Carr, Grimes seek Republican nomination for first selectman in primary

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD -- The incumbent was a lieutenant colonel in the Army who has two college graduate degrees and has been praised for her constituent service. She garnered the party endorsement in July at the caucus and has the support of the area state legislators.

The challenger is an attorney who has been active in municipal politics since before he was old enough to vote and has served in a variety of municipal positions over the last two decades, including two years as chairman of the Board of Education. He would be the first Brookfield High School graduate to be elected first selectman.

First-term incumbent Tara Carr and challenger Matt Grimes will be vying on Tuesday, September 12, for the Republican nomination for first selectman. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For the last three weeks voters have seen lawns signs for Team Tara and Team Brookfield in almost every neighborhood.

It is the first Republican primary in Brookfield since 2003 when challenger Jerry Murphy defeated incumbent two-term First Selectman Marty Foncello by 312 votes.

Carr has the support of Foncello, now the state representative from the 107th state House District, state Rep. Mitch Bolinksy (R-106) of Newtown and state Sen. Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield, as well as Board of Education candidate Austin Monteiro, who opposed her as a petitioning candidate in the 2021 race for first selectman.

However, Grimes's running mate for the Board of Selectmen, current Other Selectman Harry Shaker, was Carr's running mate two years ago and has been active in municipal government since the 2003 election.

The candidates say that the top issues are property tax increases coupled with high debt service, overdevelopment, recreational opportunities, the expansion of outdated police facilities, the environment, consideration of adopting a town manager form of government and sewer concerns.

Carr said that while campaigning, she has received considerable positive feedback on her accessibility to residents. She added that she has "shown that I have the temperament to handle the day-to-day demands of being the town's chief elected official," making an apparent comparison to Grimes.

Grimes, the former town attorney in New Milford, suggested to Patch.com last month that, if needed, he would consider laying off municipal employees to lower the property tax burden after the mill rate increased by 3.786 percent for the fiscal year that began in July.

In an interview in August with Patch.com, Carr said that she faced a difficult revaluation of property tax assessments during her first two months in office.

In a more recent e-mail interview with Patch.com, Carr stated, "We worked hard over the last two years to ensure our town has in place the critical staff needed to support our infrastructure and required services. His [Grimes'] comments speak to his glaring lack of leadership experience in managing a workforce. Laying people off is not the answer."

Carr stated that she is continuing to review revised estimates for either a remodeled police headquarters at 63 Silvermine Road or a new facility. The current headquarters opened in 1984 and reportedly is not in compliance with federal standards.

She has said it would be difficult to meet Grimes's timetable of putting the plans for a new facility on the referendum ballot in November 2024. She also has noted that the town's debt service won't decline much until 2026 when the renovations to Brookfield High School, which were approved in 2003, are fully paid.

Grimes has said that the candidates for first selectman in 2017 both endorsed new police facilities, yet six years later no plan has been presented to the voters.

He said that state and federal funds would be "very valuable" in expanding the police facilities.

"I don't see how we could do that on local taxpayer funds alone," remarked Grimes.

Carr stated that "it is realistic to obtain state/federal funding just as other towns do, but often times the grants require the municipality to provide some sort of match."

Democratic nominee Steve Dunn, who was first selectman from 2015 to 2021, recently said that there will likely be pressure in the coming years by the state and federal governments to construct sewers in Candlewood Shores. He said that he opposes that step unless the state and federal governments pay for a majority of the costs. He commented that he was "hoping" that money from the 2021 federal infrastructure plan would be available.

Carr stated that, "It seems unlikely that the state or federal government would impose sewers at Candlewood Shores. The lake has not been deemed contaminated by potentially failing septic systems, many residents on the peninsula are against sewers, and there is nowhere to send the flow even if sewers were financially attainable."

Grimes insisted in an interview with Patch.com that the number of failed septic systems in Candlewood Shores are "not many, and are varied."

"There are ways to fix that without imposing sewers in the shores," he declared.

In August, Carr told Patch.com that Brookfield should consider adopting a town manger form of government. In 2012 Democratic former First Selectman Bill Davidson endorsed a proposed charter revision to adopt a town manager system. It was soundly rejected when placed on the November presidential ballot as a referendum question.

Carr said, “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.”

Grimes has said throughout the campaign that he wants to retain the Board of Selectmen/Town Meeting form of government, and recently distributed a campaign flier criticizing Carr's comments. He has pointed to the 72 percent of the voters who rejected the proposed town manager system 11 years ago.

On another topic, Carr stated that she took exception with a statement in a flier distributed by Grimes' campaign that "stop signs appeared in town hall restricting taxpayer access to the entire second floor, including the first selectman's office."

She wrote that, "The stop signs have been down for quite some time. Mr. Grimes would know that if he came by town hall more often. They were a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of municipal town workers as there several occasions where vagrants had come in and created a disturbance to which the police had been called."

Carr added, "Additionally, around that time You Tubers were entering municipal buildings and creating disturbances within our county, so for an abundance of caution and to protect the workforce, those signs were posted. Any work force protection measures are meant to be fluid and adjust with the environment and information provided through official channels. The signs at that time were not a deterrent to the multitude of townspeople who entered Town Hall and never hindered our ability to provide top rate service to our residents."

She continued, "As First Selectwoman, I am by Charter, responsible for the care and operation of all buildings so these measures were used to address the working environment of that period to keep the workforce safe."

Grimes, who was a volunteer on Murphy's victorious primary campaign in 2003, said that the engagement of voters has changed since then.

He said that in 2003 there was more reliance on news coverage. He commented that today there is greater emphasis on direct mail, social media, canvassing neighborhoods and the daily contact with voters at supermarkets and restaurants.

Resources:

E-mail interview with Tara Carr, Patch.com, on Sunday, September 10, 2023.

Interview with Matt Grimes, Patch.com, on Sunday, September 10, 2023.

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