Hatchet Job Or Public Service?

To the Editor:

I read with some amusement the comments in The Bee’s online section “Town Talk” [www.newtownbee.com/forum.asp] on the article in last week’s paper on Bill Sheluck, Jr, the GOP contender for first selectman, accusing the paper of doing a hatchet job.

Come on now, The Bee was merely providing a public service for the electorate of Newtown when they published this article. It also enabled the candidate to speak to issues in his background that while apparently known to both political camps, never surfaced for obvious political reasons. Some complain The Bee is biased and in the Rosenthal camp’s pocket; I say baloney! You need only look in previous issues of The Bee and you’ll see: The Board of Ed being hammered for the management of the school bus debacle. Town leaders being raked over the coals for the handling of property revaluation last year, or for missed opportunities to seek free money from the state for this project or that. The Bee’s reporting would therefore seem to me to be nonpartisan and balanced, with a bias if any, toward what’s best for Newtown.

Mr Sheluck is running for the top job in Newtown. Among his attributes being touted are business acumen, a career as president and CEO of a financial institution, and leadership ability. Because these attributes are being used by his campaign to promote the candidate, then clearly the public has a right to know of any issues in his past that call these attributes into question. Certainly his past tenure as Nationar president and CEO ending in 1993 is fair game. My own research on the Internet indicates that Nationar apparently filed for bankruptcy protection the very same year that Mr Sheluck retired (csmail.law.pace.edu/lawlib/legal/us-legal/judiciary/second-circuit/test3/01-9466.opn.html). Odd, I didn’t see this bit of information in The Bee’s alleged hatchet job of an article, although it did mention other dates and events as the institution floundered subsequent to his leaving. Hatchet job? I think not!

David Ruscoe

3 Steck Drive, Newtown                                       September 30, 2003