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The Editor:
Our elected and financially compensated bureaucratic Fairfield Board of Selectmen just loves big government. It just cannot get enough of it.
Some folks have been questioning whether or not we need to replace the windows at Osborn Hill School and replace the roof at Warde High School. In my humble opinion, both replacement projects are necessary as long as no major footprint changes are planned in the next 10 years for the two schools.
The problem I have with the Board of Selectmen is that it wants to run the two jobs from design to completion with two different committees of local citizens, whom the Board of Selectmen would appoint with approval of the Representative Town Meeting. The appointees would not be compensated for their service.
These monumental appointed committees are simply not called for in either case. If the town wants certain reimbursements for the projects from the state, the state statute is clear that the town must form a building committee for each project. The state statute is also clear that for projects like a roof replacement and a fenestration upgrade (window replacement), the committee can be a committee of one. That committee of one can and should be a competent project manager in the employ of the town who would handle more than one project at a time just as it is does in the private sector.
First Selectman Michael Tetreau and his opponent in the last election Rob Bellitto both called for project managers to run the big capital projects in Fairfield going forward. It was the usual hollow campaign promise. Tetreau got it half right on the Metro Center when he hired a project manager, but based on the Metro Center lawsuit it looks like he hired the wrong guy. And Tetreau certainly got it wrong when he shunned any real oversight of the project by our town legislature, just as RTM Moderator Jeff Steele got it wrong when he went along with Tetreau.
People are complaining about our cost of local government. Until somebody does something about the bad governing processes in this town, not much will change when it comes to the costs continuing to spiral out of control. Citizen building committees are very quaint, but they really should be a thing of the past in the big little city of Fairfield. These committees rarely get the projects done right, on time and within budget despite the many claims to the contrary.
Smaller government is more often than not better government. How about it folks?
Jim Brown
Fairfield
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