Rondini makes it an All-Green Wave select ticket

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Joe Rondini – New Milford High School (NMHS) Class of 1988 - says Mike Oshan, his football mentor, was, “The toughest coach that you ever loved.”

Wherever Oshan coached – Bethel, Ridgefield or New Milford - if he had talent his teams could play defense. In 1992 New Milford allowed the second fewest points of any team in the state.

Rondini says his childhood neighbor, Jack Lavalette – NMHS Class of 1987, who as a defensive back intercepted an astonishing 12 passes during his junior season - was the “fastest” high school player he ever saw.

“You thought that he could go to the pros,” commented Rondini.

Oshan once said, “The most determining factor in success in most sports is foot speed.”

Rondini played wide receiver.

“I was small, but I was fast,” he commented.

Tara Carr later graduated from NMHS.

The New Milford Green Wave now holds the top two positions on the Republican slate for Brookfield’s municipal election ballot.

Carr, who spent 25 years in the U.S. Army and has three college degrees, is running for a second term as first selectman, and Rondini, who is a First-Grade detective with the Greenwich Police Department, is seeking one of the two Other Selectman seats on the three-member board.

Rondini has been coaching one of Carr’s sons for three years in football, baseball and basketball. As they became better acquainted, she talked to him about being her running mate.

Beasley Reece, who demonstrated foot speed during his nine years as a defensive safety in the National Football League, has said, “We tend to hire and select people that we feel comfortable with.”

Carr told Patch.com in August that Rondini would bring “a fresh perspective” to the municipal government.

In a phone interview with Patch.com, Austin Monteiro, who ran as a petitioning candidate for first selectman in 2021 and is now a Republican candidate for a seat on the Board of Education, said that Rondini is “a team player” who “works well with other people.”

“Joe is new to elected politics, but he is going to the meetings and learning things which adds to what he brings with his experience in law enforcement,” he added. “He is one of many new people on our ticket, which is good, because I think we have some people in town government that have been there too long and we need some new ideas.”

Rondini said as was the case with Oshan, who played at the University of Bridgeport and for a semi-pro team in New York City, and Lavalette, Carr has foot speed.

“Tara is a machine. She is always on the go,” Rondini said in an interview with Patch.com. “There are never 15 uninterrupted minutes. She is always doing something.”

“I’m the same way,” he continued. “I’ve told my wife, I’m never going to retire. I always want to be active and involved.”

He said that Carr has “changed my outlook on politics.”

“Shame on me for not following sooner what was going on in local government,” Rondini said in an interview with Patch.com. “I started following her political campaign. I really like what she stood for.”

For example, Carr has been commended by state Sen. Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield for her attention to constituent service.

Rondini said after attending some recent municipal board meetings he became in “awe, because you would think she had been doing it for 20 years.”

Carr succeeded Steve Dunn, who is the Democratic nominee for first selectman this year on a ticket that includes Board of Education Chairman Bob Belden, who is running for a seat as an Other Selectman.

Republican former Other Selectman George Walker said Rondini impressed him and the other members of the GOP Vacancy Committee during his interview this spring.

“We saw his enthusiasm to work in concert with Tara,” Walker commented in a phone interview with Patch.com. “We did not see that with the other candidates for that position.”

He said although it is a part-time position, Other Selectman have considerable responsibilities.

“You’re on subcommittees,” said Walker. “You are doing analysis. There is a lot of homework.”

Carr said in an August interview with Patch.com that the first selectman has many tasks.

“I don’t have a chief of staff, a grants writer a P.R [public relations] person,” she explained. “It is literally me now. I’m clearly the staff.”

Rondini said he could help handle some of those duties.

He said, for example, “with guidance” he could assist with writing grants since he has done that for the Greenwich Police Department.

Rondini said he is impressed that Carr ventured into public service since she could command a much larger salary in the private sector.

Speaking of salaries, the Greenwich Time reported last March that Rondini was the highest paid municipal or school employee in Greenwich over the previous year – earning $340,722.

If he was slower in the 40-yard dash than Jack Lavalette, then why is Rondini making more money than Fred Camillo, the first selectman of Greenwich?

“A lot of hard work and dedication,” said Rondini. “I can assure you that I did not earn that on 40 hours a week. I’m one of the hardest workers in town.”

He said his administrators would endorse that comment.

His wife, Krystie, also is a detective with the Greenwich Police Department. They moved to Brookfield eight years ago. Their son, Nicholas, is in fifth grade, and their daughter Kendall, is in third grade, both at Candlewood Lake Elementary School (CLES).

Rondini graduated from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, N.Y. with a bachelor’s degree in Finance with a minor in Business Management.

He had a corporate position with Johnson & Johnson immediately before he became a police officer in the Bronx 23 years ago - following in the foot steps of several family members who have worked in law enforcement.

He called the police in the Bronx, “The best cops in the world.”

Why do you say that?

”Not the best working conditions, let’s put it that way,” Rondini explained.

He has been with the Greenwich Police Department for 20 years, the last 14 years as a detective specializing in narcotics cases.

“The war on drugs,” Rondini said. “When you hear from defense attorneys and from prosecutors that what we did may have changed that person’s life. . . Someone on the wrong road and getting them on the right road.”

“Some say that they are bad people,” he remarked of the people arrested for drug abuse. “That is not necessarily the case. There are a lot of people who fall victim to opioids that become addicted to painkillers and they were on the right track, but they were getting prescribed these pain-killers for other injuries and they became addicted. Opioid addiction has no forgiveness.”

He shared a poem about substance abuse in which one section stated:

“You’ll regret that you tried me, they always do.

But you came to me, not I to you.

You knew this would happen.

Many times you were told, but you challenged my power, and chose to be bold.

You could have said no, and just walked away.”

Rondini recalled that one woman told him that she couldn’t stop “because my body craves the addiction.”

All of the candidates running for first selectman this year have said the town’s top capital priority should be expanding the current police headquarters on Silvermine Road or constructing a new facility. Municipal officials since at least 2017 have said the current building is too small and doesn't comply with federal regulations.

Rondini said his experience in law enforcement would make him “a real asset” in helping to develop a capital plan for the police facilities, noting that Greenwich had built a new police headquarters during his time in that department and he has been in other modern police facilities.

He emphasized that a large number of people should provide input into that effort “to make it so [the building] is right for the next 100 years.”

Elected officials have said that the project won’t be able to proceed until at least 2026 since Brookfield is now paying considerable bonded debt on the Brookfield High School renovation that was approved in 2003 and the construction of CLES, which was ratified at referendum in 2019. The new school recently opened.

However, the Democratic ticket indicates that the planning will take time and no bonding for police facilities would occur for at least another three years. The Democrats also have said that planning could be done simultaneously for renovations to utilize Center Elementary School, which recently closed and has been ceded to the town.

Rondini said that he agrees with those estimates, saying it would probably be “2026 or 2027” before any new bonded debt would be required.

“We have to be fiscally responsible,” he remarked, indicating that Brookfield has one of the highest per capita rates of debt in Connecticut. He said if the fiscal officials signal a “green light” on the spending, then planning could proceed on both projects.

Over recent months, Rondini has attended multiple municipal meetings, but acknowledged that he is still getting “up to speed” on such issues as boosting salaries for senior-level municipal directors and whether Brookfield should consider adopting a town-manager form of government like 33 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities have.

Carr has said the salaries for the department heads need to increase to retain and attract talented applicants and Brookfield is at a “tipping point” and a discussion for a town manager or other modified form of government would be “very interesting.”

Rondini said that one of the most frequently mentioned issues from voters is limiting the future housing development in the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center central business district near the Four Corners of Federal Road.

Emporium Plaza, which will feature a supermarket and is scheduled to open next summer, also will include housing as will the third phase of Brookfield Village, which is slated to be completed early next year.

“I wouldn’t keep going further. It is starting to get a little overpopulated down there,” Rondini commented. “I’m hearing from the residents that the population at the Four Corners is getting out of control.”

However, municipal Community Development Specialist Greg Dembowski told Patch.com earlier this year that housing in Brookfield Town Center “is needed for young professionals. The nurse starting out, the new school teacher. Can they afford a $500,000 Colonial? ‘No.’ They’re going to get a condo or an apartment.”

Said Rondini, “That’s part of what makes Brookfield great. It should be affordable for all.”

He said voters also have discussed parental choice and curbing tax increases as he has canvassed neighborhoods.

Rondini said his other political role model is Republican former President Ronald Reagan

On policy, he remarked that Reagan “lowered the federal income tax, lowered the capital gains tax and increased consumer spending.”

However, the federal budget deficit grew under Reagan’s across-the-board tax cut.

“He leveled it out,” said Rondini

“I enjoy reading about his presidency,” he remarked. “He was the Great Communicator. He was someone who spoke to everyone and made them understand.”

Rondini added, “He wasn’t a politician. He did it after a career as an actor.”

Not only that, Reagan had foot speed. He played the role of Norte Dame quarterback/halfback George Gipp in the movie on the legendary Knute Rockne - the toughest football coach this side of Mike Oshan.

Resources:

Interview with Joe Rondini, Patch.com, Monday, October 9, 2023.

Phone interview with George Walker, Patch.com, Sunday, October 15, 2023.

Phone interview with Austin Monteiro, Patch.com, Wednesday, October 18, 2023.

https://patch.com/connecticut/...

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/brookfield-sidewalks-economic-development-goes-hand-hand

https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/greenwich-top-salaries-town-employees-2022-17799218.php

Poem provided by Joe Rondini, Monday, October 9, 2023.

Story on Beasley Reece, The Newtown Bee, January 1992.

The Litchfield County Times, October 1984.

https://patch.com/connecticut/...