Selectmen Respond To ‘Misrepresentation’ Allegations

By Dottie Evans

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal and selectmen Joe Bojnowski and Bill Brimmer decided at Monday’s regular board meeting to defend themselves against recent allegations by Friends of Fairfield Hills spokesperson Ruby Johnson that there had not been a full public disclosure of certain documents relative to the June 6, 2001, Town Meeting concerning reuse of the 189-acre Fairfield Hills property by the town.

The accusations were made by Mrs Johnson in a letter to the editor published in the May 30 edition of  The Newtown Bee.

They were also concerned that Mrs Johnson alleged the wording had been changed from the bonding resolution document approved by the Legislative Council May 29 and the version of the resolution that appeared a week later at the June 6 town meeting.

Mrs Johnson’s letter to the editor had stated that “two serious misrepresentations” had taken place and that materials had not been distributed to the public at the town meeting.

To counter these accusations, Mr Rosenthal obtained from Town Clerk Cindy Simon a signed and certified statement that “true copies” of the documents in question were on file at Edmond Town Hall and that they had been distributed at the June 6 meeting.

“Our purpose is to indicate that Mrs Johnson was not accurate in her research,” said Mr Rosenthal as he presented copies of a signed and notarized letter from Ms Simon.

“The resolution as adopted at the town meeting was identical to that passed by the council,” Mr Rosenthal said, and he added that Mrs Johnson was a member of the Legislative Council at the time and voted in favor of the motion.

“She is trying to accuse us of deceiving the public,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Concerning the current proposal to vote on the master plan by referendum, Selectman Joe Bojnowski said he felt that all the selectmen had been committed to the process all along of approving the plan for purchase of Fairfield Hills through an orderly process, and that two years ago, the process included approval by the Legislative Council followed by a town meeting.

“It is only lately,” Mr Bojnowski pointed out, “that you have said there should be a machine vote.”

Selectman Bill Brimmer suggested that Mrs Johnson should be invited to attend an upcoming Board of Selectmen meeting to discuss the matter “face to face,” especially since this was “not the first time” this had happened.

 “Clearly, this letter [published in The Bee] provides concern. Ruby Johnson has been an individual who has worked to focus issues at Fairfield Hills. She is a person that if she has a problem with what the selectmen are doing, as in a letter, I think it’s right to invite her to talk about it,” Mr Bojnowski said.

Regarding the availability of the documents for public study before the town meeting and vote on purchase, Mr Rosenthal said that copies of the Fairfield Hills plan had been placed in several places around town, including the Cyrenius Booth Library, the First Selectman’s Office, the Office of Economic Development and on the town website.

After a decision was made to write a letter to the editor for the June 6 issue of The Bee clarifying the selectmen’s position, First Selectman Rosenthal concluded the discussion with the following comment.

“Mrs Johnson said at the end of her [May 30] letter that ‘deliberate deception is unacceptable.’ But I don’t feel we’re the ones doing the deceiving.”