A barrage of critical e-mails and even a few intimidating face-to-face confrontations greeted the February 2009 arrival of We the People of Fairfield, an advocacy group created to encourage town leaders to be fiscally responsible during the current economic downturn.
Kate Daniello, who co-founded the group with another town resident, Bob Forcellina, admits that some of the organizations early research was faulty. But she and other group members were encouraged by the support they received from most town boards to conduct an independent operational audit of the town and educational budgets.We obtained 1,225 signatures on a petition for a referendum on the independent operational audit. We needed 1,800, but we didnt know that at the time, she said.
Today, having weathered the criticism and redefined We the Peoples goals, Daniello is more confident and believes their objectives can be met. Our goals are simple. We want to get the (town) spending under control, she said in an interview Friday morning, and then we can get our taxes under control.
Daniello and her supporters who include 300 elderly residents believe the most fluff can be found in the Board of Education budget. She points out that the teachers surrendered their salary increases and step increases for fiscal 2011, yet the BOE sought a $5 million increase for next year.
Its almost criminal, she said, that they came up with a $5 million increase on the backs of their teachers.
Due diligence by the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance, coupled with some fine-tuning by the Representative Town Meeting on the first night of its back-to-back budget meetings, pared the increase to $2 million. The board is authorized to spend $141,571,425 million in 2010-2011.
The $260,000 compensation package for the in-coming superintendent of schools, Dr. David Title, is another sore point with We the People -- and other people, too. During a time of cutbacks elsewhere, Title will earn more than the current schools head, Dr. Ann Clark. I continue to get e-mails from people who are upset about this, she said.
Daniello, who was raised in Bergenfield, N.J., explains why she and her husband and their three children moved to Fairfield in 1984. It reminded me of the town I grew up in, she said. Fairfield had a sense of community. It was the first town I heard somebody say, I grew up here and I want to raise my family here. I wanted to raise my family here, too.
But rising property taxes are making that idea increasingly difficult for young families, and they're forcing many elderly residents to leave Fairfield and relocate. It (also) causes the future buyer of your home to go to Westport or elsewhere and pay a little less in taxes, she said.
The board has allocated $50,000 for the audit thus far; it may cost five times as much. Says a hopeful Daniello: Itll all be dependent on the audit. If it comes through to reduce the Board of Education budget, it will create a groundswell of support.
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