Group’s Talks With State On Fairfield Hills Irritates Rosenthal

By Steve Bigham

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal has hoped all along that Newtown would be able to speak as one voice as it negotiated with the state over the disposition of Fairfield Hills. However, late last week, he learned that a second voice had joined the discussion.

Last Friday, Mr Rosenthal found out that the local group known as  Save Fairfield Hills for Newtown had arranged a meeting between itself and some state officials, including top negotiator Rich Nuclo of the state’s Office of Policy and Management (OPM).

The news came as a shock to the first selectman, who feared the group had attempted to inject itself into the negotiations. He wondered how this would affect the current talks going on between himself and the state regarding the sale of the 185-acre campus.

“I’m extremely upset. I had absolutely no idea they planned to do that,” said Mr Rosenthal, who was informed of the meeting by Mr Nuclo.

However, group leaders Ruby Johnson, Bill Colbert, and Andrew Willie defended their efforts this week, saying they were simply trying to get more information – the kind of information Mr Rosenthal was not providing to them due to the sensitivity of the proceedings. Mrs Johnson said she did not contact Mr Rosenthal prior to the meeting because she felt there was no reason to. “We are a private citizens group,” she said.

“We didn’t talk about money. The first thing [Bill Colbert] said was ‘we’re not here to negotiate money or interfere with the negotiations. We just want information that we don’t have,’” explained Mrs Johnson, who reportedly arranged last week’s meeting through Lt Gov Jodi Rell’s office.

The group, which advocates the town keeping Fairfield Hills as open space, does not agree with the conclusions of Mr Rosenthal and the Fairfield Hills advisory committee, who advocate significant commercial development on the land to offset the high costs.

At the July 11 meeting in Hartford, Save Fairfield Hills for Newtown asked two basic questions. First, would the state consider setting aside large portions of Fairfield Hills as open space to be used, for example, by the Governor’s Horse Guard or Newtown Forest Association? The answer was No.

Second, would the state clarify about whether or not it expects the town to take care of the large amounts of asbestos inside most of the buildings? The answer was Yes.

Mrs Johnson felt this piece of information was important.

“Maybe there were people in town who understood that the state was not going to put any money into the abatement of the asbestos, but we didn’t know that,” Mrs Johnson said. “Some people may have surmised that because of this we were going to get the property for a lesser price. We didn’t know for sure. We could not do a honest financial analysis without that information.”

Mr Rosenthal said he was particularly angered at the fact Mrs Johnson was present at the meeting. The local activist is a leader on the Save Fairfield Hills for Newtown group and also serves on the Legislative Council.

“She said she did not go as a council person, but you can’t just take off your hat. I’m the first selectman 365 days a year,” Mr Rosenthal said. If you are a council member you should not be a member of a special interest group. It’s fine to have a position, but…”

Mrs Johnson disagreed with Mr Rosenthal’s assessment. “I feel I ran [for the Legislative Council] on a platform of purchasing Fairfield Hills. In order to give the public as much information as possible, we need openness. We needed these questions asked,” she said. “Every member of congress runs on a platform and when they get to congress they don’t abandon their constituency.”

Mrs Johnson said she regretted that the first selectman decided to make personal remarks in the newspaper.

Mr Rosenthal was expected to discuss this issue further at Wednesday’s Legislative Council meeting.