OPINION: Resident Says New Milford Mayor's Claims on Closed Pettibone School are 'Distorted'

NEW MILFORD, CT — Editor's note: The following letter was written by Michael Barnes and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Patch or its editors. The letter was in response to Mayor Gronbach's letter below.

• Mayor Responds to Criticism Over Pettibone School Decision

"While I was happy to see New Milford Mayor David Gronbach taking at least one resident’s comments into account when discussing his desire to reopen John Pettibone School (JPS) as a municipal center, his personal attacks on me were quite absurd and full of distortions and inaccuracies. Let’s look at his distortions and outright untruths.

'The Mayor claims I said he was “following through on [his] campaign pledge to sell the East Street Administrative Building and keep Pettibone School.” Not true. What I said was “The Democrats campaigned to reopen JPS as a school last election, not spend millions on a municipal center.”

"The Mayor’s claim that “after [he] took office, [he] outlined [his] plans to the newspaper.” Not true. The only mention in the paper shortly after the election was December 1 in an article on winter maintenance where he stated “One of my first acts will be to find a use for Pettibone and get it occupied as soon as possible.” That’s only a statement of intent to do something and certainly not a plan with a budget. Where is the mention of the sale of the East Street property to pay for it? It’s not there.

"The Mayor’s greatest distortion comes here: “The prior Administration closed Pettibone School, transferred its students and staff, and professed ‘No Plan’ with regard to what the Town would do afterward with this empty building on Route 7.” There was no “plan” in place when Mr. Gronbach took office because the previous administration believed in the checks and balances of government and letting all voices be heard instead of operating the administrative branch as a personal fiefdom. Mayor Murphy was not going to make a recommendation to the Council or taxpayers until she heard what the costs and benefits associated with the dozen or so suggested uses were.

"In the 10/26/15 Town Council meeting, Mayor Murphy proposed and the Council unanimously approved a motion (seconded by current Democratic Councilman Frank Wargo) to create a John Pettibone School Facilities Committee to study exactly that and report back on 6/1/2016. Along with Mr. Wargo, current Democratic council members Walter Bayer and Mary Jane Lundgren also voted in favor of creating the committee. Mayor Murphy brought her appointments to the 11/23/15 Town Council meeting where the committee was wisely tabled to allow for review by incoming Mayor Gronbach so he could appoint his own choices.

"In January, when Councilman Pete Bass questioned the Mayor about the absence of appointments to the JPS committee his answer was “I’m working on the committee.” Of course, the Mayor knows all this so it is extremely disingenuous of him to suggest anything else. The Mayor’s feigned ignorance of the existence of the JPS committee when asked by Board of Education Vice Chairman Bill Dahl was particularly smarmy. If someone were a conspiracy theorist, they might question why Mayor Gronbach failed to move forward with this committee and waited until after 6/1/2016 to surprise the Council with his wish to use JPS as a municipal center and sell the East Street School with no investigation whatsoever into the best use of the JPS property or East Street for that matter.

"The Mayor’s claim that I refer to “to rumors and ‘studies’ it would cost millions to rehab Pettibone” is also a distortion. Contrary to the Mayor’s constantly changing numbers which have no back-up, I referred to actual studies by the Board of Education one of which is linked below and even that particular study assumed a lot of work that needs to be done today would not be accomplished if the BoE were grandfathered in and it makes no mention of updates required to bring the building up to current code including not being ADA compliant. Mayor Gronbach said: “No study I could find supports this conclusion.”

"Well that’s because even when Councilman Bass handed him one of the studies at a Town Council meeting, Mayor Gronbach refused to accept it and tossed it back at Mr. Bass. Refusing to acknowledge something does not mean it doesn’t exist. Mayor Gronbach himself was quoted in the 8/22 Town Council meeting as saying the cost of moving town offices to JPS “should be no more than the cost of the [East Street] building.” Well which one is the truth, Mr. Mayor? $100,000 or $1.63 million?

"Listing a property before investigating what the possible uses are and what the estimated costs of various proposals are is putting the cart before the horse. Instead of using a JPS committee to find out what proposal might suit the town best, the Mayor wants developers to tell him what is best for East Street so he can do what He, personally, wants for JPS. I don’t know about you, but I think developers will propose what is best for themselves, not taxpayers. The Mayor is constantly using the terms “process” and “plan” as if they are interchangeable.

"The “process” of public input and using the recommendations of a committee set up for that purpose is what he has ignored. The “plan” is what comes as a result of taking the results of the “process” and developing a specific course of action to present to the Council and the public BEFORE taking any action. For a perfect example of someone with no plan, please listen to the audio of Tuesday’s Board of Education Facilities Sub-Committee meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8KIa80GzlQ

"The Mayor unrolled what appeared to be the same 25 year-old blueprint of JPS that I have and rambles on about doing whatever the BoE needs off-budget, including hiring a new person, if they’ll only approve the move. Contrarily, here is what a real plan of facility changes to move a town department looks like:
http://images.pcmac.org/Uploads/NewMilfordPS/NewMilfordPS/Departments/DocumentsSubCategories/Documents/fac_020111_am.pdf

"The Mayor states that his every attempt to save “money is derided as a secret attempt to fund the JPS move.” Without a budget or revenue sources to fund the move what are people supposed to think? The Mayor is currently moving full steam ahead with moving those in town buildings around including displacing every single group that currently uses the Railroad Station as a meeting place. Since there is currently NO budget or revenue sources for the JPS project, where is the money coming from? Every appearance is it will come from “found” money that the Mayor “saves” until such time as a major funding source (such as the sale of East Street) is available to do it off-budget.

"The Mayor’s claim that I “led the charge to defeat the Board of Education (BoE) budget this year because of spending (including capital spending) issues” is untrue. I advised initial defeat of the budget because of BoE personnel cost increases (specifically shifting insurance cost increases onto taxpayers) in the face of declining enrollments. Quite the contrary to the Mayor’s claim, during an informational meeting on the BoE budget I complemented the School Superintendent for the Board’s handling of the capital spending account and suggested he find a way to make that positive more visible instead of burying it in the budget. The Mayor was there when I said that so he knows his claim to be untrue. Indeed, at the next budget meeting I was quoted in the minutes as saying the Mayor is “making a good faith effort to reduce the Board of Education budget” and we “should not let Mayor Gronbach’s efforts go to waste.”

"The Sewer Commission comments the Mayor makes are a distortion. The town had no choice but to upgrade the sewer plant because it was facing millions of dollars in fines for a failed system that was polluting the river. Yes, I know that the Mayor doesn’t set sewer rates, but in his first address to the sewer commission, he let them know in no uncertain terms they had to come up with a fee schedule that supports fully meeting the bond every year as well as pay back the $4.3 million the town is carrying on the books as a receivable. When the commission looked at meeting the yearly bond payment by raising fees to existing users it’s 300 percent.

"The mayor also claims that the sewer debt somehow belongs to the Republican Party because anticipated economic growth at the time the project was bonded did not materialize. News flash, Mr. Mayor, New Milford is not alone: the Connecticut economy is going down under Democratic rule in Hartford, not up. The Mayor seems to be of the belief that the town would have been better off paying millions of dollars in fines instead of fixing the plant. Or perhaps he believes the plant should have been abandoned and he should be using a chamber pot in his office as mayor of a ghost town. The Sewer plant exists as a benefit to the entire town, Mr. Mayor, not just Republicans and not just those hooked up to it. Work together to find a long-term solution instead of ambushing a volunteer commission with a demand to come up with money and leaving the meeting with expletives (caught on audio tape) about the members.

"The Mayor’s claim about the turf fields is a distortion. He is leaving out his attempt to cut back the project by eliminating one of the fields. He is also taking credit for something the Turf Field Committee wanted all along: the better fill product. The only reason the other material was considered at all was cost.

"The Mayor’s claim that I “promote a platform of spending taxpayer money on health insurance for people that do not work for the Town” is adistortion. The non-profit Children’s Center daycare teachers were on town insurance for many many years before I got here. Why? Because the Town Council decided years ago that rather than lose a grant to help low income families pay for daycare they would help the teachers with insurance.

"That Council, along with every one since then, decided that subsidizing insurance for a non-profit daycare that was administering a large town grant was a town benefit. The Mayor has been trying to twist this all sorts of ways including a facetious suggestion that every daycare, including for-profit ones that are not connected to the town in any way, be subsidized. The Mayor’s belief that non-profit daycare workers performing a service for the town don’t deserve help with healthcare puts him in a distinct minority.

"I’m not sure what the Mayor means by “secret bonuses for the connected few”, but if he is talking about extending medical benefits for a few months to long-time employees, it is something the Town has done before. Since those employees weren’t his choices and he doesn’t consider someone who was instrumental in getting millions of dollars in grants for the town as a valuable employee, that’s his call.

"The Mayor states that we should “reserve judgment on my proposals until they are presented by me.” Well, taking action on “proposals” without plans or budgets or even talking to people prior to issuing letters informing them their insurance will shortly be cut-off or they have to get out of the building they are in after next month is no way to run government and will only bring him well-deserved grief.

"The Mayor seems to think the objections to his reckless actions are somehow political. If Mayor Murphy had tried any of Mayor Gronbach’s autocratic moves it would have been worse: it would not only be Republicans complaining. This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with good government.

"At a Board of Education Facilities Sub-Committee meeting the Mayor stated: “I’ll come up with a plan once I have a budget.” That’s all we’re asking for, Mr. Mayor: stop sniping at those that are asking for details, stop moving everybody around and stop listing town properties until we see a budgeted plan that has considered all proposed uses for the JPS and East Street properties, not just your personal pet project. It serves no purpose for you to make a weak, distorted and inaccurate attack on me, especially when I have facts and you don’t. It just makes you appear petty and vindictive."

— Written by Michael Barnes, New Milford, Conn.

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