Privatizing Fairfield Hills Without Voters’ Consent

To the Editor:

What is it going to take for the residents of Newtown to wake up and smell the roses?

Someone should explain to us the charade about over the last three years when our town political leaders were pretending that they wanted the residents of Newtown to determine the future use of Fairfield Hills (FFH). Why didn’t Rosenthal tell the Newtown residents when he was negotiating the purchase of FFH in secret, that he had already decided to “give away” the buildings to speculators? Isn’t that what politicians are all about?

Now we understand why Rosenthal never returned Becker’s calls when he wanted to make a deal. It was because the deal was for Herb and his buddies, not Newtown.

When I proposed a reduced bonding on June 6, 2001, at the town meeting, Herb almost had a heart attack. It wasn’t because the $9.5 million I proposed was insufficient, it was because he needed the $22 million from the residents to pay for his private plans for FFH.

Rosenthal now has a meeting in “secret” with State Senator McKinney and State Representative Julia Wasserman to create an attachment to a bill, Senate Bill #1004, in the State Senate (interesting reading) that would authorize the FFH Authority. The bill passed in the Senate but wasn’t voted on in the House. If not for the state budget impasse, Rosenthal would have appointed his cronies to have total control over FFH for their own purposes.

What was the basis for this midnight maneuvering? The approval for the authority was issued by the selectman’s office. Was this a legal action without the Legislative Council approval? No!

Did any resident vote for the forming of an authority that would give Herb Rosenthal the right to develop FFH as he personally saw fit? No!

How could a state bill be passed authorizing the private disposition of FFH when the Town of Newtown voters were never shown the bill or even offered an opportunity to comment on it? We haven’t even purchased FFH yet! Does this sound legal? No!

Does the close cooperation of the FFH Master Plan Committee, the selectmen’s office, most Legislative Council members, our state representative, and our state senator in presenting this secret state bill sound like a conspiracy to privatize FFH without voters’ approval? Yes, it sure does.

Not one word of this FFH land grab scheme had been mentioned to the press until the night of the last council meeting when Herb casually mentioned it. Rosenthal sure planned a neat surprise for the Newtown taxpayers on top of his 30 percent tax increase he dropped on us recently. I wonder what spin he will put on this incredible power move. The blatant arrogance and total lack of ethical behavior that was behind this disgusting action really shows us the disdain Rosenthal has for the hard working residents of Newtown.

Mr Rosenthal has far exceeded his authority and we request the Legislative Council to table any request for further action on FFH until an independent investigation is completed and the residents of Newtown are given their right to decide how their tax dollars are being spent.

Barry J. Piesner, Director

Newtown Property Owners Association

38 Underhill Road, Sandy Hook                                                                     June 10, 2003