Board of Selectmen Meeting May 9,2016

Board of Selectmen Meeting May 9, 2016

I would like to inform you that I have had a conversation with Attorney Horton, the Attorney from the State’s Attorney Office that denied the Simsbury Police Department Warrant to arrest Diana Moody for Larceny 6, for removing my bumper sticker on my car stating, “Boycott Mitchell Car Dealership,” that was placed there when a notation in my service file stated, “Do Not Service This Person.” Attorney Horton stated that he reviewed any actions against Diana Moody and there were none. Since this appears to be her first offence he said that he would not prosecute for this offense. However, now that Diana Moody has had one occurrence, the next time there is an offense, she will be prosecuted. I was pleased to see that Diana Moody, with all her volunteerism was not selected for a Hometown Hero Award.

At the last Board of Selectmen Meeting there was an agenda item under Selectmen Action, (d) Acceptance of Gift of Furniture from The Hartford that was approved by this board as a result of inaccurate information that was provided by Tom Cooke, Director of Administrative Services.

According to town staff, The Hartford’s lease expired in February 2016. At that time the ownership was transferred to The Silverman Group. The town removed the furniture from the building in April; months after The Hartford had any rights to the building. Therefore, all the discussions and approvals for removal of the furniture were from The Silverman Group, the owners of the building giving a gift to the town in violation of the Gift Policy of the Town. It should be noted that First Selectman Lisa Heavner’s husband is a Senior Vice president at The Hartford. There were over 70 pieces of furniture and cabinets removed by town staff and distributed throughout town hall. Several of the surplus items are stored in the basement of the Library.

Since The Silverman Group is the owners of all the property, their representatives had to give access to the town trucks and employees. How can The Hartford gift the furniture to the town when they don’t own the building or the furniture? The Board of Ethics should review whether the actions of the Board of the Selectmen for the approval of taking 70 pieces of furniture from The Silverman Group property, is in violation of the town’s gift policy. Would the Town Attorney Bob Decresczo be able to give the Board of Ethics guidance since he too has a conflict of interest, since Updike Kelly & Spellacy is the attorney firm of record for the Silverman Group?

The Charter Revision Commission has published a final report that is available at the Town Clerk’s Office and will be forwarded to the Board of Selectmen. The major change in the Charter is having a professional Town Manager as the CEO of Simsbury. There will be time for the public to be educated on the need for a Town Manager before a referendum vote.. Avon and Farmington has had a professional Town Manager for decades and they have a lower mill rate and lower property taxes and higher property values.

Presently the town has closed the applications for a Finance Director. In the past few years we have had several Finance Directors and Interim Finance Directors. I hope this time we get a person with the qualifications and temperament to guide the town with reduced revenues from the State and additional expenditures in the budget. In order to have Simsbury competitive with other towns we have to eliminate politically motivated expenditures such as having the taxpayers buy an upscale Golf Cart for $15,000 for the private Performing Arts Group. Expenditures for private non-profit groups should be eliminated from the budget. The town should not use the General Fund as a slush fund for Capital Expenditures in order to say that there are no increases in taxes. Thousands of dollars taken from the General Fund to reduce budget increase is fiscally irresponsible.

At the last meeting of the Board of Finance Linda Schofield was on the phone for her participation since she was out of town. However, her participation was limited due to poor transmission from the presenters and lost transmission during the meeting. Although the Freedom of Information Act allows phone hook ups, this process limits the ability of the members to listen to all presenters in the room that are not near the phone, leaving many voids in access to information. The Board of Finance should eliminate this process since important information is not transmitted and voting on items that are not transmitted through this process could be faulty. Until there is complete amplification throughout the meeting rooms, this process of attendance by phone should be eliminated.

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