thielen

Candlewood Isle vs New Fairfield on flawed assessment

To all CARE Plaintiffs and CARE Initiative Participants --

The CARE lawsuit against the Town was successfully concluded and ultimately settled last week in discussions with Town officials in Danbury Superior Court. Through an agreed-upon process involving the Town's Assessor and an independent appraiser representing CARE plaintiffs, negotiated fair market values for all properties were established and agreed to by the 38 plaintiffs remaining in the lawsuit. In aggregate, the total reduction in appraised values for these properties resulting from the CARE lawsuit exceeded $1,850,000.

To record the learning experience for those who follow, the CARE Steering Committee and Rucci Burnham Carta, our legal advisors, will be preparing a summary wrap-up over the next several weeks to recap the process, outcome, lessons learned, and what was jointly accomplished for future reference. Our thanks for your enthusiastic support and financial backing throughout this three-year process to achieve fair and equitable valuations; the Isle is a better place as a result of your involvement, commitment and care.

Jim McAlister & John McGurk, Co-Chairs
CARE Steering Committee

Space Issues question ~ 2005 Campaign

The following is Hodge/Oliveri response to space issue question by the Citizen News. Read the response and decide if in fact the promises were kept or broken!

Response to Citizen News Space Issues Question

With all of the time and money the current administration has spent on the additional space issue, they have never asked the residents how they feel about space needs. The proposal to purchase the Druck building, which is currently being considered, continues that sad tradition.

There are many reasons to consider the purchase of this 40,000 square foot building, but the key reason would be to find a home for a much larger library. Do the residents of this town want a significantly larger library? Surprisingly, it doesn’t appear as if they are going to be asked that question prior to spending $20-30,000 to inspect the building. Yet expanding the library is the lynchpin to the entire Druck purchase.

If the residents of town do not want a greatly expanded library then purchasing the Druck Building just doesn’t make sense. We do not need to purchase 40,000 square feet of industrial property if our needs are limited to the following:

(1) A new Senior Center

(2) A Youth/Community center

(3) More space for town offices.

Ron and I will propose the following solution to the town’s space needs if the Druck building is not feasible or if the residents decide that a new library is not in their plans:

(1) Move the BOE to the new Gillotte Road property. The house on that property could be quickly expanded by putting a modular addition onto it. This could be completed in 3-5 months.

(2) Move the Land Use offices and the Park and Recreation Department into the Annex that was vacated by the BOE. The Annex is already used for office space so this move could happen quickly with little or no interruption of services. This would empty the lower level of Town Hall.

(3) Renovate the lower level of Town Hall to accommodate some of the offices upstairs.

(4) Once the lower level has been completed, renovate the upstairs of Town Hall for the remaining Town offices.

(5) Within 120 days of taking office, Ron Oliveri and I guarantee that WE WILL have the first shovel in the ground to build a permanent home for our seniors. The new center could be located at 302 Ball Pond Rd. By the way, we keep hearing how the Druck Building is in the “center of town”. Whether you drive from Town Hall to the Druck Building OR to 302 Ball Pond Rd, both locations are 1/2 mile for the center of town.

(6) Put the issue of a youth center to a town wide referendum. If the answer is “Yes, we want a youth center” (which Ron and I strongly support), it could be located with the senior center on Ball Pond Rd. or we could fold the Youth Center into the High School construction project.

The Druck Building purchase only makes sense if the town people feel there is a need for a new library. A report in the News Times, saying there are two other offers for the Druck building is, in some ways, good news. Druck has been one of the largest taxpayers in New Fairfield, producing almost $100,000 a year in taxes for this town. If we buy that property, its tax revenue will be lost forever. If purchased by someone else, those taxes will go a long way toward paying the debt service for our proposals listed above.

Keep in mind that, in addition to the town’s needs, the Board of Education will soon be bringing significant construction projects to the town. These costs may run into the tens of millions. We also have a school water system upgrade that must be completed by next December. This project alone will cost $2,000,000 or more. When you add all these projects together, we might well need to borrow between $30-50,000,000.

Ron Oliveri and I will solve the town’s space needs, but the key word here is NEEDS, not WANT TO HAVES.

We DO need to listen to the town as to their wishes for a larger library but we DON’T need anymore space studies, and we DON’T need any more delays that force us to pay high rents for the Senior Center. Ron and I will listen to the town’s desires regarding the library and move forward to rapidly solve the Town’s space needs. Let’s take action now!

John Hodge's theatrics won't stop questions

Sept. 16 2007

The voters of New Fairfield are being given a staged performance by First Selectman John Hodge in an attempt to discredit the recent necessary actions taken by the Board of Finance.

It is a desperate attempt to divert attention from the true issue, which is his repeated and continuous refusal to supply the Board of Finance with the financial information that they have repeatedly requested from him regarding the ongoing town projects being controlled by Hodge.

The quoted "legal opinion" is worth nothing as he has no legal authority over the Board of Finance. Connecticut state laws and general statutes make this quite clear.

The questions being raised by the Board of Finance are simple: Where are our tax dollars going? What are the costs to taxpayers on the historical houses restoration?

After two years, where are we with the Senior Center? What are the costs for the work done so far? What are the grant restrictions on the Senior Center?

Most voters and most seniors are not aware that the grant restricts the new Senior Center use to age 62 years and older (our current center allows age 50 and older), and that the new building is strictly limited to use by those seniors.

It will not be available to the rest of the residents -- unlike our current Senior Center which is used for seniors, town meetings, board meetings, town organizations, etc.

The BOF wants financial answers from the first selectman. Any attempt on his part to make it appear otherwise is an obstruction of their fiduciary duty.

Taxpayers deserve answers to the questions being asked by the Board of Finance on their behalf -- "What is going on and how much is this going to cost?"

Two years later and we're still waiting for his answers.

Jody Gemmell
NEW FAIRFIELD