Belden wants to proceed with planning for police station, CES

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Board of Education Chairman Bob Belden says Brookfield should have a “parallel” discussion about expanding the current police facilities and remodeling Center Elementary School (CES).

CES is vacant and has now been ceded to the town following the opening of the new Candlewood Lake Elementary School.

For at least six years, municipal officials have said that the police headquarters on Silvermine Road is undersized. All of the candidates that have run for first selectmen this year have said either expanding the current facility or building a new headquarters is the town’s top capital priority.

Library officials initially said in 1999 that the current facility on Whisconier Road was too small. A project proposed for the municipal campus on Pocono Road was defeated at referendum in 2018. A 2021 study indicated that CES would be a viable site for a new library as part of a municipal community center, which also would host recreation activities.

Municipal officials have cautioned that it would be difficult to embark on either project before 2026, when all of the bonding is paid on the renovations to Brookfield High School.

That project was approved at referendum in April 2003, months before Belden was initially elected to the Board of Finance in a career in which he has chaired both the finance board and the school board and served on the municipal Retirement Benefits Committee.

Nearly three years ago he left the Republican Party when the national party questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. He became an unaffiliated voter and is now running on the Democratic ticket for one of the Other seats on the three-member Board of Selectmen. He is the running mate under former First Selectman Steve Dunn - the party’s nominee for Brookfield’s top elected position.

Belden said that it will be sometime after 2026 before either the police headquarters or the renovation of CES would be approved by voters, construction begins and bond payments would be made. By then the town will have less bonded debt.

“Make it a discussion about both of them,” he said.

Belden said that municipal officials need to start presenting more information to the voters.

He remarked, “Most people don’t know why we need a new police station or what is being proposed or how much money it is going to cost.”

Regarding CES, he said, “It has been studied and studied and recommended. I think it is time to move forward. . . Leaving that building empty and unplanned would be a travesty.”

Some municipal officials have said in the short-term the Parks & Recreation Department could utilize the gymnasium and programs could be held in the empty classrooms.

Commented Belden, “A lot of work has to be done on an interim plan or a longer-term plan. Refurbishment is needed to even use it temporarily. I don’t think that it has been flushed out.”

For decades families moved to Brookfield so their children could attend Center Elementary School, which had a sterling reputation and where the enrollment was devoted to pre-kindergarten through first grade.

However, it became the oldest school and last wooden school in Connecticut. Voters approved in 2019 building the Candlewood Lake Elementary School, which would not only take the students from CES, but would replace Huckleberry Hill Elementary School and also educate the fifth-grade students that had been at Whisconier Middle School.

On another topic, Belden commented that there are two components of municipal government that have improved markedly over the recent years.

“Roads in Brookfield are probably the best in the area,” he remarked.

Democratic former First Selectman Bill Davidson got a long-term bond package approved in 2010, his first full year in office, and the town continued to place money in the annual municipal budget. Over time more of that funding was paid for in the operating budget and less in bonding. It has now reached the point where all of the road reconstruction is paid for in the operating budget and none is placed in bonding.

Belden praised the highway crew for effectively carrying out the reconstruction.

Regarding the payments on the pensions for the municipal employees, Belden said the town Retirement Benefits Committee, which he has served on since its inception in 2008, has increased the payments from 78 percent to where in August, according to Town Treasurer John Lucas, they were 102.5 percent funded. The funding has recently had been as high as 125 percent.

Belden said that the committee is “focusing in on the actuarial recommendations. We’re getting to the point of putting the right amount of money in the budget each year.”

Belden initially ran for elected office in 2003 on the Republicans United For Brookfield ticket that was led by Republican First Selectman Jerry Murphy.

Matt Grimes, a former Board of Education chairman who sought the Republican nomination for first selectman in the recent primary, said. “Throughout his career in Brookfield government, Bob has displayed thorough and well-organized presentations.” Belden has been praised for the financial analysis that he delivered at the Board of Finance meetings.

“It is anybody’s guess,” said Grimes regarding whether Belden will garner a large number of votes from Republicans, since he been a popular vote-getter when he was a member of the GOP. He predicted that since Belden is well-known, having been on the municipal election ballot many times in the last 20 years, he would probably win a seat on the Board of Selectmen regardless of whether first-term Republican incumbent Tara Carr or Dunn is elected as first selectman.

Dunn said Belden’s vast experience in management and in municipal government would make him a valuable selectman.

He said that when he was first selectman from 2015 to 2021, each of the board members were active in their roles as liaisons to other boards and commissions.

Dunn and Belden said Democratic former Other Selectman Sue Slater was particularly effective in assisting the Board of Education.

“There is a fine line,” said Dunn in a phone interview with Patch.com. “You want to be in contact with the boards and attend some of their meetings, but you don’t want it to appear that you are monitoring their activities. I think Bob would be valuable in that role on the board.”

Belden said over the recent years the Board of Education has had a productive relationship with the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance.

“We have a very good relationship because we listen to each other,” he said, noting that the town government and the school district have collaborated on information technology and capital projects and have the same insurance carrier.

Belden co-authored a column with Grimes 11 years ago for CT Hearst in opposition to a Charter Revision Commission recommendation at referendum to establish a town manager system in Brookfield. He said he remains strongly opposed to the concept.

Carr recently told Patch.com, "I think Brookfield is at a tipping point of being a very different town than we were even five or 10 years ago I think they say the 20,000-population mark is the threshold. [The population as of 2020 was 17,528, according to Wikipedia]. I do like the idea of a town-manager form of government. You’ve got your operational person and his permanent staff and an elected mayor. I think that would be interesting for Brookfield.”

Belden said that adopting a town-manager form of government would be “an expensive solution to a problem that we don’t have.”

“Our Board of Selectmen can represent our voters more effectively,” he declared. “A town manager is usually not someone who is a resident of the town. I don’t think it is easy for them to represent the voters.”

Belden said that as he canvasses neighborhoods the most discussed topics are, “Good schools, low taxes and intelligent development.”

Eight years ago, when Dunn was initially running for first selectman, the Democrats posted signs stating, “Save Our Schools,” as they claimed that the education programs needed more funding.

Have the schools been saved?

As chairman of the Board of Education, Belden said, “Kids graduate from the Brookfield schools ready to go to college. There is a very high graduation rate. A very high college success rate.”

He has two Ivy League diplomas – a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Dartmouth and a Master’s degree In Business Administration from Harvard.

Belden said he learned about not only the components of the economy but writing and social dynamics at Dartmouth.

He said that at Harvard he acquired skills in leadership and management, which “stood me well” both in 42 years at IBM and his 20 years in Brookfield government.

Which elected officials does he most admire?

At the top of the list on the municipal level is Brookfield’s Murphy, who served from 2003 to 2007. Said Belden, “He was such a sound and broad leader that everything was rooted in what was best for Brookfield.”

He also praised Brookfield Democratic former First Selectman Bill Davidson, who was in office from 2009 to 2013.

Davidson had earlier organized Republicans United For Brookfield, the organization that Murphy headed in winning the office of first selectman.

Belden commented that Davidson did “some good things” for the town.

During Davidson’s tenure, the town embarked on the more ambitious road repair program, rebuilt the Kids Kingdom playground and won referendum approval for improvements to the town beach and Cadigan Park.

Belden said he now relates to how Davidson was a Republican, changed to be an unaffiliated voter and then ran for office as a Democrat.

Nationally, he listed two former presidents – Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat Barack Obama.

“They had the same characteristics: They communicated well and were good leaders,” Belden explained.

He said each of them overcame obstacles.

With Reagan it was the criticism on firing the federal air traffic controllers in 1981 when they went on strike. With Obama, it was getting his comprehensive health care plan approved during his first term.

How has the Brookfield electorate changed since his initial campaign in 2003 for the Board of Finance?

Belden noted that now almost 50 percent of the voters are unaffiliated.

“It is a very different world than in 2003 when the unaffiliated voters were the smallest group,” he commented. ‘It used to be that you could call your friends and get elected. That is not the case now with so many unaffiliated voters.”

Resources:

Interview with Bob Belden, Patch.com, Sunday, September 24, 2023.

Phone interview with Matt Grimes, Patch.com, Monday, September 25, 2023.

Phone interview with Steve Dunn, Patch.com, Wednesday, September 27, 2023.

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/carr-says-town-should-evaluate-pay-boost-municipal-staff

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/dunn-hoping-federal-will-help-pay-if-sewers-are-installed

https://www.newstimes.com/opin...