On September 17th the Office of the Enfield Town Manager reached out to see if the Historical Society’s Board would be available to meet with the Town Council on either October 6 or October 20.
I responded by saying that “before I could commit to anything, I would need to have an agenda so I can bring the scope of the proposed discussion to our Board at our next scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 14th, which would rule out meeting with the Council on the 6th.”
Two days later, the Town Manager’s office replied with a very slim yet broad agenda of two bullet points, those being focused on the status of the Martha Parsons Museum and a general inquiry into the Society’s financial health and funding needs.
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That same day, after conferring with our board, I accepted the invitation to the October 20th meeting, based on the agenda as defined.
On Friday, October 17th, at 4:20 PM, I received a quick call from the Town Manager, Matt Coppler, informing me that I would be receiving an email about the meeting this Monday. Ten minutes later, the email arrived, where Matt stated, “As discussed, here are the questions for Monday night’s meeting with the Town Council.”
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While the Town Council’s questions were relatively innocuous, the documents requested, except for the publicly available IRS Form 990, seemed unusual for the gifting of a grant. When taken together with the last item on the form, an excerpt from the Enfield Town Charter Chapter VI Section 11. – Contributions, the true intent of the meeting seemed clear.
The town shall make no contribution to any organization or private corporation unless so authorized by the General Statutes, as revised. No such contribution of more than five thousand ($5,000.00) dollars shall be made to any such organization or corporation unless the town is represented on its board by one or more members nominated thereto by the council.
There it was – the poison pill.
Any organization taking more than $5,000 MUST allow one OR MORE (no maximum mentioned) individuals, of the Council’s choosing, to be assigned to the grantee's board. If the potential grantee elects to reject the invasive oversight requirement, then the grantee, by default, self-defunds, and the Town Council can claim itself an innocent party to the process.
Relatively brilliant in its simplicity.
The Historical Society was recently granted $5,000 by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to fund our new Young Historians’ initiative. The Hartford Foundation does not require that it place one or more members on our board. They treat us like a mature organization and require us to provide a summary of how monies were spent and the impact of our initiative when the program is completed.
The Republican-led Town Council, though, is all about power and control.
Simply compare their onerous requirements to those of the Hartford Foundation. It’s not about the amount of the award either, as Hartford’s award is only $1,000 less than the Town’s for this year. It is clear that the $6,000 award by the Town was simply done to pass the $5,000 threshold mentioned in the Town’s charter.
How will the paid membership of the Historical Society respond if we sell out our autonomy to the Republican led Town Council for $6,000, especially when that award is $20,000 less than the previous year, when NO effort to seat a Town Council member on the Historical Society Board was mentioned or made.
In fact, to my knowledge, there has NEVER been a Town Council member on the Historical Society Board as a requirement of an annual grant.
So why this year?
Because the Republican led Town Council has been publicly embarrassed by their treatment of non-profits in Enfield, and they are searching for a way to save face.
Rather than celebrating our successes, they have redirected that money to buy the votes of pickleball enthusiasts for $600,000.
If asked, we will return the $1,000 to the destitute Town of Enfield, to bring us to that $5,000 threshold where we can remain a private non-profit doing good works for the town.
Game. Set. Match.
Oh, and we still don’t have an update as to our lease of the Old Town Hall, which the Historical Society saved from the wrecking ball by reconstructing it years ago.
