MAYOR JIM MIRON RESPONSE

TO CONNECTICUT POST EDITORIAL

From the first day I took the oath of office as Stratford’s first Mayor in 2005, I have worked hard everyday on behalf of the residents of our Town. This includes the weeks since the November 3rd election, despite the Connecticut Post’s recent editorial to the contrary.

In addition to conducting the usual and varied day-to-day management functions of being Mayor since November 3rd, I have:

• Implemented a spending and hiring freeze for the fourth consecutive year (the last three resulted in budget surpluses) to ensure the budget is adhered to
• Worked with the Finance Director and Chief Administrative Officer in closing a $5.3 million bond anticipation note sale
• Reviewed the 2009 Grand List Revaluation with my administration
• Ensured project completion on the Shakespeare Theater Roof
• Ensured infrastructure projects at the Boothe Memorial Park continued
• Participated in meetings regarding the next steps at Long Beach West
• Facilitated the EMS Facility construction
• Worked to resolve issues regarding the Animal Control Facility
• Received updates regarding H1N1 and ensured clinics were provided for

There has also been the not-so-small issue of the first Mayoral transition in Town history that I have been working on with my administration. The professional department heads of my administration are ensuring that their day-to-day activities of excellent service delivery to our Townspeople continue at the same time they participate in the transition to a new Mayor and administration.

During my four years as Mayor, I have learned an unfortunate lesson: that there are some people that will never respect you. Regardless of the purity of your motives, no matter the quality of your reasoning, no matter how hard you work, they will seek to tear you down and destroy you. These people do not care about the truth or have an interest in respectful discourse when there is a difference of opinion. All that matters to them is winning their personal and/or political point.

These people are the masters of the politics of personal destruction that do a disservice to this Town and people that want to serve in public office. Unfortunately, this rude and disrespectful behavior long predated my Administration and me in Stratford and frankly, I see no end to this behavior because, politically speaking, it works.

Unfortunately, that is the case with our current Town Council, the Stratford Fire Union leadership, and even the Stratford reporter for the Connecticut Post, Richard Weizel. Each have demonstrated time again their unwillingness to listen and respect differences of opinion, reason and facts. Instead, they practice sensationalism and engage in outrageous and empty attacks for their own personal and political gain.

For example, I have had an over 90% attendance record at Town Coucil meetings, regular and special, over the last four years and yet these people try to make an issue out of my missing a few non-essential meetings in the last few weeks. Missing a few special meetings conducted by the adversarial lame duck Council has had no adverse impact on operations and my attendance would have achieved nothing, other than provide more fodder for my political opponents and Mr. Weizel. My job as Mayor is to do what is in the best of interest of the Town, not to create political theater.

Another example of these people’s politics of personal destruction has to do with the recent discussion regarding fire trucks. Much has been made of the recent call for the no-bid purchase of two fire trucks amounting to over $800,000 in taxpayer money. But before determining whether or not this no-bid purchase would be good for the Town and should be approved, we must first ask who stands to benefit from the “deal”.

Unfortunately, it is not Stratford residents.

Under the Town Code, any purchase for goods that exceeds $7,500 must be publically bid. The Mayor, in extraordinary circumstances, may make an exception if an emergency is declared. However, circumstances warranting an emergency simply do not exist. The expenditure of almost one million dollars far exceeds the threshold for public bidding. Simply put, these trucks ought to be publically bid.

There are two justifications that the proponents of the no-bid contract offer in support of circumventing the bidding process. First, they claim that there is an “emergency” and that the public will be at risk if the Town does not engage in the no-bid purchase. However, just saying there is an emergency does not make it so. The burden is on those seeking the no-bid contract to explain why the exception is necessary, and the proponents of this no-bid contract have not met that threshold. For sure, Stratford needs a new fire truck, but it is irresponsible to claim there is an emergency that warrants the waiving of the bidding process.

Second, proponents of the no-bid purchase claim that the Town is being offered such a “bargain deal” on the fire trucks that to allow this opportunity to pass would be financially unwise. Are they really implying that the Town should circumvent the law concerning bidding every time there is a sale or if they feel we have been offered a good deal? That would make a mockery of the Town Code and invite corruption. In fact, for four years the Fire Department has insisted that a “Rescue Pumper” be built to “Stratford specifications”. Neither of these trucks are a “Rescue Pumper” and both fall short of those specifications. The “buy it, it’s on sale” argument is something that we should not do with our own personal finances at home and the Town should not either. You buy something because it is what you need not because someone has put it “on sale”; at least that is what the fiscally responsible thing to do is.

So, all of this begs the question, why is a no-bid contract being fought for two new, not built to specification, fire trucks totaling almost one million dollars?

There is no doubt that new fire trucks are needed in our Town, and I have fought for funding for such trucks since becoming Mayor four years ago. In fact, I helped engineer a bidding process late last year that would have provided a new fire truck with all of the specifications requested by the Town Fire Department (specifications, once again, that the two no-bid fire trucks do not meet). Unfortunately, then-Fire Chief John Cybart derailed this process by demonstrating, at best, a gross lack of judgment when he knowingly appointed a Department Lieutenant to the committee that was to select the winning bid who at the time also worked for a company owned by a former Republican Town Coucil Chairman that was seeking to be awarded the bid. Unfortunately, it was not Mr. Cybart’s first time using poor judgment when it came to this Coucilman and obtaining fire trucks for the Town.

Even if that process had not been derailed by the former Chief’s actions, the Town would still be without a new fire truck today due to the substantial time needed to design and build the apparatus requested by the Stratford Fire Department. Interestingly, no one had a problem with the length of time to wait, until now. Proponents of the no-bid contract may claim that the recent fire related tragedies in our Town create a new sense of urgency, but there is not one shred of evidence that shows that the outcome of those fires would have been any different if the Town had new trucks.

The whole purpose of having legal requirements for bids on contracts over a certain dollar threshold is to protect the public as much as possible from cronyism, bid rigging and corruption and even the appearance of impropriety.

We must not ignore that former Republican Town Council Chairman James Feehan owns the company that organized this $805,000 no-bid deal, New England Fire Equipment & Apparatus Co. This is an obvious case where, in addition to merely following the law, avoiding the appearance of impropriety is important to ethical government.

This is not the first time Mr. Feehan’s company has been involved in Stratford. In 2002, Mr. Feehan was arrested while a member of the Town Council for allegedly trying to steer officials into buying a fire truck from his company. Those allegations could not be proved and, importantly, a Judge of the Superior Court cleared Mr. Feehan of any wrongdoing, however his company’s involvement here should make everyone want to ensure every “I’ is dotted and every “t” is crossed and that all procedures are followed. I am sure Mr. Feehan feels the same way.

In this case, there is no “emergency” and our law regarding public bidding ought to be followed. Stratford’s public officials, both present and future, must act cautiously here.

For the above-mentioned reasons, I will not sign the “emergency” order to purchase new fire trucks by circumventing the legally required bidding process.