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Health & Fitness

The Republican Power Grab of Town Governance.

At the First Selectman Debate last Wednesday night between my wife, Beth Krumeich, and Peter Tesei there was a planted question from the floor about forming a Town Charter Revision Commission to change the form of town governance by altering the way we elect the Board of Estimate and Taxation, the Board of Education and the Representative Town Meeting. Peter Tesei expected the question and smoothly announced he would name a charter review commission headed by Jim Lash and Dick Bergstresser with the announced goal of having more competitive elections. 

Make no mistake: this is a power grab by the Republican Party leadership which wants to use its party registration advantage to make this a one party town and take over control of the three most powerful bodies not under their control, the BET, the BOE and the RTM. Our Town Charter and ordinances are specifically designed so no political party can dominate our most important governing bodies. 

Greenwich has a system unique in this state which prevents one political party from dominating these three institutions of town government. Elsewhere in the state boards and commissions are all controlled by the majority party with the minority relegated to the few seats set aside by the minority representation statute. There the majority makes all the decisions, usually behind closed doors, with the minority only able to protest decisions in which they played no part. That is the way our Board of Selectmen operates. Republican Peter Tesei proposes, David Theis seconds the proposal and the only Democrat Drew Marzullo can go along or not, his vote will not decide the question. 

Greenwich used to be a one party town until it went bust during the depression. Our town fathers in their wisdom changed the Town Charter to establish the Board of Estimate and Taxation, in which no more than six members of the twelve member finance board may be nominated by any single political party. As a result the BET has been a balanced board with six Republicans and six Democrats. The majority party whose members get the most votes pick the Chairman and Vice Chairman with the power to break tie votes on most things, but not the important votes like appropriations, the budget or charter changes which require seven affirmative votes. Also if the vote is not tied because a member of the minority party abstains there is no extra vote for the Chairman.

A balanced board ensures that no single constituency is served at the expense of others and encourages the members to reach consensus. It also means that the minority party has a meaningful voice and the ability to carry the day on important matters, as the Greenwich Post recognized in an unprecedented editorial recently which endorsed all six Democratic candidates, Bill Finger, Jeff Ramer, Randy Huffman, Mary Lea Kiernan, Sean Goldrick and John Blankley, and urged voters to vote for all six so the next BET Chairman will be a Democrat in recognition that the Democrats have the best track record and best financing plan for the Town.

"It must be remembered that it’s the BET Democrats who went to bat time and time again for projects like The Nathaniel Witherell’s Project Renew and MISA at Greenwich High School (which wouldn’t even be going forward without the BET Democrats). It’s Democrats who have called for moving forward on dredging Binney Pond, replacing the eyesore of a municipal pool and making sure our schools do not have their maintenance budgets cut. It’s actually the BET Democrats who have been more on the same page with the capital proirities of First Selectman Peter Tesei than his fellow Republicans. "

Periodically the Republicans have sought to change the Charter to establish majority rule but they have never received the seventh vote as every Democrat has voted against the move to end the balanced board. The last time we had a proposed Charter change to encourage competitive elections for the BET all six Democrats voted to set up staggered terms like the Board of Education and to give voters choice by allowing the parties to nominate more candidates than they could elect. All six Republicans voted against it with the rationale that they did not want Republicans campaigning against Republicans. If not for Republican obstruction we could have competitive elections for the BET today like the Board of Education races where the voters have an honest choice between majority and minority party members who, if elected, would serve on a balanced board. The Charter Commission is an obvious end run around the BET Democrats to give the Republicans total control of the BET. If that happens all decisions will be made behind closed doors in the Republican caucus rather than publicly by consensus which is how the BET operates today.

The balanced board model worked so well in the BET the voters by referendum changed the way we elect the Board of Education so that no single political party can elect more than half the members. The Chairman is usually a Republican and the Vice Chairman a Democrat by tradition because the Board of Selectmen break any tie and that Board is usually 2-1 Republican. The present Board of Education has a Democratic Chairman because there was no tie when Republican Peter Sherr broke party ranks and voted for Democrat Leslie Moriarty, much to the consternation of his fellow Republicans on the Republican Town Committee which failed to endorse his re-election.

Undaunted Mr. Sherr petitioned his way onto the ballot as a Republican just as Laura Erickson petitioned her way onto the ballot as a Democrat after she failed to secure her party's endorsement. For the second time in a row we are having competitive school board elections where the voters are given a choice. We now know that the RTC and the DTC do not control their party lines and non-endorsed candidates may petition their way onto the ballot as party members. Predictably, the parties have handled this differently. The Republicans have treated Peter Sherr like a pariah while the Democrats have welcomed Laura Erickson to party events and other candidates have appeared and campaigned with her.

Unaffiliated voters may also run as independents on a separate ballot line but lacking the automatic votes enjoyed by both political parties candidates on the independent line almost always lose (with Joe Leiberman being the only exception I recall). There are no independents running this time. Both petitioning candidates will appear on their respective party lines so there is little advantage from the party endorsement. After the election the school board will remain equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats.

With the RTM the Republicans' frustration is that body is so large that it cannot be dominated by any political party. Because members are elected in nonpartisan elections the members are not beholden to any political party and see no need to toe the party line. That would change if the size of the RTM was reduced and partisan elections were instituted.

Greenwich is not a one party town. Indeed the percentage of registered Republicans is no longer a majority with unaffiliated voters and Democrats collectively outnumbering the GOP. If this Town Charter Revision Commission planned by Peter Tesei is established and the balanced boards are unbalanced and the non-partisan RTM shrunk into a partisan town council we will go back to the bad old days when a small group of party bosses controlled our Town.




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