Simsbury Board of Selectmen Meeting March 13, 2023

Board of Selectmen Meting March 13, 2023

Now that Town Manager Maria Capriola has resigned, we can look to the past to gain insight into our future.

The Charter Revision Commission voted for a Professional Town Manager to become the CEO of Simsbury.

The pool of applicants for the position was not of the highest quality and instead of continuing the process, the Board of Selectman chose Maria Capriola as the first Town Manager for Simsbury.

After several months as CEO, the Board of Selectmen was aware of many of our highly recognized professional staff resigning their positions for employment elsewhere, a loss for Simsbury.

This was the first red flag.

Instead of trying to address the problem, many members of the board gave cover to Town Manager Maria Capriola with excuses for poor performance.

Another red flag.

The hiring of replacement employees was in many cases of lesser quality and created more red flags.

The Planning Department had professional employees working together harmoniously, until Town Manager hired a Code Compliance Officer that was a trainwreck and destroyed the department’s cohesiveness.

A Hartford Courant article described Capriola’s abuse of power, vindictiveness. favoritism and decline in morale.

Allegedly Capriola asking management to change a job evaluation from excellent to poor.

Another red flag.

A letter from the business community alerting the Board of Selectmen that they were concerned about their lack of communication with Town Manager Maria Capriola and the board’s lack of oversight in the management of Capriola’s performance.

Another red flag.

A recent article in the Hartford Courant, “ Capriola’s 1sr town manager resigning from post,” Selectman Eric Wellman stated, Maria is the most ethical, hard-working people I’ve had the pleasure to work with.”

This coming from a person who allegedly lied to the press and the town and has been the go-to guy for Town Manager Maria Capriola.

The Article states, Selectman Sean Askham praised Capriola.

Selectman Askham has defended Capriola, knowing the back-story to many events stating that Maria has always made him look smart, giving information directly to him.

Selectman Askham represented Town Manager Maria Capriola, not always in the town’s interest, with a pretext of getting reelected.

Town Manager Maria Capriola’s job performance of Town Planner George McGregor was a complete farce.

All categories were Superior, although from the onset of McGregor’s tenure there were issues involving competence being questioned on a daily basis from staff, boards and commissions and the business community.

The immediate exodus of the Deputy Town Planner was allegedly as a result of McGregor’s incompetence.

Town Manager Maria Capriola appears to be living in a fantasy world.

Town Manager Maria Capriola has used the job performance mechanism to create a false narrative about McGregor’s ability and has denigrated past employees’ performance.

I have recently received my assessment from the Town after revaluation.

In a letter from the Assessor, I was given my last assessment and my present my assessment which was increased from last year.

Another letter followed with another amount of my assessment.

This appeared to be a town-wide mailing, resulting in fluctuations in the Grand List.

it is alleged that a business’ assessment was lowered by $1 million.

Over 50 years of assessments from the town, this is the first year I have received an amended assessment, questioning the models that are used to develop the assessment

The Assessor is another Capriola’s hire, leading to a another red flag to add to Town Manager Maria Capriola’s competence.

Looking forward, the selection of a Town Manager will be of utmost importance for staff and the taxpayers of the Simsbury community.

There are many Head Hunters with expertise in the selection of Town Managers that the Board of Selectmen should use as consults.

The Novak Consulting Group is now Raftelis, a group out of Ohio is someone to consider.

Attached is the phone number and email address of the highly recommended company ( 513-221-0500 jnovak@raftelis.com).

I recently won a Freedom of Information complaint against Chief Boulter on redactions of addresses on arrests in violation of Freedom of information Act 1-215.

Sec. 1-215 (Formerly Sec. 1-20b) - Record of an arrest as public record. Prohibition on redaction.

The negotiated settlement that challenged the redactions by Chief Boulter will result in providing the addresses on arrests that I requested and going forward will provide addresses on Case Incident Reports and Arrest Logs on public documents. Public access to arrest records will have the names and addresses on the documents requested.

Chief Boulter should follow the law not impose his values to interpret the law.