Dunn reinstates mask mandate as COVID-19 cases increase

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – First Selectman Steve Dunn laments that there has not been “a coordinated response” from the state on mandating masks in indoor public venues following a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases over the last three weeks.

With Brookfield in the Orange Zone apparently largely due to the Delta Variant, he announced on Friday, August 13, that starting on Monday, August 16, the town is joining five other municipalities in the metro Danbury area in requiring masks at the indoor venues. The town over the recent weeks had required masks at municipal buildings.

In a news release, Dunn stated that as of Thursday, August 12, Brookfield had 29 cases over the previous two weeks.

The town is joining New Fairfield, Bethel, Danbury, Redding and Ridgefield in mandating the masks. The mandate will not include private residences, work spaces not accessible to the general public, indoor dining when seated at the table and outdoor dining.

Dunn stated in the news release that “all indicators show that” rates will “likely continue to rise.”

In a Tuesday, August 10, interview with Patch.com Dunn said he disagreed with Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D-Greenwich) Thursday, August 5, executive order to give municipalities the power to require masks be used at indoor venues instead of issuing a state mandate in response to the recent surge in cases.

“We do not have a coordinated response [from the state],” Dunn complained. “If I put a mask requirement in and one of the surrounding towns does not, how does that help? Everyone has to do it, or no one has to do it.”

He said the surge in Connecticut recently is almost all due to the Delta Variant. “It seems to make people sicker, faster.”

Dunn added that, “There are plenty of unvaccinated people out there that need to get vaccinated." They are “putting other people at risk.”

Overall, Dunn has praised Lamont’s response to the pandemic since it surfaced in March 2020.

Earlier this summer, the Board of Selectmen appointed a 10-member committee to make recommendations on how to utilize the town’s $4.967 million share of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act that President Joe Biden signed this spring.

Dunn said the town received a 152-page report form the U.S. Treasury on the parameters of how the money can be used. He said the recommendations will probably be distributed early next year and he anticipates that they will largely address issues related to students, parents and businesses.

On another subject, he has “every expectation” that there will be approval for the town’s recent request for an extension of 8-30g affordable housing moratorium that was initially granted by the state in 2017. Affordable housing has been a high profile issue in Brookfield, which is the 29th wealthiest municipality in Connecticut.

Under the moratorium, the town would be exempt from a state statute that allows developers to bypass local zoning regulations if they build affordable housing.

Dunn said, “It [affordable housing] should be on Federal Road and it cannot be more than 20 percent of the project. It has to make sense and be keeping in the character of Brookfield.”

Dunn’s Republican challengers for first selectman in both 2017 and 2019 indicated they wanted to take a harder line on restricting the lower-priced units.

Dunn said the reason he believes the extension will be granted is “because we have increased our affordable housing stock” over the last four years.

On a separate topic, Dunn said he would “love” for Brookfield to build a skate park, which has been proposed by a corps of town residents.

He said that pre-school and primary school students flock to the Kids Kingdom playground behind the town hall, which was initially built by local residents in 1989 and then updated in 2011. There are recreation summer camps at Cadigan Park and at Whisconier Middle School.

Remarked Dunn, “There is not much to do for 12 to 17 year olds.” He noted that the BMX bicycle Super cross Track at Mitchell Park in Bethel is popular in that town.

Former New Milford Mayor Pat Murphy told The Housatonic Times in 2009 that her town’s skate park was controversial when it was proposed but not only was it frequently in use, but some youngsters personally thanked her for establishing it.

Dunn related, “30 years ago it was considered to be a fringe element. But now it is a mainstream sport that is part of the Olympics.”

However, Dunn cautioned that a proposal in 2012 during former Democratic First Selectman Bill Davidson’s administration to build a dog park at the Happy Landings open space was defeated at referendum.

“The question becomes how do you pay for it and where do you put it,” the first selectman said.

However, despite potential obstacles, he said a skate park could be in the budget for the next fiscal year.

Dunn said he also wants to upgrade existing tennis courts and build additional courts.

“However, it is hard to increase,” he said. “Tennis courts are not cheap.”

Dunn, a former vice president at J.P Morgan Chase, expressed pride in the municipal fiscal profile, which included a $1.1 million budget surplus for the fiscal year that ended in June.

Brookfield has an AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s, based partly on a 13.6 percent fund balance. It was at 1.9 percent when Dunn took office in December 2015 and stood around 10 percent just two years ago.

The municipal pensions are 123 percent funded, a level that Dunn described as “very unusual.”

We have an “incredibly competent advisory committee,” Dunn remarked of the eight-member Retirement Benefits Advisory Committee that he sits on and is chaired by Michael Matson of Matson Financial Advisors, which is based in Danbury.

On a separate topic, Dunn said he is encouraged that the state not only fully funded its employee pensions for the most recent two-year fiscal cycle but paid down $1.5 billion toward the debt that has accumulated over generations.

A Wall Street Journal editorial stated last November that, according to Fitch Ratings, Connecticut had the second worst funded employee pensions in the country. The 2018 report from the state Commission on Fiscal Stability & Economic Competitiveness indicated that the pensions were only 29 percent funded.

Various sources through the recent years have said the pension and health care liabilities are the biggest threat to Connecticut.

Perhaps it is surprising that there hasn’t been more grass roots outrage.

There were rallies held in 2019 across the state to protest Lamont’s proposal for highway tolls to fund infrastructure improvements. On consecutive days in July of this year as the pandemic rules were easing, there were rallies protesting extending the governor’s executive authority and the next day regarding Lamont’s hard line on employee pay increases.

There are 3.6 million people in Connecticut. There are 187 state legislators.

Why hasn’t one citizen or one legislator organized a rally to further address the state’s massive pension debt, which is probably the most pressing problem in Connecticut?

Dunn remarked, “Most people don’t look at it the way I look at it and the way most first selectmen look at it. We see that the obligation has continued to grow. You are putting it on your children and grandchildren and it could take your entire state down if you don’t address it.”

Do taxes need to be increased on the wealthy? Should taxes be increased across the board? Do the state employee collective bargaining units need to make further concessions, even though a report from a consultant to the state Office of Policy & Management, the governor’s budget arm, has stated that they are on track to save the state $24 billion between 2017 and 2037?

Should the state take some legal action to make the pension payments more manageable?

Dunn said he opposes each of those proposals.

“We are so far behind,” he conceded. “But if they keep putting some surplus money towards those obligations, at some point you get to good funding.”

“They are making some good first steps in addressing it,” he said of the recent payment toward retiring part of the obligation. “They’re not ignoring it.”

Regarding traffic congestion, Dunn said the state plans to start next spring reconfiguring the intersection near Old New Milford Road and Federal Road. He said the rerouting of the vehicles will alleviate a traffic hazard as cars enter and exit the area at odd angles. He said preliminary work is already under way on the project.

Regarding the November 2 municipal elections, in nearby Bethel, New Fairfield and Newtown, the incumbent first selectman is not facing major party opposition.

In contrast, in Brookfield, for the first time since 2009, it will be a three-way race with Dunn, a Democrat who is seeking a fourth term, facing Republican Tara Carr, a U.S. Army veteran, and petitioning candidate Austin Monteiro, a commercial real estate agent.

Dunn defeated Republican Mel Butow with about 56 percent of the vote in 2019.

As of last October, the electorate had 42.67 percent unaffiliated voters, 30.93 Republicans, 24.66 percent Democrats and 1.94 percent minor parties.

The Republican Party captured the first selectman’s office in every campaign from 1987 through 2005, but has prevailed only once since then.

Dunn will again be joined on the Democratic ticket by Selectman Sue Slater, who works for Matson Financial Advisors in Danbury.

“She is an incredibly valuable asset,” Dunn said of Slater. They have served together on the three-member Board of Selectmen since December 2015.

Added Dunn, “She is incredibly intelligent and she does her homework. She knows the town inside out.”

He said they will be canvassing neighborhoods, holding house party meet and greet events and posting lawn signs over the coming weeks.

He said in a June 2015 interview with Brookfield Patch, when he was seeking his first term, that although the Democrats trail the unaffiliated voters and Republicans in registration there are a lot of “persuadable voters” in Brookfield. Following the 2015 election he estimated that “500 to 600 Republicans” had voted for him.

Dunn said there continue to be a large number of persuadable voters, noting that the town has been adding population since the pandemic – it grew by 6.5 percent during the 2010s - and the unaffiliated voters – particularly the Millennials – often lack a strong allegiance toward either major party.

“They want their town run well,” he remarked. “They don’t care about the party affiliation.”

Dunn said he has been “fiscally conservative” by keeping “taxes low” and has encouraged reasonable economic development, including the streetscape project that is emerging through the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center near the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road.

He said that a number of residents have had contact with his office during the 2018 Macro burst and the recent pandemic and many of them are paying “more attention” to municipal government.