What I Would Have Done

Apparently my last blog touched a raw nerve in my opponent's re-election campaign machine. This past week I drove down to Virginia Beach to visit my grandchildren, so please excuse the late response. 

I would be delighted to inform former GOP Board of Education member Paul Sobel and others as to what I would have done if I were First Selectman to facilitate the JHE project. The JHE project needed either an onsite sewage system or an inter-local agreement with Trumbull/Bridgeport. The former required DEP/WPCA approval while the latter required regional cooperation. The question is whether or not the First Selectman has done or is doing everything in his power to bring those predicates for the JHE project or any other complex project to fruition.

Here's what I would have done:

1) Continue to find ways to work with Trumbull to persuade them that it is in their best interest to allow us to tie in. No criticism offered here as that has been the historical stumbling block and is not the basis for my criticism. 

2) Assuming the absence of an inter-local agreement with our neighbors, assign the highest priority to getting DEP/WPCA approval for this project in place as quickly as possible. How in turn would I do that? Well for one thing an EDC Coordinator on board would enable me to assign that as a top priority. My opponent ignored his own EDC which has sought such a person.

3) Use the full weight of the office of the First Selectman to let everyone know that the project is a priority. That, in turn means authorizing the Town's Public Works Director to get the expertise he requested (and has yet to receive) to work through the engineering and legal issues with DEP.

I know from my work on winning grants from the State and Federal governments that it is not enough to attend and occasionally report on meetings. An active, engaged First Selectman will place the full weight of his office behind a project. It’s not about what is on a meeting agenda. It’s the hard work that occurs between the monthly meetings that gets the job done.

One quick example will suffice. Long before the JHE Project, the conventional wisdom was that Bridgeport’s sewage system lacked the capacity to allow Monroe to tie in. Monroe’s inquiries were routinely rebuffed on that basis alone. First Selectman Nunn charged our Town Engineer with either challenging that wisdom or devising a plan that could persuade Bridgeport that it was in their self-interest to allow us to tie in. Bridgeport officials eventually were persuaded. Of course, the tie-in never occurred because Trumbull opposed it. The moral of the story is that it’s not enough to just attend an occasional meeting. You have to bring something to the table as an advocate for our town.

With all due respect, I know I can do a better job.