Dunn says fiscal management has given Brookfield AAA bond rating

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – First Selectman Steve Dunn, who was presented with a previously unannounced $3.3 million revenue gap on his first day on the job nearly three years ago, has rebounded from that setback and helped the town post an accomplishment worthy of being invited to ring the closing bell on Wall Street.

Brookfield had a meager 1.9 percent fund balance after Dunn was informed on December 7, 2015 that there was a $3.3 million loss in the town’s cash reserve, a problem so serious that Bill Tinsley, his immediate predecessor, had unsuccessfully sought an FBI investigation, according to The News-Times of Danbury.

The town’s bond rating, which Fitch had upgraded to AAA – the highest level possible – in the fall 2013 - near the end of former Democratic First Selectman Bill Davidson’s tenure - was downgraded to AA2 just months after Dunn took office.

That was where it had been from mid-1997 to 2010, when it was boosted to AA1. Starting in the late 1990s at the urging of former long-time Town Treasurer David Scribner, the town sought to maintain at least a 7-percent fund balance annually. It quickly garnered three bond rating upgrades through 1996 and 1997. Since being elected, Dunn has called for at least a 10-percent fund balance.

Dunn, a Democrat, said in an interview that as a result of what Standard & Poor’s has called “strong management,” the town, which had a 10.5 percent fund balance as of June 30, now is at AAA, a coveted rating that is usually held by about 15 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities.

He said that was partly accomplished through a “hiring freeze” and greater care in spending. For example, since taking office, Dunn has required more information on quotes for purchases and a summary where each check has gone.

The first selectman, who is a former vice president at J.P. Morgan Chase, said, “That’s [the AAA bond rating] going to help when we go out and borrow money – especially if we bond money for the schools.”

Dunn said he anticipates that there will be a town meeting in January and a referendum in March on a $78 million package to build a new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School on the same parcel where the current school is located on Candlewood Lake Road.

He said through expected state reimbursement money, the impact on municipal spending would likely be about $63 million.

A Board of Education panel recommended the plan, which was recently approved by the three-member Board of Selectman.

Dunn acknowledged that the proposed construction of a new school “goes against what we’ve done in the past.”

James Chittum - who was an educator in the district for 35 years, including serving as superintendent of schools from 1998 to 2003 - has said that Brookfield for years has opted to renovate existing schools instead of building new facilities.

Since 1996, major renovations have been conducted on Center Elementary School (CES), which has students from pre-kindergarten through first grade; Whisconier Middle School (WMS), which enrolls fifth through eighth-graders; and Brookfield High School (BHS), which has classes from ninth through 12th grade.

Dunn said often the projects have been more expensive than originally projected, and school and municipal officials have had to seek subsequent appropriations from voters. Also, to reduce costs architects have value-engineered the designs to the point where they don’t match what was initially approved.

About 60 percent of the costs for the $32.7 million renovation of BHS, which was completed in 2009, were used to upgrade the building to current construction codes.

“Everybody I’ve spoken to has said that we have to do something,” Dunn said of the need to renovate HHES, which is 57 years old.

The proposed new school would house students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Dunn said that would allow CES to be utilized for other non-education purposes and that with a larger building on the HHES site, would make it possible to move the fifth-graders from WMS, where they have been since the early-1990s, to a more appropriate environment at an elementary school.

Former Superintendent of Schools John Goetz said shortly before his retirement in 2007 that he through the district at some point should move the fifth grade classes out of WMS, since those students are usually more comfortable in an elementary school.

“I think there will be some questions about renovate versus new,” Dunn said regarding the forthcoming discussion as the proposal goes to the voters.

However, he said the town would “get 75 to 80 percent of what you would get from the new building” if HHES was instead renovated.

Dunn said construction of the new building could be completed by 2022 without interrupting classes at the current HHES.

He said no definitive plans have been made for CES but that library officials have indicated that if the building becomes vacant it could move their operations from the current library on Whisconier Road that was built in 1975. The first selectman added that Parks & Recreation officials also wanted to utilize the two basketball courts, which would mean that CES - which is the only wooden school left in Connecticut - might become a mixed-use facility.

Dunn said more detailed plans would be developed after voters have approved the funding for the new HHES.

Last February voters rejected a proposed new $35 million library that would have been built near the horse statutes at the Municipal Center.

On another topic, the first selectman said municipal operations are about “95 percent recovered” from the Macroburst of May 15 that devastated every road in Brookfield.

He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “denied individual assistance” to Brookfield residents but the federal government has made low-interest loans available.

He said the municipal government is applying for relief funds.

“The amount of detail FEMA is looking for is unbelievable,” said Dunn.

“There are a lot of people with trees down on their lawn without insurance,” the first selectman said.

Once the town is granted assistance from FEMA, he said that he wants to have them bring their debris to the right of way and have public works crews pick it up for disposal. Laws prohibit the municipal government from going onto residents’ properties to get debris.

On another subject, Dunn said the next set of street scape is in design review for the 198-acre Town Center of Brookfield, which is emerging into becoming the town’s long-awaited New England-style central business district next the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road.

He said construction should be completed next spring on that section, which will extend on both sides of Federal Road to near the former Hearth restaurant.

He said he is in discussions with a developer about providing 160 public parking spaces in the Town Center of Brookfield at no cost to taxpayers. The lack of public parking has been a concern since businesses have complained about residents using parking spaces so they can utilize the nearby Still River Greenway.

Regarding the state’s fiscal crisis, Dunn said state officials “always overestimate the revenues” in what is “one of the highest taxed states in the nation.”

He said departing Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) has taken “a step in the right direction” in increasing the payments into the pension fund for the state employees.

However, Dunn noted that the state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness reported March 1 that that pension system was only 29 percent funded.

“Connecticut could go under if we continue on this path,” said the first selectman.

CT Hearst columnist Dan Haar has reported that the state faces a projected $2 billion budget deficit for the two-year cycle that will start July 1.

Nationally, he said he expects the economy to continue to boom at least in the short term.

Unemployment is at 3.7 percent, the lowest it has been in 50 years. The nation is on a course that by next year the economic expansion under former Democratic President Barack Obama and current Republican President Donald Trump would become the longest in American history.

However, Dunn said he is concerned about the lack of “middle income wage growth.”

He added that the federal budget deficit has grown by 17 percent since Trump took office, largely due to the $1.5 trillion tax reform that he signed late last year.

Additionally, Dunn noted that the Federal Reserve Board has increased interest rates three times in the last year apparently because of fears of possible inflation.

He said it’s possible that the higher interest rates won’t be able to ward off rising inflation and at the very least, if that formula does work, the higher costs of borrowing will slow economic growth.