Letters to the editor

Renewed hope

I just wanted to express how extraordinarily proud I am to be a member of this community. This past Saturday, a labor of love was created as several people worked together toward a common goal -- a higher purpose -- to help the people of Haiti.

As a very active Realtor, I am honored to be involved with many charity events and fund-raisers. But Saturday Night was truly special. Band Together, (founded by Jerry Vigorito & Robert Fried), state Rep. Tony Hwang, and the Fairfield Theatre Company (Miles Marek), joined forces to create a truly magical evening: A Concert for Haiti.

The strength, the love, the power, the hope, the compassion, the magic -- not only on the stage but throughout the theater -- was life-changing. I was deeply moved by the generosity and kindness offered by so many. Tears rolled down the cheeks of listeners as four students from Central High School stood on stage to honor loved ones lost in Haiti. The music was remarkable, the voices were awe-inspiring, the people, beyond beautiful.

Thank you Jerry, Rob, Tony, Miles, all the amazingly talented artists, the Red Cross and all the people who came in support of such a humbling cause. There is renewed hope in Fairfield because of your efforts and I feel blessed to have witnessed such a significant event.

Julie Vanderblue

Fairfield

Republican agenda?

In the weeks since the State of the Town address, the Republican spin machine has been taking First Selectman Ken Flatto to task for not addressing hot button issues such as the pension shortfall and the Fairfield Metro Center. In fact, the coverage makes it clear, the Republican-led RTM has an agenda, one they have yet to share.

On the one hand, they talk about wanting to work in a bipartisan fashion and then on the other, slap their fellow Republicans in the face.

A local news source last week talked about the shift in the balance of power and how certain pending ordinances from the previous term would not be coming up for discussion. The one singled out was former representative Heather Dean's reusable bag ordinance, modeled after the successful Westport program. Jamie Millington, majority leader, was quoted in the media as saying, "We have no intention of revisiting that ordinance. We're not going to be looking at any ordinance that would have a strong adverse affect on the operations or financial well being of Fairfield businesses. Right now we need to keep every small business in Fairfield, especially small family owned businesses."

And yet, the ordinance last fall was being sponsored by four Republicans and four Democrats, several of whom were re-elected to office. Why on earth would Millington disrespect his own party and the bipartisan process? And for him to say the ordinance would have a strong adverse effect before even studying the details shows a disturbing lack of regard for assessing the facts before making a decision.

He and his colleagues have made a big deal about our town's budget and yet, when it came time to make cuts last year, the Republicans refused to make any. And the year before, a majority of Republicans voted against the budget to signal their displeasure at the process. In fact, Millington stood at the microphone, lambasted the method of budgeting and suggested the town look at alternative methods, such as zero-based budgeting.

Since that well-intentioned suggestion was offered, neither Millington nor any other Republican member of the RTM led the charge to work with the first selectman and the chief fiscal officer to examine new ways of approaching the budget to seek the very savings they expect to find when the town budget is released in a few weeks. This demonstrated a concerning obsession with politics before governance. The people of Fairfield expect and deserve better.

That's not the kind of leadership the voters expected when they handed the reins of the town over to a Republican-led Board of Finance and RTM.

Bob Greenberger

Fairfield

Why I'm running

I recently announced my candidacy to run for the Connecticut state House of Representatives, in District 132. I want to speak directly to the people of Fairfield to let them know why I'm running.

All my life, I've been passionate about helping individuals improve their lives. This is why I have gravitated to teaching, to working for nonprofit organizations and public service.

When it comes to improving lives, I've learned through the years that government can often do more harm than good, especially when the judgments of elected officials are guided by extreme ideology and political expediency rather than simple common sense.

Unfortunately, we have been experiencing this type of governing in Hartford, where overspending by a Democrat super-majority in our state House of Representatives has led us to a half-billion-dollar deficit. Considering the times, they should be working to reduce spending and ease the tax burden on the residents of Connecticut. Instead, they are proposing new tax increases to make up for their budget shortfalls. It just doesn't make any sense.

This is why I'm running for state Representative in Fairfield. I want to bring common sense leadership to the legislature and stop the short-sighted decision-making that's impeding our prosperity and jeopardizing our children's future. With the right leadership in Hartford, we can turn things around and here's how we do it:

We need to eliminate wasteful spending and set a course for a balanced budget in Hartford. As citizens, we are tightening our financial belts; state government needs to do the same.

We need to make it easier and more affordable to run a business in Connecticut. Only then will we bring jobs back to our communities.

We need to lower our state income taxes. Lower tax rates will promote long-term economic growth by making it easier for people to pay their bills, save and invest. It will also teach Hartford to spend less.

All my life I've been promoting common sense, fiscally conservative principles and I'm ready to take this fight to Hartford. I am asking all registered Republicans in Fairfield to support my candidacy in this upcoming caucus election in May. As your representative, I will look out for your best interest and work toward limiting government, eliminating wasteful spending, balancing the state budget, privatizing non-core government functions, and lowering our tax rates.

So, let's get Connecticut working again and please consider my candidacy for the Republican nomination for State Representative in District 132 (www.chrisdesanctis.com). Thank you.

Chris DeSanctis,

Adjunct Professor, Sacred Heart University,

Fairfield

History repeats itself

History has repeated itself in Massachusetts: the shot heard round the world in 1775.

Is the vote heard round the world in 2010? The people have spoken. Massachusetts long a Democratic stronghold, still a Democratic stronghold, sent a message. Just as the Nobel Peace Prize rewarded to an undeserving Barack Obama was a smack at George Bush, this unprecedented vote is a wake-up call to both the Obama administration and everyone in Congress. The voters don't want empty scripted campaign speeches, we want substance, we want actual transparency and real change. Obama delivered neither so the Democrats in Massachusetts delivered some change of their own.

Proving once again that this system, our parched, yellowed Constitution, the envy of people in every corner of the globe, works. These moments, no matter what side of the fence you may be on, should fill all of us with a sense of awe and pride that this nation functions in a way that few others ever have or ever will.

Tomorrow it will be politics as usual, we will see in short order if Scott Brown is who he says he is, but a message has been sent to all those who sit upon their exalted thrones in Washington, the words of Thomas Paine, "Lead, follow or get out of the way."

Seth Block

Fairfield

The real state

of the town?

I found this rummaging around town hall the other day. It is the Ken Flatto's "real" state of the town speech. He, unfortunately for everybody, read the wrong manuscript before the RTM the other night:

Members of the Representative Town Meeting(RTM) legislative body, fellow elected members of Fairfield's bloated bureaucratic executive branch including the Board of Finance (BOF) and the Board of Education (BOE), paid town officials who rely on my largess to stay on the job long past any demonstrated ability to do the job competently and professionally, and friends -- like I should have any left in town since I have burned just about everybody who helped me get this job 10 years ago, my name is King Ken and I am the first selectman of Fairfield. The state of the town is not good and I am not doing all that well politically either, but isn't the sand at the beach grand? Nevertheless, you must sit there quietly and listen to me without a whine or a whimper because, as you know from past performances, if you don't, one of my minions will call the police and have you removed. If I am unlucky, like I usually am, the cops who respond will know the law, act professionally and let you come back to the room but you will nevertheless have been intimidated by being questioned by an officer of the law with a gun, pepper spray, a baton, a badge, handcuffs and a Taser because that is really the only way I know to keep people in line anymore. But why would you want to listen to me anyway?

I can report that 10 years after initiating a major building program for the town schools we still have a space problem in the schools. My goal 10 years ago was, of course, to make sure that my own kids had ample space in their schools, regardless of the long-range planning for the rest of the town. I did what I had to do to get re-elected and the Republicans have never been all that apt at taking me down, so I just kept doing it. Although as you know, the Republicans started to get their act together and swept the RTM race last fall so now I have to work in a bipartisan fashion since I no longer have a Democrat majority on the RTM to do my bidding.

I still have a Republican dominated Board of Finance (BOF) to deal with but they generally go along with spending money on the school construction program in absence of any long-range plan because they, too, have lots of kids in school but I am still not sure how things will shake out. But let's face it if you are getting $15K (incudes an allowance for debt service on school facilities) a year education in town (like most of the Republicans on the BOF are) for each of your kids when your tax bill like mine is nowhere near $15K, you vote to spend money. Some say bipartisanship is overrated and the Republicans on the BOF year after year prove it when they send out the tax bills for me. We all know there were better ways to solve the school space problem starting 10 years ago but politics in this town is always better than professionalism. The new Republican dominated RTM may push for us to come up with a plan but we will fight them every step of the way with the most outrageous and irrelevant political rhetoric we can. I know how to play the blame game.

As you know, the town got taken to the cleaners under my watch. Bernie Madoff made off with more than $20 million in the town pension fund, which I watched over as co-chairman of the joint pension investment board. I know all about the article in Barron's six years ago that exposed Bernie for a phony but I like phonies. I am sure you know about the deal I did for the Fairfield Metro Center, which is as phony as a $3 bill. If it weren't for state Sen. John McKinney's immense political power in Hartford, you would all be hung out to dry on that deal. Even though the state is in deep, deep debt, McKinney got Gov. M. Jodi Rell to kick the state's debt even higher to do this deal. I mean where else would somebody spend $100 million to get 1,500 hundred parking spaces? You can do the math but this deal trumps any $100 hammer or $10,000 commode the Department of Defense has ever done.

Well, the state of the town is bad and so are many of the sidewalks in town because the Department of Public Works is not big on maintaining them. That is why I am announcing a new initiative to build even more sidewalks for them to allow to fall into disrepair.

I could go on but I thought I would close now with the most wonderful thing about Fairfield for me. After screwing things up for a decade now, I get to retire with 50 percent of my salary into perpetuity and health care benefits to boot, if you promise to kick me out of office two years from now. Thank you, and take that all of you hardworking taxpayers.

Jim Brown

Fairfield

Demonstrate

compassion

I applaud Jim Himes for courageously joining 53 other House of Representatives Democrats in sending a letter to Pres. Barack Obama calling on Israel and Egypt to lift their blockade of the Gaza Strip.

A policy of blockade amounts to collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, including its hundreds of thousands of children.

The blockade of Gaza has gone on for nearly four years, and has grossly undermined efforts to restore the vital water and sanitation infrastructure that were obliterated during Israel's three-week assault on the territory a year ago.

An estimated 80 percent of Gazans are dependent upon food aid to survive and the skyrocketing unemployment and humanitarian crisis has left Gaza's imprisoned people with no hope for a better future.

As Himes notes, desperation breeds extremism and the situation in Gaza is very desperate right now. Our greatest hope for securing the peace is by demonstrating compassion for all.

Shiva Sarram

New Canaan