Lincoln's Log

What’s really behind the very unusual and very public spat over the funding of the town’s emergency coordinator position?

See article from the Greenwich Time

Greenwich insiders say the rift had nothing to do with the money and everything to do with the man who holds the position, Dan Warzoha. The insiders say several members of the BET simply detest Warzoha. They include some of the most influential and outspoken members of the board whose personal animus for Warzoha goes back years.

The board’s recent actions to cut the funding brought an unusually public rebuke from First Selectman Peter Tesei who heretofore has been joined at the hip with the BET on all matters financial.

But a closer look will reveal that Tesei’s campaign manager in his successful re-election bid last fall was none other than Steve Warzoha, son of said emergency coordinator. The insiders point out that Steve Warzoha is a close friend – if not best friend – of said First Selectman.

Isn’t it comforting to know that while Greenwich suffers from the worst natural calamity to hit the town in almost 20 years – with one fatality and millions in lost property – our elected officials are engaged in such trivial pursuits?

In Greenwich, politics isn’t just local, it’s personal.

Greenwich Point finally opened to public access today. At least six sailboats were blown off their stands.

While the Greenwich legislative delegation – also known as the Feckless Foursome – were at yet another self-promoting PR event on Friday, there was actually some good news coming out of Hartford.

A move to wrest control away from the state siting council – which has complete authority to approve cell tower locations – got an important committee endorsement at the state legislature. Click here for article

Connecticut is one of only three states with such siting councils. Citizens in Greenwich have recently protested loudly various efforts to locate these towers, especially one which would violate the deeded trust of the Greenwich Pinetum, one of the most precious and beautiful open spaces in town.

I have no idea whether this bill has any chance of passage, but it seems to me our local legislators ought to be supporting it instead of grandstanding behind yet another one of their bills that was nothing more than a publicity stunt – the proposal to keep cell towers 750 feet away from any school (who came up with that arbitrary distance?)

More and more, the Greenwich legislators have made themselves irrelevant in Hartford with their outspoken ideology. They have isolated themselves in a way that doesn’t serve any of our interests. As Hartford takes more and more of my personal income, makes my commute to Manhattan a hellish experience and treats Greenwich like the idiot cousin with a trust fund, the Feckless Foursome can only bark back with meaningless rhetoric instead of going to work in the Capital hallways to cut deals, smooth relationships and get us the best outcomes.

There was a time when fiscally conservative Republican legislators were extremely effective in Fairfield County. Today, we get only preachy, political haiku from the likes of Rep. Lile Gibbon, whose only purpose, it seems, is to get re-elected. (Dear Rep. Gibbon, please take me off your mailing list and save the first class stamp … I need to hear real solutions and not more right wing moralistic pronouncements such as your condescending “Common Sense” commandments.)

An of course, there was fumbling Fred Camillo, who had to withdraw his own domestic violence legislation because he didn’t understand the issues. Click here for article in the Greenwich Time

Can it get any worse?

BET and BOE members would do well to remind themselves occasionally that they were not elected. They were the beneficiaries of an archaic system by which both major parties put up the same number of candidates. The ensuing “election” was a mere formality since these positions were not contested.

On the other hand the first selectmen in Greenwich has truly met the test of the electorate. He is, in my opinion, the ultimate authority in town, especially Peter Tesei, the current chief executive who won by a landslide.

So I was particularly heartened to have read in this morning’s Greenwich Time that Tesei is questioning whether the BET has overstepped its bounds. Click here for article.

The BET lately has been acting more like a faceless, junior accountant than a finance board charged with setting policy in a government with a $340 million budget. Ever since School Supt. Sid Freund told them they were doing a poor job of managing our school facilities, the BET has been on a tear – questioning everything from the value of magnet schools to physical ed programs to funding the town’s emergency coordinator (how about a little payback to go with your criticism, Sid?).

Finally, Tesei said “enough!”

Stand down, BET, and listen to Tesei. Let the chief executive run the town. Let the professional educators run the schools. The first selectman has a judgment day every two years. The school chief has a three-year contract. Besides, Greenwich has more than its share of fiscal challenges, such as pension obligations, shrinking revenue sources and a declining physical infrastructure. The BET ought to help us manage those challenges rather than micromanaging the town with a No. 2 leaded pencil.

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Am I the only one having second thoughts about renewing membership at the Griff, the town’s golf course which is up to $145 a year in fees (not counting greens fees)? last year I took to playing at Westport’s Longshore Golf Course which is about the same distance from my house in Riverside. Nine holes there cost me $33. The Griff is $20.

But the membership fees at the Griff for a husband and wife is up to $290. That’s at least enough to give me pause. In the end I will probably pony up the dough, but I’ll bet I’m not the only one who is not rushing to write the check.

(Last year was a terrible year at the Griff. Lots of fungus. The greens were uneven. No. 13 and 14 were wet the entire summer. The green at No. 16 never filled out. Be nice if the course got back to where it was three years ago.)

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I almost left my car registration in the copying machine when I went to make copies for the annual “proof of residency” rite in Greenwich. For the want of a beach pass, it’s amazing the hoops we Greenwich residents have to jump through to fill out the necessary paperwork.

It’s my annual lament. Why can’t the Friars of Field Point Road simplify the process given the technology capabilities of today? They already have all the data concerning my assessment, my personal property taxes, my marine permit fees, my golf membership, etc … Why can’t they hire a programmer to consolidate all this easily and have all the departments be given access?

(Let’s just hope I remember to put my registration back in the glove compartment.)

Greenwich BOE member Michael Bodson’s hissy fit in the Greenwich Time on Tuesday would lead one to believe that Bodson had a front row seat during he recent BET meeting at which School Supt. Sid Freund told the finance board, “I don’t think you’ve done a good job improving and maintaining your facilities (based) on what I’ve seen in other districts a lot less affluent.”

In fact Bodson wasn’t even there, as verified by several who attended the meeting on Feb. 11.

Click here for Bodson’s letter to the editor

Yet, he was able to state with such clarity that “during the meeting there were no comments that came close to the blanket criticism that your headline implies.” The headline was, “Freund gives town low marks on schools upkeep.”

Now, it’s perfectly understandable that Bodson and other long-time members of the BOE would be put on the defensive given all that which has happened to the schools under their watch the last four or five years – the embarrassing delays of the Ham Ave School construction, the “lost years” under Betty Sternberg, the declining performance on standardized testing, etc …

Still, that’s no reason to misrepresent – or worse, prevaricate. Bodson clearly gave the impression in his letter that he was witness to the entire discussion between Freund and the BET. Fact was he was not.

Let me repeat what Freund said according to the beat reporter of the Greenwich Time who covered the meeting in person:

“I DON’T THINK YOU’VE DONE A GOOD JOB IMPROVING OR MAINTAINING YOUR FACILITIIES ….”

That, Michael Bodson, is what Sid Freund actually said, no matter how much spin you and other revisionist board members would like to imagine (or hope) was said.

Last fall, someone stole an 8-horsepower Honda four-stroke outboard right off my sailboat only a few days after I had pulled it out of the water and put it on stands at Greenwich Point. Boatowners being not the most sensible creatures to begin with are amazingly resilient to all sorts of unexpected woes. We have a special gene that inures us to a variety of pain – particularly pain of the pocketbook type. Only a week after I bought my boat in 2006 I lost the forward sail in a storm with gusts that exceeded 50 mph. In the summer of 2007 the mast almost came down when the forward stay snapped. Only the roller furling held it up and prevented total catastrophe on the high seas (well, medium seas given that it’s Long Island Sound).

But the theft was different. It was a personal violation. I had lulled myself into thinking that Greenwich point offered a sense of security because access to the Point required an ID. The warm bath of that protective aura turned into a cold shower.

The worst is that they no longer make a motor of similar specifications. I loved my Honda because it had an extra long shaft and weighed only about 80 pounds. My son and I could lift it onto the transom bracket with ease. They have since replaced that motor with one that weighs nearly 120 pounds and with a head the size of a riding lawn mower.

Now, with the nice weather coming I will embark on a serious search for a replacement motor (My kingdom for an 8 hp extra-long shaft outboard weighing 80 pounds!)

By July all will be back to normal.

But I doubt that I will ever regain the innocence for Greenwich Point that I once felt.

Here is the predictable letter to the editor of the local paper from school supt Sid Freund who is trying to get off the hot seat for his off-the-cuff comment last Thursday night to the BET about Greenwich’ lack of support for its schools.

click here for letter

Notice that Freund did not challenge the accuracy of the reporting. Yet he characterized the article as “sensational.”

The situation with our schools has clearly reached the point that
even Freund felt the need to speak out publicly.This is a fact that needs to be broadcast often so that everyone is aware.

Freund needs to be a champion of our children’s future and protect them from the slash-and-cut mentality of the BET. The superintendent need not apologize for doing his job.

Sid Freund has really stepped in it now.

Not only did he take the town’s finance board to the woodshed Thursday night for short-changing the schools, he did it by questioning our temple of fiscal temperance – Greenwich’s miniscule mill rate. Imagine the calls Freund must have gotten Friday morning from members of our obsequious school board.

“Have you lost your mind, Sid?”

“The last thing we need is a former Westchester superintendent to be calling for tax increases.”

“Hey Sid, let us tell you how things are done in Greenwich.”

Expect Freund to submit a letter-to-the-editor “clarifying” his comments in front of the BET.

Too late Sid. (Just for the record, Freund knew that Colin Gustafson, the Greenwich Time reporter was covering the meeting … What did he expect would happen after he dropped his bomb?)

Click here for article in the Greenwich Time

BTW, the decline in the Greenwich schools is not news to most of us. It’s apparently news to the BET though.

Here is another article that speaks to the subject which appeared in the local paper:

Click here