Opinion: 'In the Face of This Adversity, the Tinsley-Flynn Administration and the Board of Finance Have Stood Tall'

Editor’s note: Brookfield Patch will accept letters to the editor on behalf of political candidates through Wednesday, Oct. 28. Email your letter to wendy.mitchell@patch.com.

Where I Stand – by Ernie Nepomuceno

Having been an appointed as well as elected into office for nearly two decades, I am very grateful for all of the opportunities the people of Brookfield have given me to serve as an Inland-Wetlands Commission Chairman and subsequently Chairman of the Board of Finance for 8 years.

The Democrats candidate for First Selectman, Steve Dunn, says (Brookfield Patch, 6/29/15) that Brookfield Democrats aren’t about taxing and spending. However, the people of Brookfield need to know the facts.

For the last several years, on every one of the major issues that would negatively impact the taxpayers of Brookfield, Steve Dunn – standing in the shadow of Howard Lasser – has been more wrong, more weak, and more opposed to the majority of Brookfield than almost any other candidate for office today.

The 2014 Charter Revision, that Dunn and Lasser opposed, gave the people of Brookfield the right enjoyed by over 70 other Connecticut towns – the right to automatically vote on separate town and school budgets. The Four Corners development, that just two months ago Steve Dunn advocated shutting down with restrictive moratoriums, has been building Brookfield’s tax base and placed us in the front of all Danbury-area towns in grand list growth.

Dunn and Lasser have opposed all efforts by the current Boards of Selectmen and Finance to ensure that our citizens had no property tax increase. Together, they opposed the forensic audit that exposed the embezzlement by school administrators.

You might wonder what Steve Dunn and the Brookfield Democrats are for. Let me tell you.

• They are for rubber-stamping blanket increases to the school budget – including the six percent proposed this year – and handing taxpayers the bill.
• They were for taking away the rights of the voters to elect the person running town hall by replacing the First Selectman with a hired out-of-town manager.
• They were for increasing the size of the Board of Selectmen and allowing a Town Meeting mob to increase property taxes beyond the level of the Board of Finance.
• They were for sweeping the $1.2 Million overspending of the school budget under the rug – immediately blaming the auditors and dismissing it as though it were no big deal.
• They were for sending Howard Lasser to Hartford to support Dan Malloy and his destructive agenda of crippling Connecticut’s economy and increasing the tax burden.

In their contrived way of thinking, today’s Democratic leaders see Brookfield as a problem. Their answer to solving it comes only with increasing doses of government control and higher taxes, and to vehemently attack ANYONE who dares to disagree one iota with them – many times doing it behind cowardly, anonymous blogs. Worse, they shroud their obsession with caring about children.

In the face of this adversity, the Tinsley-Flynn administration and the Board of Finance have stood tall. Working together, we have accomplished significant growth for Brookfield - cleaning up the mess created by the $1.2 Million overspending of the school budget resulting in the depletion of the fund balance, a budget that passed overwhelmingly on the first vote, a meaningful Charter Revision to permanently bifurcate our budget referendum, and saving another $1.1 million by refinancing our town’s long term debt. The list could go on and on and on.

Yes, Bill Tinsley - working with our Boards of Selectman and Finance and land use Commissions – has STOOD TALL and delivered Brookfield exactly the government that was promised to them. As an elected official, I am proud to stand tall with him.