Letter To The Editor: Fairfield Democrat Budget Gimmicks

To the Editor:

In what has sadly become the norm on a party line vote the other night, the Democrats on the RTM rejected the First Selectwoman’s attempt to strengthen the Town’s Human Resources Department by blocking hiring a full time Employee Relations Generalist and denying the Town the opportunity to hire a much needed Recruitment specialist who would help diversify Fairfield’s workforce and attract top talent.

We all know the challenges of the labor market today, yet the Democrats were tone deaf and allowed a $118,000 cut from the Human Resources Department budget proposal. Chief McCarthy, Chief Kalamaras, Health Director Sands Cleary, Human & Social Services Director Julie DeMarco, DPW Director John Marsilio, and Town Engineer Bill Hurley, all asked the RTM to give their departments this much needed HR support and their pleas were ignored by the democrats.

The First Selectwoman’s efforts to ensure transparency with the emergency Contingency fund were rejected by the Democrats as well, as was her proposal to follow the advice of paid financial advisors to fund the Town’s Risk Management fund.

Gimmicks only work for so long as we all know from the mistakes made by the previous two Democrat administrations, the burden of which fell on the shoulders of taxpayers.

For the first time in decades the Board of Finance is controlled by the Democrat majority, and they raised our taxes. They failed to scrutinize the BOE budget for savings and made partisan cuts to the responsible budget put forth by the First Selectwoman. As a lifelong Fairfield resident, I can sincerely say that this is truly a disappointment for all of Fairfield.

Thank you,
Sarah Matthews
Fairfield, CT