Dunn gets another two years to manage public sector hurdles

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Steve Dunn has earned the right to continue to work at least 60 hours a week for 17,500 bosses and develop budgets that take at least five months to complete in contrast to the three-week private sector schedule.

Dunn garnered 56.13 percent of the vote in the November 5 municipal election against Republican Economic Development Commission member Mel Butow.

Generally speaking, 55 percent and above is considered to be in the comfort zone, but the plurality was different than the 66 percent he annexed in 2015 when first elected.

“I think the first election [in 2015] was a bit of a fluke,” Dunn said in an interview. “I think a lot of unaffiliated and Republican voters decided to support us because of the issues in town. People wanted significant change. I think those people [have since] gone back to their normal voting patterns.”

There also was a 43 percent turnout compared to the 49 percent in 2015.

Republican First Selectman Bill Tinsley had pled “no contest” to charges in Vermont of taking receipts from a liquor store where he worked prior to becoming first selectman. The News-Times of Danbury reported that Tinsley labeled his plea a “financial decision” and called the charges “frivolous.”

The GOP also sought to purge two members from the registration rolls.

Dunn indicated during his initial campaign four years ago that he needed to get more Democrats elected to boards and commissions so his efforts weren’t nullified.

The party added seats in 2015, although the Republicans and A Brookfield Party combined still held a majority of the positions, but there were enough persuadable Republicans that Dunn was able to succeed at getting many of his initiative enacted.

The Democrats then took control of the municipal government during the 2017 election when he captured a second term.

Those conditions largely remain intact following the 2019 balloting, except for the Republicans taking a majority on the Board of Finance, which Dunn serves on as an ex-officio member.

However, Dunn said he is confident considering the roster of Board of Finance members that they “will do the right thing” for Brookfield.

He said he believes he has helped foster more bipartisanship, noting, for example, that for the first time in years the boards of Selectmen, Finance and Education hold a joint meeting to discuss the budget. He said that the Board of Education chairman now provides a monthly progress report on its fiscal activities to the Board of Finance.

Although the plurality was smaller, Dunn’s victory was significant in that he is the only first selectman since Republican Bonnie Smith, who was defeated in 1999 after six terms, to win at least three terms.

In the last six municipal elections, the Democrats have captured the first selectman’s race five times and lost the other by just 81 votes. In the six municipal elections prior to that period, they didn’t even field a candidate in four of them.

Dunn said during his tenure he has been aided by “the most energized and engaged town committee that I’m aware of.” He has said through his tenure that the number of volunteers doing canvassing and participating in phone banks has increased considerably over the previous years.

Preparations are under way for an inaugural ceremony in early December for all of the winning candidates in the municipal election.

During the campaign, Butow and Dunn endorsed extending the term of office from two to four years, as Ridgefield and Bridgewater have done in recent years.

“Next year we’re probably going to talk about it,” Dunn said in an apparent reference to seeking discussion by a future Charter Revision Commission.

“There are some very big advantages to a four-year term,” the first selectman said. “You take office, you do your job then you have to run for re-election starting about April of the second year. It’s a six month process that takes a lot of time.”

He has canvassed neighborhoods and appeared at fund-raising house parties during each of his three campaigns.

“I don’t know of a town that has changed from four [years] back to two [years),” added Dunn.

Dunn said he opposes the recent suggestion by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill (D-Hartford) that the state consider consolidating its elections by holding the municipal races during the even-numbered years when either the gubernatorial or the presidential campaigns are also taking place and generate much larger turnout than the less than 50 percent of the eligible voters who typically participate in an odd-numbered year election in the municipal races.

Dunn said that would give “short shrift” to the municipal races.

“The municipal election is all that’s up for grabs,” Dunn explained. “People are talking about municipal issues” in the odd-numbered years.

The first selectman said he supports the proposal by former U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who is running for his party's presidential nomination, to make election day, even during the odd-numbered years, a national holiday in an effort to boost turnout.

Dunn will get a salary increase as in January the annual pay for first selectman will go from $90,691 to $100,346. He said the Board of Finance voted to set the increase for January so that it would take effect after the start of the new term and no one would be voting for a salary increase that would take effect immediately.

Brookfield Patch has reported that Town Treasurer John Lucas, who was elected to a second, four-year term in the municipal election, said town officials took that step so that the salary would be comparable to other suburban towns in Connecticut.

Dunn said, “I have 120 employees and 25 of them make more [money] than I do.”

“I’m working between 60 and 70 hours a week including weekends,” he exclaimed.

“[The higher salary] will get candidates that will run during their business careers because they wouldn’t be hurt financially,” said Dunn. “However, I don’t think you’ll ever get to the private sector level of salaries.”

“I don’t think you’re going to get many 45-year-olds that can live on $70,000 a year with three kids,” he said.

“You will attract a better level of candidates,” Dunn declared.

In Connecticut state government, officials have been skittish about salary increases, apparently because of fears of opposition from constituents.

Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich), a wealthy former businessman, does not accept the annual $150,000 salary, which is tied for 18th highest in country. However, it has not increased since it went from $78,000 to $150,000 in 2003. That was the first time it had been boosted since 1987.

The members of the General Assembly have a base salary of $28,000, which hasn’t increased since 2002.

In 2014 CT Mirror reported that some legislative leaders indicated that they couldn’t increase salaries during a recession, but that higher compensation would attract a more diverse legislative body.

On another topic, in making a comparison, Dunn, a retired vice president of J.P Morgan Chase, said the public sector is more complex than the private sector.

“There are many hurdles in the public sector that don’t apply in the private sector,” the first selectman said “If a company decided to discontinue a product line we could make the decision in 15 minutes. If we wanted to do something similar in the town side, you would have to build a consensus and give all the impacted parties an opportunity to give you their opinion.”

“I have 17,500 bosses,” he said, referring to Brookfield’s current population. “In the private sector you have one boss.”

Dunn said in private sector, you often start formulating your budget in late November and it’s done before December 15th.

“In Brookfield, you start in December and at the earliest finish in May – five months,” the first selectman noted. “Three weeks versus five months. In the public sector, everyone gets a chance to have input.”

Former Democratic Selectman John Osborne, who served from 1997 to 2001, said he respected the town meeting form of government but thought it was outdated for a town the size of Brookfield since a small group of people could come to an auditorium and seriously alter municipal policies that might negatively impact thousands of people.

“That’s absolutely true,” said Dunn. “I support the town meeting form of government. I don’ think there is one instance where things went off the tracks [since I became first selectman.] But that could happen if you got a group of people – one-issue voters – who want to drastically change things. But most people are reasonable and fair.”

“The more input you get the better results you’re going to get,” he said regarding the need to seek comment from multiple sources.

The late Louis Koenig, the New York University presidential scholar, wrote in “The Chief Executive” that a president need to have more power and too often he is hamstrung through the provincial interests of members of Congress and an electorate that is too often disinterested.

Even after former President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974 following the Watergate scandal, Koenig wrote in the 1975 edition of the book, “I still contend that the United States and humankind needs a strong Presidency to deal sufficiently with a lengthy agenda of problems – inflation, unemployment, food, energy, health, housing poverty, arms control.”

Should the first selectman have more power?

“I don’t feel hamstrung,” Dunn said. “I feel I have to go through a process with the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance to get things approved. But that’s a good thing. I don’t think one person should be able to spend $1 million without a consensus. On the national level it’s that way [being hamstrung]. But I don’t see that on the local level.”

Smith, the former long-time first selectman, told the Brookfield Journal in 1999 as she was departing office that her successor, Republican Martin Foncello, would discover that “there is no power” in the office since, for example, “you can’t spend any money unless the Board of Finance approves it.”

On another topic, Dunn said the selectman were about to seek requests for proposal from law firms interested in serving as the town attorney.

“It’s a major appointment,” said Dunn.

Smith, a Republican, said some years ago that some of her supporters were upset when she was initially elected in 1987 that she chose William McNamara, the town attorney from her predecessor, Democrat Ken Keller, since he was a Democrat who had worked in a Democratic administration.

In 2003, Jerry Murphy, a Republican, won his first term on a slogan of “Leadership Not Legal Fees,” an apparent reference to the spiraling legal costs under then-First Selectman Martin Foncello, also a Republican.

When Democratic First Selectman Bill Davidson nominated David Grogins of Cohen and Wolf in Danbury over the team of Tom Beecher and Fran Collins of Danbury in early 2010, he called it one of the toughest decisions of his career. Beecher and Collins had been the town attorneys for the preceding six years under two different first selectmen.

Dunn said part of the reason that it is a major appointment is that the town attorney’s law firm receives a $60,000 retainer and the legal fees for all of the attorneys representing the town government usually cost about $180.000 annually.

Four years ago, the Board of Selectmen voted to retain Beecher, who had also served the previous two years under Tinsley.

There has been controversy in early 2015 when Beecher said that a petition to hold a special town meeting on education spending didn’t conform to the town charter, which according to a report in The News-Times conflicted with an opinion that he had issued weeks earlier before the petition was circulated.

Democratic Selectman Sue Slater told Brookfield Patch in early 2016 that Dunn did his “due diligence” in speaking with municipal officials that had interacted with Beecher and that he was the best candidate for the position.

“We knew that he would hit the ground running,” Dunn said of Beecher, who had served as the town attorney under three previous Brookfield administrations and served in that position in the late 1990s and early 2000s under former New Milford Republican Mayor Art Peitler.

“Tom is incredibly responsive,” said the first selectman. “He is very knowledgeable.”

“We have no complaints or concerns with our present town attorney,” Dunn said. “But every four years we should see what is available on the market.”

He noted that following requests for proposals the town recently hired a new bond counsel and a new financial advisor.

The first selectman said some residents might be surprised at how many hours the town attorney works per week on municipal issues.

“I speak with our town attorney at least three or four times a week on town issues,” said Dunn.

“We have to get it right the first time,” he explained. “In the private sector you can run around and develop things and if it didn’t work out the way you wanted, we can go back to square one. You can’t do that in a municipality. You’ve got to be right from the get-go.”

Dunn said he believes the selectmen will be ready by late January to vote on the appointment of the town counsel for the new term.

The first selectman said the town has received less municipal aid from the state in each of his four years in office – to the point that 40 percent of the tax increase for the current fiscal year was due to the most recent reduction.

He expects that trend will continue.

“Residents will have to understand that we’re going to have to pay for more of it ourselves,” said Dunn regarding the operating budget and possible state reimbursements for capital projects, such as the proposed police headquarters renovations and the establishment of new activities at Center Elementary School after in closes in 2022.

On a separate subject, he said he opposes Lamont’s revised tolls program that would establish 14 gantries and would partly dedicated to repairing bridges near those gantries. Lamont had proposed a more ambitious plan in February that would have erected at least 50 gantries across Connecticut.

Among his objections, is the way the state spends money when it establishes new revenue sources. Dunn noted that when the state lottery was established in 1972 all of the proceeds were supposed to go to education, which hasn’t happened.

He said he also agrees with state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides (R-Derby), who has said the tolls won’t be eliminated in 10 years, as Lamont has indicated, after sufficient revenue has been raised to fund the $21 billion transportation program.

Said Dunn, “Once you eliminate a revenue stream you have to replace it.”