More Public Oversight Needed

To the Editor:

This week we have seen $123,700,000 in capital improvement projects requested by the town and school authorities for our five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). This massive amount of spending will no doubt have a significant and lasting impact on our community, and underscores the need for a comprehensive capital project process, as Bruce Walczak and I have pledged to do if elected as selectmen.

Often overlooked is the need for supervision and oversight of projects by an independent public agency. In government, when you spend other people’s money, you need to be accountable for every dollar. Newtown’s charter gives the Public Building and Site Commission (PB&S) supervisory and oversight authority over capital building projects. PB&S has a near perfect record of bringing projects in on time and on budget and provides accountability for every dollar spent. All payment must withstand the scrutiny of PB&S’s building professionals and a full public record becomes available via the meeting minutes. A public building committee is required by Connecticut law for a school project to qualify for reimbursement.

But the PB&S commission has often been blocked from performing their chartered duties by the Board of Selectmen. All our school projects are supervised by PB&S, but most town side projects are not. Specifically, at Fairfield Hills, where oversight has been so lacking, the selectmen and the Legislative Council have blocked a concerted effort to provide supervision and oversight by PB&S.

In 2004, as the chairman of PB&S, I wrote to the former first selectman asking for early involvement in the FFH project. His reply was basically: Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Despite the selectman’s lack of support, some members of PB&S pushed for more involvement only to be blocked at all attempts. The former first selectman insisted that the language in the charter, specifically the vague words “thereto and thereon” excluded PB&S from any site work that didn’t have a building sitting on it. In an effort to strengthen PB&S, members successfully pushed for a revision to the town’s charter. But the townspeople never got the chance to vote on that charter revision because the Legislative Council voted to strip out the charter revision commission’s recommended PB&S revision. Legislative Council chairman Will Rogers stated that he “is concerned with appointed bodies not being in charge of their own jurisdiction but that elective bodies should have that level of control” (LC meeting minutes, 11/21/07), in other words, elected bodies should maintain control over all aspects of capital projects, and that the transparency gained from public oversight is not important.

 This is a case of the fox guarding the hen house and demonstrates how entrenched powers have actively blocked honest efforts for transparency and checks and balances.

PB&S offers the public the oversight that our capital projects need to ensure value is delivered and transparency is maintained. If elected, Bruce Walczak and I will fully support PB&S’s supervision and oversight authority over all major capital projects. Visit us at www.independentpartyofnewtown.com

Bill Furrier

Candidate for Board of Selectmen

9 Erin Lane, Sandy Hook                                      September 16, 2009