Capital Projects - Over 6 Million Dollars of Tax Payer Money Wasted

Consider two properties purchased by the town with good intentions but because of the lack of due diligence ended up wasting taxpayer money. The first house on Durham Road was purchased to make way for a new intersection, but it could not be demolished because it was historic. The town bought a 2nd house next to the community center to be torn down to allow for additional parking. Again the town could not knock it down and use it for its intended purpose because it was also deemed to be historic. $721, 000 of taxpayer dollars! More recently the town will be purchasing the Mooring restaurant property for 3M dollars despite the property being appraised at only $972,600. It is not clear if the town exercised a reasonable level of due diligence regarding this purchase either. It is unclear if they considered the restaurant operator’s interest in the property. So now the town is embroiled in yet another lawsuit, this one with the restaurant owner, Mooring Inc. in conjunctions with this capital purchase. The BOE has completed a project to consolidate the school administrators into what is often referred to as the old science wing at the high school. The project, ‘595 New England Road Renovations’, began with a bonding request from taxpayers for $ 993,888. At that time I had an expectation that the buildings the administrators currently resided in would be sold to offset the cost. I did NOT believe the approximately 1M to remodel the building was a good value to taxpayers and recommended the request be rejected. In subsequent years the school asked for an additional $309,060 for ‘Fixtures and Furnishings’ and another $367,640 for ‘Fitness Center Equipment Upgrades’. With various cost overruns this project will costs taxpayers an estimated 2.8M dollars and the buildings the administrators have vacated will not be sold to recover any of that cost. What is so discouraging about this boondoggle is I believe it provides absolutely no measurable benefits to students, parents or teachers. 

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High Taxes

In my role on the Guilford Board of Finance I often flushed out budget items that I found to be excessive or that did not provide sufficient value to residents. I will communicate just a few here but keep in mind there are many.

Over 10M of budget surpluses, not a penny returned to tax payers!

First how many residents are aware that we have had a surplus in all of the last eight budget cycles. In seven of those years the surplus was in excess of $1M and in three of the eight years the surplus was larger than the tax increase. Were those tax increases even necessary?

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Half of the town budget increase for 3 studies

In the last budget cycle almost half of the town’s $1.4M budget increase was due to three studies. 

$300,000 Joint Study: “Planning for Sea Level Rise - Septic Systems & Water Supplies in Low-lying Coastal Zones”

$130,000 P&R - Master Park Plan

$250,000 Rt. 1 Commercial Corridor Master Plan

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More school spending with no benefit to students

Since adding safety monitors and lunch room aides to the BOE budget using ARPA funds and those grants drying up the taxpayer is now dishing out an additional $460,806 a year for these new positions. This new staff represents 15% this years BOE increase. While these positions make teacher's jobs easier, I do NOT think they add enough value to students and educational outcomes.

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ARPA Grants

The use of American Rescue Plans Act (ARPA) funds has been a huge issue for me. The school and town have over the years hired additional staff with the temporary ARPA grants. ARPA guidance warns that the limited and one time grants should not be used for permanent hires. But when the funds dried up instead of letting the positions expire the new staff was hired permanently. Tax payers are stuck with the bill and our local government continues to expand. Even my opponent has warned multiple times that temporary revenue sources should not be used to fund ongoing expenditures yet the town has retained at least four full time positions after the ARPA money ran out. The school has hired and retained even more. 

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Open Space – Taxpayers on the hook for $5.5M 

The town has committed to the purchase of $5.5M Open space purchases. This is a significant amount of money and whether it is paid with local funds or a combination of state and local funds taxpayers will pick up the tab. While I believe open space can provide benefits to any town I have come to the conclusion that Guilford already has an abundance of open space and that this money should be used for other priorities or left in tax payers' pockets. Chat GPT estimates open space in Guilford as high as 53% or 16,001 out of 30,080 total acres. The open space purchases in Guilford and by the State are also removing property from the market that could potentially be developed into much needed housing and help ease the housing emergency.

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Local Control of Zoning Infringed

1st Selectman Hoey supported a methadone clinic locating in Guilford and our zoning regulations allowed for this use without any restrictions or public hearings. As your 1st Selectman, I will propose a revision to the regulations to ensure that addiction clinics will only be permitted in industrial zone areas with special permit applications and establish minimum distances that addiction clinics can be located from individual residences, schools, daycare facilities and churches. As your 1st Selectman I will place the rights of home owners first before addicts. 

I believe acceptance of grants from the Connecticut Municipal Development Authority (CMDA) could come with strings which may infringe upon local control over planning and zoning. I will recommend that Guilford withdraw from the CMDA which the BOS voted to join in June of 2025. 

I will enforce Town Green Use rules requiring that an application be filled out, an application fee be paid, and an authorization vote by the Board of Selectmen. None of these procedures were followed this year for the “Hands Off” rally, the “May Day” rally, the “Earth Day” rally, the “Guilford Pride” event, the “No Kings” rally, or the “No Kings 2” rally.

I will work to revise the zoning regulations to remove a provision that now requires EVERY building permit application be filed with zoning permit application. This extra bureaucracy and additional fee is not necessary for routine building applications.

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The Minority Rules Circumvented

I believe this is the most important issue in Guilford. Our town charter provides that the dominant party can hold no more than the majority of seats on a given board or commission. These rules are important because they moderate the dominate party, facilitate diversity of thought, and often result in solutions that serve a broader range of residents. But these rules have been skirted and our boards and commissions are out of balance. In 2021 the Democrat and Guilford Independent Party (GIP) in their own words formed a “fusion party” to circumvent the minority rules and effectively eliminate the voice of the second largest voting block in Guilford on the BOE. This assault on the minority rules continues today. On 12 key boards and commissions the GIP representation is 36% even though they make up only 3.5% of registered voters. While republican representation is 11% despite being 34% of registered voters. The Democrat and GI fusion party now have their sites on the BOF. Please be aware that this collusion corrupts the spirit and vision of the minority rules and leaves our Boards and Commissions in an unbalanced state. Please do NOT support the Democrat and Trojan Democrats (Guilford Independents) One Party Rule.

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Every election cycle YOU have the opportunity to vote for a candidate that will truly advocate for your interests. Not the interests of government workers, administrators, unions, or NGOs but YOUR INTERESTS. I am that candidate. I will always consider the interests of residents and tax payers first and my priorities are with students, parents, and teachers not administrators.

 

I bring to the table a philosophy of government that is simple but so critical. Government should stay out of your affairs and out of your pocket to the greatest extent possible. As your first selectman I will relentlessly work to make our town government operate more efficiently and reduce regulations. I will choose priorities that bring the community together and improve the infrastructure and financial footing of our town. I will utilize a cost benefit approach when considering every budget item and only pursue spending that provides real and measurable value to residents.

 

I am not running for BOE but I believe the school is the heart of our community and as your 1st Selectman I will pursue school infrastructure that is efficient and provides modern state of the art facilities. I will encourage the BOE to return the focus of our schools to traditional education with the goal of making Guilford a top 10 school.