Letter to the Editor: BET Urged to Approve GHS Auditorium Project

Open letter to the members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation:

The first selectman asked for $28.8 million to fund the Music Instructional Space and Auditorium, or "MISA,” project in the fiscal 2012 capital budget to be acted upon by the Representative Town Meeting in May. His request is before the BET, and I ask that you act to include the MISA project in that budget.

Authority is distributed in Greenwich's government. The first selectman is charged with preparing the capital budget. He does this with the advice of the public and town departments, including the . The capital budget includes a long-term financing recommendation considering both debt and taxation.

The BET has the legal authority to create its own budget, disregarding the first selectman's recommendations, despite the facts of public support and financability; however, it lacks the moral authority of the broadly elected RTM which, by charter, retains the residual authority of the Town and the specific authority to reduce or eliminate expenditures from the budget. The RTM is fully capable of deciding whether the Town wants and should have MISA at the expected $28.8 million price. The BET should confine itself to deciding how best to finance the project together with the other operating and capital items. The BET should resist the temptation to disregard the public's and departments' stated program priorities and not over-ride the express priorities of the first selectman and the electorate. The RTM is fully capable of carrying-out these tasks and reducing the budget accordingly.

The BET only has the authority to leave MISA in the fiscal 2012 budget or remove it. It does not have the authority to move it to 2013 or 2014 as some members have been quoted as suggesting. MISA is essentially ready-to-go. It has its land use permits; its construction documents are nearly complete and ready for bidding; it has a volunteer and paid management structure in place, and it has initiated discussions with the Connecticut Bureau of School Facilities regarding state capital cost reimbursement. To eliminate it from financing in 2012 will halt this work and effectively kill the project. The project team will disperse, permits will expire, and regulations may change, in effect abandoning much of the work of the last four years. At this stage, deferral is equivalent to killing the project.

Respectfully,

Robert K. Brady

16 Terrace Avenue

Riverside, CT 06878

Mr. Brady is a 50-year Town resident, a District 5/Riverside RTM Member, Chairman of the RTM Education Committee and a member of the MISA Building Committee. His two daughters are graduates of the Greenwich Public School System.