After a public hearing for proposed revisions to Newtown’s constitutional document, Charter Revision Commission (CRC) Chairman Andy Buzzi believes it has something that might not please everyone, but will “move the town forward.”

The April 5 hearing was lightly attended but raised questions about moving to a town manager form of government; whether the elimination of the Board of Finance (BOF) was a good idea; and how appointments to vacancies on appointed boards are made.

Resident and Independent Party secretary Bruce Walczak expressed concern that the charter currently calls for any appointment to be open to members of other parties or even non-affiliated voters, rather than of the same party.

“This will help it become a non-partisan, non-political process,” said Walczak.

Walczak noted that the CRC’s decision to extend the amount of time the board and the first selectman have to make appointments was “wise;” Walczak felt that the appointment process could “disenfranchise” residents of the town who might be the best choice for the board, but not considered for the appointment due to political party.

“The only purpose is to protect the party majority,” said Walczak, who likened it to “Newtown’s own form of gerrymandering.”

Walczak said most other towns allow appointments to vacancies to come from any party. He also noted that Newtown’s own rules allow appointments to be from any party when it is to a naturally ending term.

Ned Simpson, a former finance board member, suggested ways he felt the charter could help the town “move into the 21st Century.”

He noted the town has an issue with “opaqueness” that he is not sure is intentional, as it took a “lot of digging” for him to find the draft report of the charter revisions on the town website.

Simpson also said it was difficult to find minutes for groups like the ARP workgroup. He suggested a revision requiring meeting clerks to “make readily available” materials from meetings rather than simply file them with the town.

Town Manager Concerns

Simpson also said Newtown’s government is a “relic of the 20th Century,” and professed a belief that the town “needs to be managed by professionals.”

“I’m disappointed that a town manager model of government was not considered,” said Simpson.

Simpson also said that the CRC’s collected proposals put Newtown “on a dangerous financial path,” with the “amputation” of one of its fiscal boards — the Board of Finance — and its separation of the town’s finance director and the school system’s financial director.

Simpson said that the CRC was “asked the wrong question” when it was considering revising the BOF, and it “very logically worked through an answer to the wrong question.”

“There’s a lot of reference to redundancy and sharing fiscal authority, but the important question is what is best for the fiscal governance of Newtown,” said Simpson. “For 20 years, the BOF has served the town well, with its exceptional bond rating ad sound fiscal planning. While it [finance board] is imperfect, it has served the town well.”

Simpson doubted the Legislative Council’s ability to take on the issues that would no longer be handled by the BOF if the charter panel’s recommendation to eliminate it is eventually approved by both the council and voters.

Simpson observed that the council struggles to find time to deal with all the issues on its plate now, and he was concerned proposed charter revisions made “no designation of where or how the BOF’s responsibilities would be taken care of.”

“What financial governance best serves Newtown by simply eliminating the BOF?” asked Simpson. “In 2001, the voters voted for sound financial management. I think they’ll vote for sound financial management again.”

Splitting Financial Operations

Addressing another point, Simpson referred to a proposed revision formally separating the responsibilities of the town’s financial director and the school system’s financial director, as “chilling.”

“To split these into two financial operations would be a disaster,” said Simpson, who noted that some things, such as the town’s annual financial report, require coordination between the two.

Michelle Embree Ku, a member of the council, which will be taking up the issue of the revisions once the CRC finishes, thanked the CRC for “all its hard work and long hours,” and said it came up with “an impressive document.”

In responding to some of the feedback in a meeting after the hearing, Buzzi noted that a town manager form of government was a charge that First Selectman Dan Rosenthal wanted the CRC to consider. But the council did not make it one of the CRC’s charges because of the feeling that the BOF was “already a heavy lift.”

“A town manager would have been a real heavy lift,” said Buzzi.

Commission member Tony Filiato agreed, saying, “those two items would be too disruptive together.”

Commission member Jim Gaston said that a town manager form of government was “one of the least democratic” forms of governments and “in other towns, it’s gotten ugly.”

“We have professionals in all departments, a professional engineer, a professional financial officer,” said Gaston. “I’m not disappointed we didn’t consider a town manager.”

Regarding criticism over the proposed elimination of the Board of Finance, CRC members expressed they did address most of the concerns during debates over how to handle things.

“We had five different proposals and none of them had a full consensus, that’s why we went with first, second, and third choices,” said Gaston.

Commission member Scott Davidow said that “as divided as we were, we vetted all the issues” around the BOF elimination proposal.

“We got it to the point where it made sense,” said Davidow.

Commission member Prerna Rao noted the CRC “worked hard” and considered a lot of “nuances” concerning the BOF.

“This was as good of a thorough consensus as we could come up with,” said Rao. “There will never be something that pleases everyone.”

Commissioners’ Final Points

Filiato noted that if the council is struggling to find time to take on financial policy questions, it has the power to appoint a committee of professionals with the proper skills needed to address them, much like it does with charter revisions.

Buzzi agreed, saying when the CRC decided to eliminate the BOF, that it knew the council would still have the ability to “create what it needs.”

Gaston addressed the request that appointments to vacancies on boards and commissions be open to any party, saying the suggestion had “the potential for a disconnect with the will of the voters,” by allowing an open seat to change party hands. He said that would “make things even more political.”

Filiato expressed a desire to further look into the separation of the town financial officer and the school financial officer, saying that someone has to do the annual financial report.

“We want to make sure we don’t trip that up,” said Filiato.

Buzzi said the CRC talked about a “lot of issues important to the town,” and while they didn’t always all agree on the best way to solve those issues, they had “debates and lots of discussion that was respectful, but lively at times.”

“We compromised and changed, and came up with something to move the town forward,” said Buzzi.

The CRC has until June 15 to finish its draft report and submit it to the council, though Buzzi expressed a desire to get the document to the council by the first week of May so that it would not be trying to set a public hearing in the middle of summer. Once the council has the document, it has 45 days to set a public hearing. Following that, the CRC will have 15 days to make any changes and submit a final report to the council.

“They can do what they want with it after that,” said Buzzi.

Any referendum questions tied to proposed revisions endorsed by the council heading for voter approval must be submitted to the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office by Labor Day so it can be authorized for the local ballot going before voters this fall.

The CRC is expected to discuss any possible changes to proposed revisions on April 20. The current draft report can be found on www.newtown-ct.gov, navigating to the CRC’s page, and clicking on the public hearing announcement under News and Announcements.

Or visit https://www.newtown-ct.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3546/f/uploads/2021-22_charter_revision_commission_draft_report.pdf .

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.