Dunn says Brookfield is taking steps forward

By Scott Benjamin

He left the high-stakes pressure of Wall Street three years ago and discovered that there are similarities in municipal government: multi-million budgets, financial upheavals, fund balances and bond ratings.
It’s still about keeping the clients happy. Except now he has almost 17,000 clients.
Democrat Steve Dunn says after nearly six months as Brookfield’s first selectman he’s proud that collaboration has become common practice and rancor is a word that is seldom heard.
He defeated first-term Republican incumbent Bill Tinsley by a two-to-one margin last November with a higher-than-usual turnout of more than 49 percent of the eligible voters.
But even with the Democratic landslide, the majorities on most of the municipal boards and commissions consist of a coalition of Republicans and A Brookfield Party members, who have run on more conservative platforms.
“The Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance and the Board of Education worked to cooperatively craft a budget that works for everybody,” Dunn said of the $63.5 million package that was easily approved earlier this month at referendum. It will increase taxes by 2.72 percent.
“We were able to make a case for what we wanted in the budget,” the retired vice president at J.P Morgan Chase said in an interview. “I think there have been five times when I’ve broken a 3-3 tie as the ex-officio member of the Board of Finance. I think that happens when you can make your case and there is a frank discussion of what we need and what we don’t need.”
Hundreds of residents were offended a year ago last winter when a petition to seek more funding for the schools was rejected on technical grounds. Some felt that Tinsley and his allies then went to extensive lengths last spring to keep the tax increase at zero to the detriment of the schools and town government services.
The day after U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich) formally administered the oath of office last December, Dunn was told that there was a $3.3 million budget gap from bonds on construction projects from 2000 to 2012 that were never sold. Earlier this month voters approved at referendum borrowing $1.9 million to help replenish part of the fund balance, which had dipped to 2.5 percent.
Dunn said, partly through savings in other line items, it would climb to 8 percent in the next year and hopefully to 10 percent within five years.
“You need to have 10 to 12 percent in the fund balance so you can take a hit and maintain your rating,” he said.
Dunn said since 2007 the rating agencies have been more strict about awarding and maintaining AAA ratings after their “reputations took a hit” after they made questionable decisions.
He said that he expects that next month the state and the town will resolve the pending reimbursements in question with the Brookfield High School renovation project that was approved in a 2003 referendum.
On a separate topic, he said that he is frustrated by a tattered state budget that has negative trickle-down impact on municipalities.
“Brookfield will be getting $123,000 less in municipal aid than we had been told,” he said. “I expect that will be the case next year and the year after. The state also has to stop sending down unfunded mandates. They do it all the time.”
Regarding Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford), who administered the oath of office to former Brookfield First Selectman Bill Davidson for his second term in 2011, Dunn said, “There has been much too much discussion of the budget in the newspapers instead of face to face discussion with the legislators. He needs to sit down with them and have a budget that works for everyone.”
“How many iterations have there been of the budget?” he said regarding the three major shortfalls that have occurred during the current fiscal year and the steps that were recently taken to resolve a projected shortfall of more than $900 million for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
“The state every year has taken a band-aid approach to addressing systemic problems, such as pensions,” Dunn lamented.
He noted that there are $32 billion in unfunded state employee pensions that are due by 2030.
“No one has said how you get there,” Dunn complained.
Regarding town commerce, for decades Brookfield has sought to develop the 198-acre Town District Center near the Four Corners of Federal Road into a pedestrian-friendly shopping district.
“We have a chance to build a new downtown. Not many towns in the United States get that opportunity,” Dunn said of the central business district, which was conceived by former Democratic First Selectman Ken Keller in the late 1980s and took a huge step toward becoming reality when the Route 7 bypass opened in 2009 and diverted much of traffic that had congested the Four Corners.
However, he believes there has been too much housing built in the Town Center District and too little retail.
Dunn said one developer told him that he didn’t want to build retail because Brookfield “doesn’t have a downtown.” Despite having little buildable land, the addition of water and sewer service throughout Federal Road has made it possible for high-density housing.
“It’s the chicken and the egg,” Dunn said regarding the challenge of building a retail area that would complement the big-box stores along the bustling southern corridor of Federal Road. “I don’t want just 1,200 apartments within a quarter of a mile. You need to also have retail.”
“My children go to the downtown of New Milford to meet their friends,” he said regarding the brisk business activity near the Village Green.
“That wasn’t happening in New Milford 10 years ago when and you didn’t have as many restaurants,” Dunn said. “We want it to become like that. We want it to become a destination location.”
He said he’s pleased that the Renaissance housing to be built near the Four Corners has been scaled down from the initial six-story proposal. He also said municipal officials and state Rep. Steve Harding (R-107) of Brookfield are committed to fighting the state Affordable Housing Appeals Act, which has a provision that can allow developers to circumvent Zoning Commission decisions.
“We still have a long, hard fight in getting it developed the way the residents want it developed,” Dunn said.
On another subject, Dunn said over the coming months, various school and municipal officials will discuss how to best address renovations to the Huckleberry Hill (HHES) and Center Elementary schools.
The first selectman said the topics will include the expensive costs associated with upgrading schools to conform to current building codes; declining enrollment in a district which is down about 400 students from a decade ago; and removing the outdated portable classrooms at HHES.
Dunn said he would prefer not closing a school, alluding to the friction that New Milford experienced from recently closing the venerable John Pettibone School.
“Schools are an emotional issue,” he said. “People are attached to them.”
“They [New Milford] made the decision and executed it in a very short period of time,” Dunn said.
“You need to get the input from all of the residents and get the entire plan communicated so that you can determine what the community wants,” the first selectman added. “We don’t just make a money decision. We make a community decision.”
Republican Thomas Meskill, who had a high profile in the 1960s an 1970s, reportedly said that although he was a congressman and then governor, the toughest job he ever had was being mayor of New Britain.
Dunn laughed at the anecdote.
“It can be very difficult because some people expect the first selectman to fix every problem they have,” he said. “But I do not turn away a phone call. Sometimes just acknowledging their frustration and just listening to them [is important] There has been only one person who has been extremely rude to me.”
Dunn said the nearly 50 percent turnout last November was considered excellent for a municipal election. Yet, Brookfield usually has at least a 90 percent turnout in the presidential years.
“It’s interesting, because you have direct control of how the money is spent by being able to vote in the budget referendum,” Dunn said. “Yet fewer people come out and vote than in the presidential elections.”