Debate Showcased Candidate Positions, Ideas, Platforms

By John Voket

The Newtown Bee hosted a candidate debate in the theater at Edmond Town Hall October 18, featuring candidates for first selectman and, briefly, the Board of Selectmen. The forum was attended by more than 100 guests who either came to support top of ticket contenders representing their respective political parties or those curious to hear what the town’s current and aspiring political leaders had to say about taxes, economic development, quality of life issues, and more (A full audio transcript of the debate is available online at NewtownBee.com.)

The event began with three Board of Selectmen candidates each taking a few minutes to share remarks with the audience. Democratic selectman candidate James Gaston was first at the microphone.

Mr Gaston touted his “Return to Reason” agenda, reviewed how he wanted to work collaboratively on moving Newtown forward. He ran down a list of accomplishments and examples of the Newtown landmarks and institutions he believes the community should protect or preserve.

Recounting his experience as both a member and vice chair of the Board of Finance and as a burgess and now warden of the Borough of Newtown, Mr Gaston explained how he has worked to minimize taxpayer burden by helping reinforce a limited cap on borrowing which translated into bond rating improvements that enabled the town to finance capital borrowing at lower interest rates.

He vowed, if elected, to work to repair and restore the owner-operator school bus system; establish a selectmen-directed ordinance amendment process; and initiate a single software platform for all municipal and school district budgetmaking and bookkeeping processes.

“So we can understand the cost of what shared projects are,” Mr Gaston said. “We can’t address a bifurcated budget unless we know how much is going to education and how much is going to the town side.”

Mr Gaston also reasserted his opposition to housing at Fairfield Hills, and his commitment to work toward a zero-percent increase in next year’s municipal-side budget proposal.

Current Republican Selectman Will Rodgers then came to the podium and briefly reviewed his background of local service, including his time as chairman of the Legislative Council before turning to discussion of his two-year tenure on the Board of Selectmen and working with his running mate, First Selectman Pat Llodra.

“I enjoy this work, and I specifically enjoy working with Pat,” he said. “We’re a good team but still with work to do.”

Mr Rodgers said he and the first selectman have accomplished fundamental financial reforms in just two years of serving the town together, “not sexy stuff, not controversial stuff, not headline-grabbing stuff, but stuff that betters this town’s bond rating and lowers our taxes and borrowing costs.”

He said he would like to continue carrying the kind of long-term financial reform already accomplished into the planning arena if elected to a second term. Mr Rodgers said he believes he and Mrs Llodra have also done much to dispel “an unfortunate attitude of suspicion, distrust and paranoia,” by addressing issues more thoroughly when there is a lack of clarity versus insinuating a lack of transparency.

Independent Party of Newtown (IPN) selectman candidate Po Murray thanked her family and her party colleagues for choosing her to be on the 2011 slate. She briefly reviewed her background, including the establishment of WeCARE About Newtown, which became the minor IPN party about a year later.

“As a minor party, we have made our voices strong, and have been instrumental in originating many of the changes that have taken place over the last four years,” Ms Murray said, adding that she recognized the focus on reducing school-side spending, and her desire to affect similar reductions on the town side.

Ms Murray said she and her running mate, first selectman candidate William Furrier, who is currently a member of the Board of Selectmen, are fully committed to letting the voters help make important decisions for Newtown. To that end, she asserted her support of a bifurcated or split budget vote, and the modification or repeal of the Fairfield Hills Authority ordinance.

“I’d also like to see all capital projects placed on the ballot for voters to decide. The voters should decide if they want to bear the expense represented by these projects,” she said.

Top Of The Tickets

Moving on to the main event, Bee Editor and moderator Curtiss Clark introduced opening remarks by Mr Furrier.

Mr Furrier said he represents a “clear choice” in a candidate committed to reducing town-side spending by five percent in two years time. He outlined a concept called “track, score, and report,” which he called a budget process voters could understand, appreciate, and support.

He discussed participating in two rounds of budget preparation as a selectman, stating that while changes are made to department head requests, spending never goes down.

“I will lead a change in culture that demands new ideas about how to do things better for less,” Mr Furrier stated, “and I’ll tell you the reason we can’t reduce our spending is because we don’t think differently about the way we do things.”

He talked about bringing programming and budgets to town departments that enhance taxpayer value, and said he would work with the public to understand what local residents really want.

“I think the mindset that we can’t reduce our spending is a dangerous mindset,” Mr Furrier said. “But it is one that is prevailing with this town’s government.”

Mrs Llodra then came to the podium to offer opening remarks saying she has found her work as first selectman compelling, challenging, interesting, and fulfilling. She then turned to her record of accomplishments, reviewing five areas of concentration she used to guide her agenda and work since first being elected in 2009.

The first selectman said her achievements in the areas of contract negotiations, merging and self-funding town worker health care, enhancing financial practices, accounting and reporting, as well as recalibrating the local pension plan collectively affected an average negative one percent growth in the municipal-side budget over the past three years.

“If you doubt that, I’m very happy to send you a document...which details a 13-year history of Board of Education and municipal budgets with and without debt service, take your choice,” Mrs Llodra said, adding that today’s budget equals what the town had at its disposal in 2007-08.

The first selectman touted an “unprecedented degree of collaboration and cooperation with my counterparts in the education department in preparing and presenting the annual budget report.” She said her and her running mate’s agenda is not a political one, but a Newtown agenda.

If reelected, Mrs Llodra vowed to see the voting on capital projects moved from a town meeting action to approval through the annual budget referendum; charter revisions to provide better strategies for dispositions of public-owned land; a renewed master plan for Fairfield Hills that includes limited commercial growth and no housing; and efforts to grow the commercial/industrial sector of the Grand List to help mitigate future property tax increases on homeowners.

The balance of the time consisted of posing questions to the two first selectman candidates on subjects including future Parks and Recreation developments, seeking more clarity on how each candidate might affect budget and tax reductions, particulars on breaking out debt service in a bifurcated budget, individual perspectives on the owner-operators issue, drilling into individual agendas regarding Fairfield Hills, long-range planning, open space preservation, and economic development.

(Next week The Bee will continue and expand its coverage of the debate by breaking out candidate responses on specific issues.)