Brookfield First Selectman Debate: Tinsley, Dunn Face Off On Integrity, 4 Corners, Schools

It was standing room only at Brookfield’s First Selectman debate at Whisconier Middle School Tuesday evening.

Moderator Scott Benjamin crafted a number of questions that caused tensions to flare from both candidates and elicited applause and even laughs from the audience.

Benjamin asked the candidates about the Four Corners development, school renovations, road repairs and more.

Dunn said renovations are needed at Huckleberry Hill and Center School. “We can’t have our kids sitting in portables. We need to come up with a real plan....working in conjunction with the Board of Finance...to come up with a plan that works for our town....so that our kids can be educated rather than dripped on.”

Tinsley said, “It will be a very expensive project. I think it’s the top priority, the top capital priority for the town.”

The next question focused on future road repairs. Tinsley said the town needs to spend 1.5 million dollars a year in order to maintain the town’s roads. He said six years ago there was a plan to borrow $10 million but that it was spent in four years.

“The problem was that we borrowed that money for twenty [years]. So we’re still going to be paying for those roads when they need to be repaved. So we’ve been on the path of the last couple of years of reducing the amount of money we need to borrow each year for roads and increasing the amount in the operating budget each year.”

Tinsley said the town will borrow $250,000 each year over the course of six years.

“Funding for roads should be a normal day to day operating expense. When budgets fail, roads are the first to get cut,” Dunn explained. “I am against borrowing for roads. I don’t think it’s a smart thing to do.”

Affordable housing was another topic of debate.

“We should have housing for all of our residents; our children coming up if they want to live in Brookfield, the firemen, our policemen, the people who don’t make tons and tons of money,” Dunn stated. “If all of the other developers...follow the same federal financing... we could end up with 600 affordable units in the town center. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Tinsley said he doesn’t feel Brookfield has yet hit “the danger zone,” as far as the percentage of affordable housing is concerned.

“Brookfield does have only 2.3 percent affordable housing,” Tinsley said. All of the other projects that have been approved have had a small percentage set aside for affordable and incentive housing, Tinsley explained. “I also agree that the town needs a reverse demographic. We need to have a place where early and career household formation can take place and we also need to have a place where retiring seniors can leave their homes in Brookfield and retire at a place in town.”

Dunn said the town needs to look at the overall development plan for Brookfield. “We don’t want to see BJ’s, Costco, BJ’s, Costco, all the way up to the Four Corners.”

When Benjamin asked the candidates if they’d support a medical marijuana facility in Brookfield, Dunn threw up his hands saying, “No.” Tinsley agreed by saying, “Ditto,” adding, “We have one right around the corner.” The audience laughed.

In his closing statements Dunn said he and his wife Cassie have volunteered in numerous organizations in town over the years and that he wants to restore integrity in town government . “Let’s stay together, let’s work together. Let’s make sure Brookfield stays the way we know it should be.”

In his closing remarks, Tinsley pulled out a postcard that Dunn’s campaign sent out to Brookfield’s voters with the words “Restore Integrity” printed on it.

He called the postcard a “vicious, libelous attack” and “campaign filth.”

“I refuse to let this town be spoiled by vitriol and hatred of a few,” Tinsley remarked.

Cassie Dunn told Patch after the debate that the postcard was sent because “it needed to be said.”

“Nobody wanted to send it out but those are the facts and people in Brookfield have a right to know.”

Martin Flynn told Patch that “integrity means to deliver what you promise.”

Steve Dunn told Patch he felt the debate went well and that the questions were fair.

Tinsley had no comment after the debate.

A full video broadcast will be available on CTV 192 next week.

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Photo credits: Wendy Mitchell