Stop The Fairfield Hills Authority

To the Editor:

There are defining moments in public life when all is revealed. It is at these times when the true priorities of a politician stand naked in the light of the public square.

This moment of truth happened for our first selectman at the Legislative Council meeting held on June 4, 2003. Mr Rosenthal was asking our Legislative Council members to pass the proposal to create the Fairfield Hills Authority that the Board of Selectmen had approved at their prior meeting.

During the discussion, Mr Rosenthal became impatient (one of his most telling traits) at the dialog and stated, “This discussion is irrelevant since a bill authorizing the formation of the FFH Authority has already been passed by the state Senate and was expected to be passed by the state House of Representatives that evening and signed into law by Governor Rowland.”

Despite the objection of councilman Joe Borst, a vote was called for to make the law legal since it would have been illegal if the Legislative Council would not support it. The concern was for State Senator John McKinney who sponsored the amendment to Senate Bill No. 1004.

Even with the presence of at least three attorneys in the proceedings, nobody was interested in looking out for the interests of the most important presence in the room: the people of Newtown.

The rules of government, the ethics of responsibility of public office, the charter of the Town of Newtown, the common decency of our publicly elected officials and their oath of office, all went flying out the window to protect the political privatization of Newtown’s most sought-after real estate acquisition, Fairfield Hills.

The amendment to the General Assembly Bill that was almost passed (and may still be passed) by the state legislature is such a one-sided, self-serving document that it effectively gives total control of FFH to only one person in Newtown, the first selectman. With the town residents footing the bill through current and future tax increases, is this fair?

This isn’t the mandate that Newtown residents want for the future of FFH and its legacy as a community center for generations to come. If passed with its current language, this law will allow Rosenthal to destroy FFH by creating another crowded commercial park whose income will only be shared by the first selectman’s handpicked associates.

I have seen Mr Rosenthal’s plan developing and I reject it! It is time for Newtown citizens to stand up and be counted. If the only way to stop the FFH Authority is to vote No on the FFH master plan, then so be it.

Under the heavy hand of Mr Rosenthal, he has turned the experience of acquiring FFH into a mad rush to judgment. It is time to start the process over again by defeating a flawed master plan that is now combined with a financially disastrous management scheme.

Fairfield Hills and Newtown deserve better.

Barry J. Piesner

34 Alpine Drive, Sandy Hook                                          June 25, 2003