Dunn inaugurated for third time as town government leader

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Congress couldn’t agree on the time of day even before the Trump impeachment hearings and in the General Assembly it appears Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D-Greenwich) truck-only toll plan is headed to a strictly party-line vote in both chambers.

However, Brookfield Democratic First Selectman Steve Dunn says even though the town went through “some strife” under his predecessor, Republican Bill Tinsley, there is considerable bipartisanship on municipal issues.

“If you treat people fairly you’ll get success,” he said in an interview on Saturday, November 30, after being sworn in to a third term in the Center Elementary School gymnasium.

“I think people want to work together,” added Dunn, who has lived in Brookfield since 1983.

Former New Fairfield First Selectman Cheryl Reedy said in a 2000 interview that one of the prime functions of a first selectman was to get volunteers on boards and commissions to function effectively.

State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, who, along with Dunn, gave the closing remarks during the 27-minute ceremony, said the tenor of the municipal government is different now than when he was initially elected to the General Assembly in February 2015.

“It seems that from the first selectman on down it really isn’t about party on the votes and the discussions,” Harding (R-107), who formerly served on the Brookfield Board of Education, said in an interview.

Both Harding and Dunn have said that although they are in different political parties they have forged a strong rapport over the last four years.

Said Dunn, “I think on the local level, 80 percent of the people agree on the issues. In some instances there may be different paths toward getting the results.”

Niche.com, the consumer ratings services, earlier this year gave Brookfield an overall grade of A-minus.

About 23 years ago, Dunn and his family embarked on a campaign to renovate Brookfield High School’s dilapidated all-weather track.

His wife, Cassie, was coaching the girls’ cross country and track & field programs while he was commuting daily to Wall Street for his position as an executive with J.P. Morgan Chase, which currently ranks 18^th on the Fortune 500 list.

They sought donors and created a Mother’s Day 5-kilometer road race that has gone on continuously since 1997 to ensure there would be funds to continue to repair the track.

The track, which initially opened in 1974, had been the regular site for the Daniel O’Grady Relays, named after the legendary former Danbury High School coach, each April through 1988, but was in disrepair by the mid-1990s. It was refurbished in 1997.

Bonnie Smith, the Republican First Selectman at the time, successfully sought support for some taxpayer funds to be used to build the track. She said if some residents could take the initiative to raise money to restore a public property, the town could assist them in that effort. A list of the major contributors is engraved on a display attached to a stone on a hillside overlooking the track.

Now a generation later, Dunn, who retired from Wall Street six years ago, has become the only first selectman since Smith, who was defeated in 1999, to be elected to at least a third term.

Smith held the office for six terms, which reportedly is in a tie for the longest service in Brookfield’s history.

During Smith’s tenure, there were instances when the Democrats didn’t field a candidate for the town’s top elected position.

Now, the party’s nominee for first selectman has scored victories in five of the last six municipal elections.

Dunn garnered more than 56 percent of the vote November 5 to defeat Economic Development Commission member Mel Butow, the Republican nominee, who was among the 120 people to attend the inauguration.

The ceremony included performances from the Brookfield High School chamber singers, a presentation of the colors by the Brookfield Police Department and a rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance by the Brookfield Youth Commission.

The Rev. Bryn Smallwood-Garcia delivered the invocation.

Town Clerk Andrea DiStephan, who was elected to a second term this fall, swore in the newly-elected and re-elected municipal officials:

Board of Selectmen: Harry Shaker and Sue Slater; Town Treasurer: John Lucas.

Also, Board of Education: Robert Belden, Amy Foster, Debbie Brooks and Michael Murphy. Board of Finance: Sean Hathorn, Mark Mulvaney and Brianna Ruocco.

And, Zoning Board of Appeals: Robert Marconi and Lisa Temple; Zoning Commission: Mary Cappiello, Chris Delia and Leslie Reagan; Planning Commission: Renee Santiago and Jon Van Hise ; Board of Assessment Appeals: Jeff Bronin and Julie Kerton.

Dunn campaigned primarily on his record of attracting Branson Ultrasonics to the Berkshire Corporate Park, where they should be operating by next summer; the approval of the $78.1 million Huckleberry Hill Elementary School at referendum last March; the continued development of the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center; and his efforts to build the town’s fund balance to more than 11 percent.

He also said he would continue to be committed to limit affordable housing to the Federal Road area.

Dunn said he believes that the state Department of Administrative Services (DAS) will give an “initial” approval during December to the HHES project. $63.3 million in local taxpayer commitment.

He said he expects the state Bond Commission to approve the package next spring, and that the state reimbursement money will lower the local taxpayer cost to $66.3 million. Dunn said that following the review of the education specifications by the architects, construction will likely commence in spring 2021.

CT Mirror reported in November that Lamont wants to move the review of the school construction from the DAS to the state Office of Policy & Management (OPM), the governor’s budget arm.

It appears highly unlikely that the governor’s proposal would have impact on the HHES package. But municipal officials have said that some years from now renovations will need to be made to Whisconier Middle School.

“As long as it’s open and fair and direct, it’s fine,” said Dunn. “But I don’t think the Legislature is going to agree with him” on moving the functions into OPM.

Harding said, “I think I would have reservations about moving it to OPM. I think DAS has done a reasonably god job. It has a rapport with the towns.”

“If it happens, I don’t think that it would happen for a while,” the state representative continued.

CT Mirror reported that state Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven) has called Lamont’s proposal a “power grab.”

On another topic, Harding and Dunn both said they oppose the revised plan by Lamont and the state House Democrats for truck-only tolls in 12 locations that would reportedly annually generate an estimated $180 million toward transportation infrastructure improvements.

“I have serious concerns about the truck-only tolls.” Harding said. “I understand the concept. To me, it all comes down to trust and whether you trust the state government to only toll trucks.”

“Residents have said they’re concerned that once the gantries go up that they will be eventually used also for cars,” added the state representative.

Dunn said, “You need to put the money from the truck tolls in a lockbox, and I don’t think that would happen.”

“The money from the state lottery [which was established in 1972] was supposed to go exclusively to education, and it hasn’t,” he exclaimed.

What is his plan for funding the transportation improvements, which according to a 2015 study from a state commission are long overdue?

Dunn said, “Cut expenses” in other areas of the budget.

The first selectman has maintained for years that Connecticut has a spending problem and that state officials also usually overestimate the revenue projections.

Dunn acknowledged that the current proposal “probably” would be the most ambitious transportation infrastructure program since the package signed by former Gov. William O’Neill (D-East Hampton) following the 1983 collapse of the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich.

The proposal from Lamont and the House Democrats is similar to the one approved in Rhode Island in 2016 for truck-only tolls.

The Associated Press has reported that the trucking industry, Cumberland Farms and other businesses submitted a legal challenge in Rhode Island that tolling only trucks was unconstitutional. That case was dismissed this last March because the federal judge ruled that the decision should be made in a state court.

The trucking industry has now taken the case to state court.

The Associated Press has reported that at the time of the federal judge’s decision in the Rhode Island case, Maribel La Luz, Lamont’s communications director at that time, said that trucks-only tolling would provide obstacles since “the road to resolution of this [Rhode Island] case will be long and winding.”

At that point, Lamont was seeking to install 50 gantries and toll all vehicles, with some discounts. He had said an estimated 40 percent of the revenue would come from out of state motorists. The governor’s plan never was voted on because of lack of support from enough state Senate Democrats.

His more recent proposal to establish 14 gantries and toll all vehicles was swiftly rejected by the state Senate Democrats.

Harding said the possibility of the plan being overturned in court “is a concern.”

“It is my understanding that it is unconstitutional to only toll trucks,” he explained.

Added Harding, “Obviously, if it is confirmed that it is unconstitutional, then it would put a huge challenge on us.”