John Voket chose the following words in the online edition to describe my long tenure with the Public Building and Site Commission: “During his tenure as chair on that committee, he supported an unsuccessful move to go to referendum to authorize an additional $3.9 million to the high school construction. An eventual rebid of the entire high school project came in under budget after his resignation.” These comments clearly are aimed at discrediting my reputation and spoil my chances in the election.

Let me set the record straight. The Public Building and Site Commission is a team of building professional whose job is to bring building projects to completion within spec, on time and on budget. PB&S does this job very well and saves Newtown untold amounts of money. But PB&S does not have strategic authority. Project ownership of the high school project fell within the authority of the Board of Education. Our role within the project, as Mr Voket clearly understood, was to follow the recommendation of the BOE, and that was to send the project to referendum so that the people of Newtown could decide for themselves if the added cost was worthwhile. With its choice of words, The Bee appears to be trying to make a case that in some way my vote to go to referendum was poor judgment; meanwhile Pat Llodra and Joe Hemingway also voted for referendum [but] did not get the same treatment by Mr Voket and The Bee.

In addition, Mr Voket then characterized the successful rebid as somehow succeeding due to my departure alone. While in reality the high initial bids were due to a global commodities bubble that every cost estimator predicted to continue indefinitely. Then the significant reduction in the bids was in due to a global financial meltdown that nobody was predicting.

The Bee has with this mischaracterization of my record shown their bias against the IPN, and sheds light on the recent article blaming Po Murray for cost overruns at FFH. By smearing my record The Bee has committed a serious journalistic error. Why is our local newspaper using it news articles to influence elections? With The Newtown Bee clearly in the tank with entrenched powers it will be up to the voters of Newtown to find out the truth. Ask yourself this; “Why would the Bee take such an obvious bias against the IPN?” Whom do we threaten? The answer will surprise you.

Bill Furrier

9 Erin Lane, Sandy Hook                                                  July 15, 2009