Politics & Government
Grimes pledges to submit full slate of Republican hopefuls
First selectman contender says Brookfield has a solid fiscal portfolio and can either expand police headquarters or build a new facility
By Scott Benjamin
BROOKFIELD – The frat guys say if you want to attract a crowd you put a keg of beer on the quad.
To attract a crowd for a campaign kick-off you hold it at a restaurant that has been serving pizza longer than Matt Grimes has been in Brookfield.
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Sixty-eight people on March 16 at John’s Best on Federal Road. Grimes is standing at the podium with his family as he announces in a stentorian voice that he is running for first selectman.
Grimes makes reference to Mister Rogers Neighborhood before the first applause. This definitely isn’t a frat party.
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He proudly announces that he is the first Brookfield High School (BHS) graduate to ever seek that office. He was class BHS senior class president 26 years ago when he also was campaign manager for his grandfather, Fred Standt, as he sought the Republican nomination for first selectman. Standt won the caucus in July about a month before Grimes left for college. However, he then lost in the primary and general election.
Grimes notes that he also was the first BHS alum to serve on and then chair the Brookfield Board of Education.
The town currently has a Republican first selectman in Tara Carr, who just 16 months ago scored the most impressive victory for the GOP in Brookfield since 2005.
However, Grimes says he is assembling Team Brookfield. He has Mary Borges, a candidate for town clerk, and pledges to have a full slate of candidates for the municipal offices by March 31, and will present them to the Republican Town Committee’s (RTC) Vacancy Committee this spring and at the caucus in July.
Grimes commented that Team Brookfield would be canvassing neighborhoods later this spring.
In an e-mail message to Patch.com, Brookfield Republican Town Committee Chairman George Blass stated, “the RTC has a process that is followed in the selection of candidates. That will start with a public notice being placed in the News -Times. All registered Republicans that are seeking to serve on a town board or commission, will have equal opportunity and are encouraged to apply to our Vacancy Committee.
“Just to be clear Mr. Grimes does not get to pick 'his' slate. That is the job of the Vacancy Committee and the voting members of the BRTC," he added.
Some sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they could be candid, said they anticipate there will be limited reception from the Republican Town Committee’s Vacancy Committee to Grimes’ candidacy.
However, former Board of Finance Chairman Rob Gianazza, former Zoning Commission Chairman Stanley Parker and current Board of Education Chairman Bob Belden attended the kick-off.
Could it be 20 years since Belden and Gianazza entered municipal government on the Republicans United For Brookfield challenge slate headed by Jerry Murphy, who would go on to serve two terms as first selectman?
Grimes says he’s recruiting some new people who he thinks might have similar lasting careers on the town’s boards and commissions.
However, isn’t it more difficult when you have to run against an incumbent in your own party?
“We don’t even know if she is running,” said former Brookfield Zoning Commission Chairman Erik Kukk, an attorney, who introduced Grimes to the crowd.
Carr, a 25-year Army veteran, presented an ambitious campaign two years ago, knocking on doors, hosting restaurant parties and posting large signs that stated, “It’s Time For Tara.” She prevailed by 218 votes.
Regarding Grimes’ entry into the race, she wrote in a March 7 e-mail statement to Patch.com: “Our political system in this great country, from federal to local elections, is all about choice and opportunity. Mr. Grimes, like any other active Brookfield Republican, is within his right to seek the opportunity to receive his party’s nomination for any elected office, just like I did a year and a half ago. The choice, obviously will lie with the voters for the person they feel is best suited to be (or remain?) at the helm, guiding our wonderful town.”
But what if she does run for a second term?
“Both of them have pros,” Kukk replied. “They both have cons. I just think Matt has more pros for the town. He’s been part of the town’s politics since he graduated high school.”
Grimes has managed campaigns, served on municipal boards and commissions. He was the point person on the Board of Education 20 years ago this spring when the Brookfield High School renovation project was approved. He appeared for a fraction of a second in a 2006 M. Jodi Rell gubernatorial campaign commercial. He was photographed standing near former Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton as the delegates went through multiple ballots at the 2018 Republican state convention for the gubernatorial nomination. He has been there and done that.
He had a stint as the town attorney in New Milford and became a Certified Connecticut Municipal Official.
Grimes told Patch.com that he will take his campaign to the party caucus in July and likely would continue to a primary in September, if that is needed.
On the condition of anonymity so that they could speak candidly, some local Republicans have said that although Grimes is well-versed on the issues and an energetic campaigner, he is too brash- although they emphasized that they have seen improvement recently in that department.
However, through the years, for example, Grimes has contacted reporters to inquire about them writing stories on people who in some cases he had been on the opposite side of in a campaign. When he graduated from BHS he provided a reporter with a list of the presidents of the junior, sophomore and freshman classes so that they would get coverage.
What about the tension between Grimes, when he was Board of Education chairman, and some parents who objected to the quality of the asbestos monitoring in the schools, which had been closed during the summer of 2002 due to the high levels that were reported?
Grimes indicated that he has moved forward and holds no ill will.
When he was Brookfield Republican Town Committee chairman in 2015, Grimes and Tom Dunkerton, then the Republican Registrar of Voters, utilized what The News-Times of Danbury has described as a “rarely-used state statute” and removed resident Jane Miller from the GOP voting roll, “because they said her unsuccessful run for the Board of Finance in 2013, as an unaffiliated candidate endorsed by the Democrats, meant she was not loyal to the party.”
The Hartford Courant has reported that, "A judge dismissed Miller’s federal lawsuit in March 2017, saying her constitutional rights hadn’t been violated."
“It was a decision that the law required,” said Grimes in a recent interview with Patch.com regarding the actions taken regarding Miller. “Do I regret that it produced bad publicity? Yes, I do. But I could not thumb my nose at a Connecticut General Statute.”
On a separate topic, Grimes said Brookfield’s fiscal house is in order.
Town Treasurer John Lucas, a Democrat, stated in an e-mail message to Patch.com that as of the end of the last fiscal year in June 2022 the town had an AAA bond rating – the highest possible – from Standard & Poor’s. The pensions are 98.54 percent funded. Officials through the years have said that 80 percent is a gold standard. The fund balance is at 15.58 percent. That percentage has grown steadily over the recent years. Lucas stated that the rating agencies have set 15 to 18 percent fund balance as their metric.
Grimes has underlined the need to build a new or renovated police headquarters. He commented that the current facility, which opened in 1984, is outdated.
He noted that the town is spending $78.1 million on the Candlewood Lake Elementary School (CLES), which should open within months. In 2018, voters overwhelmingly rejected building a new $14.77 million library at the Municipal Center on Federal Road.
Grimes contends that consideration of expanding the police headquarters is overdue, partly because of the increase in ambulance calls as a result of Brookfield’s aging population.
“We’re in a prime position to build a new police station or renovate the current one,” he remarked.
Both Carr and her immediate predecessor, Democrat Steve Dunn, have said there is a need for at least expanding the current facility but it would have to be done in consideration to the bond costs associated with the debt service on the 2003 BHS project and the costs related to building CLES.
Lucas wrote in an e-mail message to Patch.com, “My only comment on that would be that the Board of Finance and the Selectmen with the advice of the Capital Committee, are reviewing that project as well as multiple others, assessing needs, and determining how to fit that long term plan into best practices for intelligent debt management.”
However, looking to the future, CT Mirror has reported that many towns in the state are experiencing surging pensions costs.
“The system is broken. It needs to be fixed,” said Betsy Gara, executive director of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, who warned that rising costs ultimately will take a toll on municipal staffing levels. “If you can’t rein in the costs, towns are going to have to look at cutting back on personnel.”
Is that a potential stumbling block in Brookfield?
“I don’t believe so,” said Grimes. “I don’t think that we’re in a position of changing that anytime soon. I don’t see any neon light flashing.”
On another subject, he said that he supports the recommendation from the current Charter Revision Commission, chaired by Gianazza, to merge the Planning and Zoning commissions.
Grimes said that Brookfield is one of about 20 municipalities that has separate Planning and Zoning commissions.
After the house photographer takes pictures of Grimes with many of his supporters, he says that the campaign is “very comfortable” with its early fund-raising.
At least for one night, all is well among the simple hand puppets, inhabitants of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, in Mister Rogers Neighborhood.
However, the unidentified pollsters - the ones who live one floor below the unnamed online campaign communications consultants - say that to win, Grimes will also need support from Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Green Jeans and Bunny Rabbit.
Resources:
Interview with Matt Grimes, Patch.com, March 8, 2023.
Interview with Matt Grimes, Patch.com March 16, 2023.
Interview with Erik Kukk, Patch.com, March 16, 2023.
https://www.newstimes.com/loca...
Tara Carr e-mail message to Patch.com, March 8, 2023.
George Blass e-mail message to Patch.com, March 17, 2023
John Lucas e-mail message to Patch.com, March 15, 2023.
John Lucas e-mail message to Patch.com, March 17, 2023.
