Philosopher Dunn says currently there are more questions than answers

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Before Steve Dunn became the permanent candidate of the local Democratic Party. . .

After all, it is expected that he will be the Democrat Caucus nominee for first selectman on Wednesday night, July 16, for a sixth consecutive municipal election.

Before he commuted daily from Brookfield to Wall Street – where he was a vice president for J.P. Morgan Chase. . .

Before all of that, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Manhattanville College.

According to the Washington Post, graduating senior Clary Doyle, a speaker at the 2025 Northwestern University commencement, said that she got her undergraduate degree in Philosophy, commenting that, “Philosophers are less concerned with finding the right answers and more concerned with asking the right questions.”

“That is absolutely correct,” remarked Dunn. “Philosophy as a subject of study is incredibly open. You wouldn’t think it is.”

“But you look at the great philosophers– the [Immanuel] Kants, the [Ludwig] Wittgensteins – they make you think about things in ways that you had not, and in thinking about things that way, it makes you think about asking questions that you would not have asked in the first place.”

“Are there answers to those questions?” he said, “Probably not. Or there may be six answers but not one correct answer. What philosophy does for a lot of people who study it is that it allows them to think of things in a different way and ask the right question.”

Dunn has said if he is elected to a fifth non-consecutive term as first selectman, the top priority will be getting proposals to referendum for expanded police facilities and then the use of the former Center Elementary School.

However, it appears that – in the name of Socarates – there are more questions than answers. Recently, he and other municipal officials added questions.

There are separate ad-hoc committees studying each project.

Dunn said in an interview with Patch.com that during a recent Board of Finance meeting there was discussion about what to do if the proposals that go to the separate referendums in the coming years call for building a new police headquarters and vacating the public library, which was built in 1975. The result would be two vacant structures that could be used for municipal operations and programs.

He said that in the coming weeks he plans to propose that the selectmen and the Board of Finance agree to hire a planner for the town to study all the pieces to the puzzle.

Dunn commented that unlike some other suburban towns in metro-Danbury, Brookfield does not have a planner.

He said, “We need to have a cohesive plan that will address the needs of the town and the capital requirements and entail the least amount of cost. We don’t want buildings to sit idle.”

Said Dunn, “Everything is on the table.”

Library officials have been lobbying for more space since at least 1999.

Dunn said that it might be possible to move the program space for the library to CES and devote the current library to books.

He said the police headquarters on Silvermine Road doesn’t conform with the federal req1uirements. He said the ad-hoc committee, which is chaired by former Police Chief Jay Purcell, is studying whether to expand the current facility, move it to a portion of the municipal campus on Pocono Road or place a new headquarters on one of two alternate sites that it is studying.

Since the town won’t complete bond payments until 2026 for the renovations to Brookfield High School that were approved at referendum in 2003, Dunn indicated that no votes on the plans for the police facilities or what will happen to CES will occur until at least next year.

He said the ad-hoc committee studying CES is beginning a structural review on whether to renovate the existing building or tear it down. It had been the last wooden school in Connecticut.

“The report is pretty good,” said Dunn., “The school is pretty clean. Not a lot of asbestos or dangerous chemicals.”

However, he said the oil tank was removed two years ago after the students were moved to the new Candlewood Lake Elementary School, thus there is no heating system. There was a flood six months ago. Dunn said it will cost about an estimated $500,000 to repair the electric system.

Dunn said with a change of use for the existing building, the town would be required to update it to meet all current building codes. CES was last updated in 1996.

“We have to decide whether we want to keep that building,” he explained.

He said that each week his office receives requests for groups seeking meeting space, which he cannot provide3 at the Municipal Center on Pocono Road. Dunn said that some residents have expressed interest in having meeting space available at CES, or if it is torn down, a new building. There also has been discussion about utilizing part of the space for Parks & Recreation programs.

Brookfield Democratic Town Committee Chairman Shannon Riley said Dunn and Other Selectman Bob Belden, Dunn’s running mate and a former vice president at IBM, have management experience that will be valuable in making good decisions on the pending capital projects.

It appears that Dunn will face either Austin Monteiro, a petitioning candidate for first selectman in 2021 and a state House candidate in Danbury’s 110th District, or Zoning Board of Appeals Vice Chairman Karl Hinger in the November 4 election.

Monteiro and Hinger will coopete for the Republican nomination on Wednesday night, July 16, at the GOP Caucus in the Brookfield High School auditorium. Both have indicated that they don’t plan to seek a primary if they lose at the caucus.

On another topic, Dunn said that by the end of August the Food Emporium supermarket in the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center central business district should be in operation at Emporium Plaza – 701-731 Federal Road. Residents have occupied the housing there for months and the Brookfield Running Company moved its operations to Emporium Plaza last December.

“I think this supermarket will get a lot of traffic,” he said. Dunn commented that much of the volume should be from “Brookfield residents who are fighting traffic on [the southern corridor of] Federal Road” to get to supermarkets near the Danbury border.

Dunn noted that there currently is a moratorium on multi-family housing in Brookfield Town Center until December 2026 so the town can consider its priorities through the revised Plan of Conservation & Development. That plan should be completed within months.

He said the housing in that area has become “too big, too much, too tall.” He said some of the projects now under construction were approved by the land-use agencies more than 10 years ago but were never built until now.

Regarding the proposed expansion of the Iroquois natural gas compressor, which was built near High Meadow Road about 15 years ago, Dunn said that U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-5) of Wolcott and state Rep. Marty Foncello (R-107) of Brookfield have written letters to back the town’s concern about the air standards from the proposed expansion.

He said he met with staff members from Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) last year, who informed him that the department issued permits and then held a public hearing.

Dunn said that typically a public hearing for any project is held before a permit has been issued.

He said he told the DEEP officials, “How serious are you about listening?”

Dunn said he has written two letters to Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich), but has not received any response.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also considering a permit for the project.

On the fiscal portfolio: Dunn said the town’s fund balance is currently at 16 percent – perhaps the highest ever. The pensions for the municipal employees are 102 percent funded and the town continues to have an AAA bond rating from Standard & Poor’s.

In a recent Wall Street Journal column, author Scott Johnston wrote that, “It’s time to lower the drinking age.”

He stated that since “Congress established a federal drinking age of 21 in 1984 . . . the rate of drunk-driving deaths has dropped almost 50 percent . . drivers of all ages have responded to much tougher enforcement and severely increased penalties.”

Dunn said that “a strong argument” can be made for lowering the drinking age to 18.

“Our younger people have become much more aware and responsible with regard to drinking while driving,” he remarked. “My kids would never go anywhere without having a designated driver. That didn’t happen when I was 18, 19 or 20. The younger people now are very responsible.”

“Our ability to enforce the rules has increased exponentially from the tine when I was in college, Dunn commented. “The penalties for drinking while driving are incredibly severe now, and they should be.”

However, shouldn’t elected officials discourage all alcohol use.

Some years ago a guest speaker from the Midwestern Connecticut Council on Alcoholism told an Introduction to Sociology class at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury that “alcohol is a depressant” to the central nervous system.

“I don’t know” if it is a depressant, said Dunn.

He explained, “I think each person needs to make a personal decision to consume alcohol or not. I think we have to be very careful to make sure no one is drinking while driving.”

Resources:

Interview with Steve Dunn, Patch.com, on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.

Phone interview with Shannon Riley, Patch.com, on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/25/graduation-speech-northwestern-doubt/

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/th...