Letter to the Editor which was not published by the Citizen News
At the last Board of Finance meeting insufficient bids and information was presented to the board for approval on HVAC system for Squantz Pond Fire Dept. building.
The board’s position was simple: is there any problem with the present system and is it still functioning? ANSWER: NO PROBLEM STILL WORKS.
How many qualified bids have been received? ANSWER: ONE.
How does the New Fairfield bidding process work? ANSWER: WE PUT AN ADD IN THE PAPER.
Is the Squantz Pond Fire Department building a municipal building? ANSWER: NO.
Does the town have an agreement as to the roles, responsibilities and obligations of each party? ANSWER: NO.
ACTION BY THE BOARD OF FINANCE: an attempt was made to move the issue to the September regular Board of Finance meeting permitting the Town to pro actively solicit additional bids and allow the Town counsel the opportunity under our “retainer agreement” to craft up an agreement.
ACTION BY MR. HODGE: Mr. Hodge already had an executed petition in his pocket before the Special Meeting of Board of Finance began. Therefore, there was really no requirement for the Board of Finance to meet in the first place, let alone in special session to consider the question. This action was an abuse of the volunteers of the Board of Finance and most importantly our form of government. This is the second time the ‘government by petition’ was used to circumvent the Board of Finance. How many more petitions will be used to obligate and spend taxpayers’ dollars?
In each case, ‘government by petition’ has deemed the Board of Finance irrelevant eliminating a most critical aspect of our form of government – Checks and Balances. The first petition was the
Roger C. Wise
