No Referendum Needed to Accept $15 Million GE Gift for Sandy Hook Tragedy

Caption: A town advisory committee has worked with architects to create a preliminary design of a multi-phase plan for a new town community center.

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By Rebecca Carnes

The $15 million gift from GE in response to the Sandy Hook tragedy was already contractually donated to the town of Newtown in November, and no referendum is needed to accept the money, according to Newtown’s attorney, David Grogins.

“There is really no technical requirement for the acceptance of the gift, except that a financial contract statement has been filed,” Grogins said in a phone interview. “The only thing required is that we enter the donor agreement, which we did. And it’s been executed, I believe. I drafted it and sent it to the town; I’m assuming it was signed.”

A copy of the Donor Agreement shows it was signed last November, 2014 by President of the GE Foundation, Deborah Elam, and First Selectman Pat Llodra.

However, the April 28 referendum question is set to contain two parts that must be answered together with either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by each voter. One, Should the town accept a $15 million grant from the GE Foundation? And two, Should the town spend $10 million to design and construct Phase 1 of a Community Center and $5 million to support operation costs? These questions are tied together and must be answered with one response.

“The main purpose (of the ballot) is the appropriation,” Grogins said. “But there is a tie to it – the acceptance on the gift.”

Grogins was asked if that is confusing because the town already has accepted the GE gift.

“It is confusing,” he said.

A “special appropriation” of the gift money in the amount of $450,000 for “preconstruction design” was collected by the town on Dec. 30, 2014. And according to the town’s Finance Director, Robert Tait, $81,000 of that has been spent in the past three months on hiring architects, project management, fees and professional services.

The plan the town is working on, still in its conceptual phase, according to Llodra, entails a 35,000 sq. ft. facility on the Fairfield Hills campus near the Newtown Youth Academy. A schematic of the facility entitled “Newtown Community Center” entails 10,000 sq. ft. of senior space, a “zero-entry” activity pool, and a multi-lane pool with locker rooms.

The 10 million (minus the $450,000) will begin streaming in as installments every six months, beginning on June 30, 2015. And the remaining $5 million is reserved for operating costs during the first five years.

Llodra said the referendum ballot contains both the questions of whether to accept the money and how to use it because it would be “disingenuous” to just accept the money and not have the acceptance align with the intent of the donor. She went on to explain that the appropriation, or “use” part of the question is required by town charter to be voted on in a referendum.

The donor agreement states that GE is awarding the gift to Newtown for the “design & construction of a stand-alone facility (hereinafter known as the ‘Newtown Community Center’) to serve community needs.”

Director of Public Affairs for GE, Tracy Doyle, said in a phone interview that the grant funds were given to Newtown following the tragedy in order to help the town recover and that there are no stipulations on the use.

“It’s really up to the residents of Newtown and town officials to determine that,” Doyle said, adding that GE’s interest is in helping the town recover just by being supportive of the community and its growth.

“GE has been part of the Newtown community for a long time. Our headquarters are nearby in Fairfield and we have a large number of employees living in the Newtown area. Everyone was moved by the situation and GE wanted to support the community and its recovery,” Doyle said, adding that there are about 150 GE employees living in Newtown.

Llodra said that because the donor agreement clearly states “community center,” the town has decided to work within those parameters. Other buildings in town are in need of space and tremendous work, she noted, adding that the police department is in “horrible” need of an upgrade in space.

“If someone gives us a large sum of money that we can do anything we want with, in fairness we should look at all the needs. But in this case, it’s pretty narrowly defined,” Llodra said.

Grogins agreed that the language in the donor agreement expressed the use be for a community center.

“I think the only thing required is that it be used as a community center, now what that means I cannot tell you,” Grogins said.

He went on to say he didn’t think there was any determination yet of how the allocation is going to be done.

“There’s been discussions, but nothing’s cast in stone,” he said. “The obligations are all fixed in the donor agreement and I don’t know that anybody’s planning to do anything different than has been set forth. But if there’s intentions to do other things or do it more specifically, I’m just not aware of them.”

A volunteer advisory group formed 14 months ago came up with a three-phase plan that incorporates residents of every age and ability to come together in a “supportive, multi-generational community” environment, according to Llodra’s vision statement for the “Newtown Community Center.” The GE gift money will only cover the first phase of the plan, which mostly entails a senior center and two pools.

Phase 2 (a connector to Newtown Youth Academy or an addition) and Phase 3 (purchasing of the NYA) are independent phases and will be paid for with money set aside in the CIP, Llodra said.

The senior center and pools must come first (Phase 1) because these structures must be on ground level with well-designed, accessible parking, she said.

At a public information meeting earlier this week, some residents voiced concern that the plan was exclusionary to other age groups and that they were worried about the town being able to follow through with paying for Phase 2 and Phase 3.

Llodra said she is encouraging discussion on the community center project and has scheduled three additional public forums:

• Tuesday, March 31, 7 p.m. at the Alexandra Room in Edmond Town Hall
• Thursday, April 2, 7 p.m. at the high school lecture hall
• Thursday, April 9, 7 p.m. at the high school lecture hall

After the third forum, she will make a determination as to whether the April 28 referendum will contain the GE gift ballot question or whether it will be removed entirely until a later date.

“If there is a sense that we have not been successful in engaging enough people in conversation so that people are informed and will vote it up or down based on (accurate) information, then I would have to make a recommendation to delay a vote to the Board of Selectmen and the Board would have to determine if we would move it (referendum) or not,” Llodra said.

Llodra said she simply wants her constituents to become informed about all the phases and about the long-term goal of the project, and then make up their minds.

“I try to advocate. I try to provide information, and be neutral. I expect there will be different points of view and I’m okay with that. The only thing I ever ask of people is to just be informed and don’t use someone else’s interpretation to guide your vote,” Llodra said.

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