Board of Selectmen Meeting March 11, 2024

Board of Selectmen Meeting March 11, 2024

At the last Board of Selectmen Meeting on February 26, 2024, Mike Long, Police Commissioner refuted my comments about the selection process for the selection of Chief Boulter when Chief Ingvertsen retired.

Mike Long has a history of being a political operative in the Denoctractic Party for decades.

Politics has become a dangerous sport when power and control is paramount to winning.

Influence peddling is an integral part of the political sport.

Mike Long has served as Police Commissioner for decades.

Mike Long was an attorney for Ensign Bickford for decades when the company controlled almost every aspect of the Simsbury community.

Mike Long has a history as a political kingpin.

Mike Long was part of Governor O’Neill’s Kitchen Cabinet where they met regularly in Governor O’Neill’s Tavern in East Haddam.

Both Governor O’Neill and Governor Mallory appointed Mike Long to the Bradley International Airport Commission where he is presently serving.

It is alleged that Mike Long’s daughter served as an Intern in the Clinton White House.

Many years ago, the Hartford Advocate had several articles about Mike Long asking the State Legislators to add a rider on one of the bills to make him a State Marshall.

After the articles were published, the rider was eliminated from the bills.

Why would Mike Long use his political power to ingratiate himself?

Mike Long is a member of the Simsbury Democratic Town Committee where his political power is significant.

Prior to Chief Ingvertsen’s retirement the Police Commission gave a raise of 5% to Chief Ingvertsen and Captain Boulter outside the regular budget process.

Chief Ingvertsen’s raise would increase the value of his retirement benefits and Captain Boulter’s raise was inconsistent with Town policy and questionable.

Chief Ingvertsen recommended that Captain Boulter be appointed to Chief.

That created many issues within the rank-and-file officers who did not support the selection.

Then there was a need for a political event to validate the selection.

There was an outside Officer that was a Gold Star person who would have applied for the position as Chief but after a whisper campaign to damage the character of the individual, the Officer never applied.

It appeared that the selection of a panel was window dressing to substantiate the selection of Chief Boulter.

Thereafter, there was a firing of a Police Officer who is now serving as a State Police Officer and several Internal Activity Investigations that were inconclusive.

A No Confidence vote where most of the Police Officers voted, is just a signal that the working environment is toxic.

Commissioner Mike Long had spent many hours talking to Chief Ingvertsen and now Chief Boulter, entering the Police Department with the pass code to open the door to the restricted area.

This gave the appearance of special treatment for Mike Long.

It appears that Mike Long, after being told to follow the law that requires a front and back license plate on his car, feels that the law does not apply to him.

Politics has infiltrated all departments served with taxpayer money and many of the decisions on policy serve the lobbyists and power-brokers.

Mike Long enjoys being a political operative.

The beat goes on!

It appears that the budgets developed by the Board of Education and the Town are above the guidelines from the Board of Finance.

There is presently a push to increase the employees in the Assessor’s Office.

The Assessors have the responsibility to assess property that is fair and equitable.

A major part of the revenues is derived through assessments.

The model used can be arbitrary and used aggressively to set values that are punitive to increase the revenues to increase the tax base.

By placing more employees in the Assessor’s Office, it will be easy to point the blame of increased assessments on staff.

Each new position on staff should be justified with conclusive evidence that the benefit derived from the cost will be beneficial to the taxpayers.

All the ARPA money used to fund permanent positions should be scrutinized.

The Boards and Commissions that are elected to serve the people should be the gatekeepers for excessive spending.

Long-term planning is an essential tool for future expenditures.

Since the Board of Education has large fluctuations in their budget due to Special Education with unknown expenditures, the model for Special Education expenditures should be changed to minimize the taxpayer’s costs.

I would recommend that the Special Education Department become part of a regional expenditure like the Health District.

The State would supply satellite buildings for Special Educational needs of the students and each town would contribute along with the State to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs.