For Local Fiscal Management –

Council Prepares To Embrace New Members And New Realities

By Steve Bigham

Six new members will take their seats on the Legislative Council when it begins a new term next month. It will be the biggest turnover on the 12-member council in recent history.

Those six newcomers, plus a half dozen returning members, were elected last week.

Five current council members did not seek reelection, leaving just seven incumbents on the ballot. Only one incumbent – Democrat Dan Rosenthal (District 1) – was not reelected.

Leading the cast of newly elected members is 40-year-old Michael Iassogna, who garnered the most votes of any council candidate. He is the director of Kendro Laboratory Products here in Newtown.

Mr Iassogna is one of three first-time Republicans from District 1 to get elected. The others are aerospace executive Joseph DiCandido, and Bill Meyer. Mr Meyer, a longtime Newtown politician, actually joined the council a month ago to replace the seat left vacant by the September resignation of Pierre Rochman. Now elected, Mr Meyer will serve the next two years.

Francis Pennarola, an attorney, was the lone Democrat to be elected in District 1.

The Democrats managed to control District 2 as incumbents Tim Holian, an attorney, and community volunteer/real estate agent Peggy Baiad were both reelected. Joe Hemingway, a construction manager with close ties to the PTA, was elected for the first time.

The lone Republican elected from District 2 is Joe Borst, who is the longest-serving council incumbent now that Melissa Pilchard is leaving the council after serving 22 years. Mr Borst has been a council member for 12 years.

District 3 is a Republican stronghold with Will Rodgers, Don Studley, and Brian White all being reelected. Mr Studley had previously represented District 1, but moved in the middle of his term, prompting his run in District 3. Mr Rodgers, an attorney, and Mr Studley and Mr White, both accountants, all live within a half-mile radius of each other in the Hattertown area.

Former Board of Education Chairman Amy Dent is the only Democrat to win in District 3. She previously served on the council from 1988-90. 

 

New Council Conditions

The new council is expected to meet for the first time December 5 and will operate under a government that will have undergone a major change. Voters last week approved the creation of a Board of Finance designed to create a more efficient form of government.

Finance Director Ben Spragg works closely with the council and says a clear explanation of each board’s role must be made before moving forward.

“I think the role of the council now has to be explained by the town attorney. We can’t have a Board of Finance and Legislative Council with the same role,” he said.

Mr Studley was elected chairman in the final weeks of the 99-01 term, replacing Pierre Rochman. He is expected to be reelected at the council’s first meeting in December and says he plans to lead the council under a theme of “cooperation and planning.”

The cooperation, he said, will be required as the council begins its work with the new Board of Finance.

“We will be sharing a responsibility that the council has solely had for the past 25 years, mainly the financial management of the government, and we need to make sure we implement that as seamlessly as possible,” Mr Studley said. “I think the thrust of the change in the charter in regards to the Board of Finance is that we have more financial planning. That should not be solely in the hands of the Board of Finance, but should be done in conjunction with selectmen and council. All three have to be involved in the process.”

Mr Studley predicts a busy next couple of years.

“We have some very significant fiscal matters facing the town. We have the implementation of a master plan for Fairfield Hills, the new 5/6 school that has to be paid for. That’s going to impact the education budget, and we have other general demands on a growing community,” Mr Studley said.

“All of those will put demands on our tax rate. We can’t necessarily be all things to all people all the time, but we may have some hard decisions to make as we get into the budget season. It never seems to be easy and it is has been exacerbated in recent years by declining state aid, especially in the area of education. We have no choice but to raise our local taxes based on what our state legislature and governor are doing to us.”