With Election Uncontested, Selectmen Candidates Look Ahead

Barring any unlikely last-minute effort to organize a write-in campaign, 1^st Selectman Todd Carusillo, Selectman Dexter Kinsella, and candidate Scott Olson will be elected to the Board of Selectmen on November 7^th. The Goshen News approached the three to ask about various issues and challenges they are likely to address in the upcoming term. In separate interviews held during the week of October 2nd, we asked each of them to respond to the same 8 questions.

1. What are your top 2 or 3 priorities for the next 2 years?  What issues do you feel most important to address?

Carusillo: “My big focus… is going to be public safety. I get a lot of complaints everyday about speeding throughout town, so because the Town voted down having a resident trooper in the last probably 3 or 4, 5 years, I’m considering the speed cameras that the State just passed.”

“Public awareness to prevent car break-ins. We had the crime watch meeting…probably gonna’ have some more meetings like that…” Over the weekend,… I guess there were some more break-ins to cars or smash-and-grabs… so I had the State Police here yesterday and I told them about it, so I don’t know if they’re gonna’ have a trooper running around at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning at Woodridge Lake”.

“I want to keep our taxes low, you know, under my administration we lowered the mill rate 5 mills”. (Note: Mill rate reduction offset increased property assessments.)

“Roads and infrastructure, maintenance. I just want to keep our community safe. You drive around other towns, I went to Watertown last night and the side roads were so bad it was unbelievable…”

“Fiber optics,… I just want to make sure that every resident in Goshen has access to high-speed internet, as it seems like more people are working from home.”

“Recycling, I’ve been pushing that…my biggest thing is getting our tipping weight down, everyone needs to recycle. Get everything into the recycling bin instead of the trash…People don’t realize the taxpayers are paying for that weight and I’m gonna’ work tooth and nail to make sure we get those tipping fees down.”

Olson: “Number 1 for sure is better notification of the people… People need to know when the meetings are so they can be there, so they can be present, to have an awareness. There’s a lot of good things that I want to do for the people of this town, but they’re going to have a responsibility to make sure that they stay informed. I am committed to making sure that we, as a Board, give them the tools to stay informed. I want the big decisions that are going to be made in this town to, once again, be made by the people of this town. Right now, no-one’s doing anything illegal, the notifications to Town meetings meet basic, minimum, statutory requirements. Providing 5 business days’ advance notice of Town meetings satisfies the minimum statutory requirements, but I don’t look at that as being synonymous with adequate. So many people I’ve spoken to and met with over the last 3 months have the same sentiment; that they want to be more involved, they just don’t know when the meetings are. That is just clearly indicative of the fact that doing the bare minimum that the law requires isn’t good enough.”

“We’re gonna’ give people notice, we’re gonna’ give people time. Public hearings, there’s no reason we have to limit it to one meeting if we’re looking for public input.  We need to give people an opportunity to ask questions in a public forum. My goal is to make decisions and cast votes based on what the people want… We have to be accessible to them. I also think it’s time that we start to consider the possibility of changing the time for Board of Selectmen meetings from 5 o’clock to 7 o’clock, to give people that want to be able to attend…an opportunity to do so.”

“I also want to, finally adopt a Code of Ethics and implement an Ethics Commission to oversee and enforce it”. (Note: Additional comments in response to Question #4, below).

Kinsella: “The biggest issue for me is to try to keep the politics, the national and State divisive politics out of local government. Local government is really the point where, administratively, government interacts with people at the most. We administer public health records, public health laws, we take care of the roads and the bridges. Much of the criteria by which we manage that comes from the State and federal level and we’re the interaction between those and the public. Sense of cohesiveness and responsible, accountable government at the local level, I think, is the number 1 priority.”

“Local governments do 3 things, mainly: We do education, primary and secondary education, we take care of the roads and bridges in the Town-owned portion of that… and we’re in charge of Public health, inland wetlands enforcement, building codes, etc., and we also do public safety – Fire, Rescue and of the 3 the most important to me – I’ve always been an advocate of the Goshen Volunteer Fire Co., I think they do a terrific job.”

“Part of when I grew up, what was important to me was a sense of community. I think you can trace back to the colonial days when farmers depended on each other, and part of the reason why I got involved in local politics was to try to continue that sense of community involvement… so my second focus would be on creating a strong sense of community and encouraging volunteerism, not only the Goshen Fire Dept.,  but we have a lot of volunteers in Goshen Community Care and Hospice, Goshen Good Neighbors, our boards and commissions, even if elected they’re by and large not paid, so in that sense they’re volunteers.”

2. One of the issues raised in the Republican caucus last July was the question of the Goshen Housing Trust having an influence on building plans in Goshen.  Should the town be influenced or linked to this organization and why or why not?

Olson: “The mere mechanics and the method by which the Affordable Housing Plan Committee was chosen should have been subject to better scrutinization. There was by far too much a clear majority of Goshen Housing Trust members that were serving on the Affordable Housing Plan Committee, there were points where interests conflicted. Two of the three members of our Board of Selectmen at the time were also members of the Affordable Housing Plan Committee. So essentially what you had is a private corporation that was the driving force behind forming and creating the Affordable Housing Plan, then 2 of the 3 members [of the Board of Selectmen] that need to approve it were already sitting on the committee to create it”.

“The justifications that were given to the people of this town… were that we’re a small community and we’re gonna’ have, at times, not enough volunteers, and there’s gonna’ be overlap in committees and boards that are served on, and it’s not possible to avoid certain conflicts of interest…” “I don’t buy that. I just don’t buy it.”

Carusillo: I’m gonna’ have a discussion with the Selectmen about the new housing plan, and that’ll probably be after the election, ‘cause I know Scott has a lot of thoughts… I will gather his and Dexter’s information and move forward with if we’re gonna’ make changes…“But I tell you, I’m gonna’ seek a State moratorium about affordable housing in town, to give the town the timeline to determine the best way to proceed with this issue and put pressure on Hartford to reduce the threshold on housing. I mean right now a lot of these small towns are at 10%, you have to have 10% of your population, or 10% of your housing… I want to reduce it to 5.” “I just want to protect the Town of Goshen from developers coming in and building new developments.”

Kinsella: “As you may or may not know, there’s a lot of overlapping and there’s a lot of discussions in terms of people who are affiliated with Planning and Zoning which were also on the Housing [Plan Committee]. Unfortunately, in a small town with a limited number of volunteers you’re gonna’ have that kind of stuff happen. I think there is credence to the fact that perhaps there was an appearance, at least, of influence in terms of decision-making. I’m cognizant of that fact… what I think the outcome was is acceptable to me. I know many of the people on the Housing Trust personally, I know what their passions are. I would be concerned if I thought there were a propensity for someone to try to take advantage of that for their own gain, and I don’t see that as happening”.

“The Village Marketplace has been there since when I was in high school still, and at one point in time there were 2 grocery stores in Goshen… There was a considerable amount of deterioration in the infrastructure there over the years… of course, though, the devil’s always in the details and I can’t speak specifically, I’m not a member of the Housing Trust… but so far what I’ve seen, I encourage, and I think it’s heading in the right direction.”

3. Does the Goshen Housing Plan need to be rewritten, and if so, in what way does it need to change?

Olson: “I want to see the plan rewritten, I don’t want to just amend it… and have the plan representative of the will of the people of this town, and the one that we have right now is not.”

“I definitely want to see the part that recommends that Title 67 be accessible to private, non-profit corporations who act in the interests of this town be redacted… I can think of only one corporation that fits that category that would ever seek access to that money…To be fair, it was only to be conveyed as a repayable loan, but it shouldn’t be there… It wouldn’t be there if there was a Code of Ethics.”

In terms of the current situation in Goshen regarding Affordable Housing: “Right now, it’s clear that we do not meet the minimums that are set forth by the State…The State has certain mandates. “They’ve given us no deadline in which to achieve that. Nor have they actually spelled out the consequences should you not achieve it… I am fully prepared, as an elected official, to continue to operate within the confines of the law and do the bare minimum that the State says that we have to do, but at the same time continue to do everything we can to protect the interests of our town.”

Carusillo addressed the Town’s current affordable housing stock: “The units we have now are good enough. We don’t have to expand. We’ve got 18 units over there [at Village Marketplace], and right across the street, on the other side of Nodine’s, there’s 5 or 6 units in there that were like senior housing, or affordable back in the day… 24 units in town and plus the accessory apartments that people have in their homes, we have plenty. It would be nice to see a development like what Litchfield has down on 202, but that’s Town-controlled. I think we should consider Town-controlled senior housing…”

Kinsella: “I’ve heard talk about that, I don’t know what the specific plans are in that regard… Public housing is a big issue and I think we have to address it… Goshen is becoming more expensive, there’s a dire need for entry-level housing for working families, we need more younger people… Part of that is to figure out some way for them to get a foothold in the area.”

4. Towns have oversight over their staff members and elected officials. Staff members in Goshen have an entire booklet of do’s and don’ts. Commissions and Boards such as PZC, BOF, Inland Wetlands, have state regulations and oversight. All unelected committee members, i.e., EDC, R&T, etc., are under the authority of the Selectmen. Yet there is no mechanism for oversight of the Selectmen. One of the candidates has proposed an Ethics Commission. What is your view on that? 

Carusillo: “That’s something that Scott brought up in his campaign. Honestly, we haven’t spoken about it, so I’m gonna’ wait until after the election and have a discussion with Scott and Dexter about if we’re gonna’ form some type of Ethics Commission. I don’t even know if we need one. Apparently we never needed it in the past, but if somebody’s doing something unethical then maybe we should consider one.”

Kinsella: “I wouldn’t be opposed to that out-of-hand, although, again, the devil is always in the details… That’s why I would never be in favor of changing the 2-year term for the Selectmen.”

“I don’t, unless I’m totally blind, see… there’s times I have to admonish people behind the scenes… What ends up happening is people do things with good intentions, but they don’t follow the proper protocols. Everything has to be open and apparent and transparent right from the very beginning, from the planning stages. So you may think you’re doing the best thing for the Town and have no ill intentions, but if you do it blindly without discussion with other board members and the public it immediately appears as though you’re doing something underhanded. And people are entitled to believe that, because the laws of the Town are that this all has to be open and recorded and on the record.”

Olson: Regarding the reasons for needing an Ethics Commission: “One prime example is to eliminate any clear and present conflicts of interest amongst elected officials who are conflicted and are… voting on issues before the town. Conflict of interest is such a big part of reasons why townspeople lose faith in their elected officials.” We’ve had examples of it in the past, we don’t need to open old wounds and get into specifics of it, we all know what they were, ...but had there been a Code of Ethics and an Ethic Commission in place, a lot of this never would have happened. A good Code of Ethics or a good code of conduct for elected officials…is an opportunity… to showcase the integrity that they have, and to make it very clear to the people that they serve, what we as elected officials expect and demand from ourselves. It only helps to strengthen the trust of the people who elect the officials…and at the same time prohibits unethical behavior.”

“Initially, I would see it playing out where we could form a task force to explore and to report back to the Board of Selectmen. I believe the 1^st Selectman would appoint individuals to serve. We would look to the community for interested people…I don’t know right now if there are statutory requirements which mandate that these positions be elected or appointed. Certainly we’re gonna’ do whatever the law requires to be done.”

“It’s something that hasn’t been considered yet, should have been, I think that the need is very clear and we’re all gonna’ have a lot of questions, but I can tell you that... within the end of my term, within 2 years, we’re gonna’ have an Ethics Commission.”

5. Earlier this year there was a town meeting to address the purchase of land for a storage facility.  The members of the town were only given 5 business days’ notice to arrange their schedules to attend this meeting, if they received the notice at all.  Some have said that it would appear that this was purposeful. 
   1. To avoid that perception, would you consider planning farther ahead and giving townspeople significantly longer advance notice? The PZC, for example, effectively provides a month’s notice for public hearings. Would you consider something similar for Town Meetings?

Carusillo: “Honestly, I can’t answer for people,… this land purchase went on since last January. They had 4 months to read meeting minutes and look at newspapers…They had 4 months, they knew what was going on, that we were looking…” “There was a closing date set, we had the 5 days’ notice, to get that price on that property because they wanted more money, we had to close within their time frame, and it was out there to the public…” “If people are not paying attention, I really can’t help that.”

Olson: Scott addressed this as one of his top priorities. Please see Question #1.

Kinsella: “Yes, I do.”

In response to the allegation that the meeting was purposefully scheduled on short notice: “I don’t believe it was intentional… I think it was rushed because there was enthusiastic, I think they were overenthusiastic about the opportunity to do this, and that’s probably what it was… You have to be mindful of those things because the immediate perception is that it was done underhanded. I can pretty much assure you, from my perspective, the opportunity was there and they wanted to jump on the opportunity because of the tenuousness of whether or not they would change their mind or sell it to a higher bidder or something. The property was ideal and it was fast-tracked in that regard. Maybe that was a mistake.”

1. 2. Do you favor putting notices in the only local paper that is distributed to everyone in Goshen, in order to make all townspeople aware of all town meetings so that they can more fully participate?

Carusillo: “We use the Waterbury Republican because it’s a daily newspaper. [The Goshen News] comes out once a month… We would have to plan our schedule around your paper publication…So if we had something happening on December 1^st, it would have to be in The Goshen News on November… whenever your paper comes out. We would consider it…but I just wish it would come out weekly.”

“Every time we put a little notice, this big, in the Waterbury Republican”, Carusillo said, his thumb and index finger held an inch or so apart, “it’s 465 bucks”. “And we do a lot of notices”. “It would be considered, but we have to know what things cost.” (Note: The Goshen News has offered to print Town Legal Notices for free, initially, and did so for a legal notice regarding election primaries in the August edition.)

“We’re spending $465 to $1500 a month putting notices in the paper, that’s a lot of money, and I would like to cut that in half, or a quarter”. “I’m a taxpayer, too…”

Olson: “I think [The Goshen News] is a great tool and it’s the only publication that goes directly into everybody’s mailbox that I think they look forward to, so ‘Yes’. If we could utilize that and it’s no cost to the Town, I think as a Board we have an obligation to take you up on that”.

Kinsella: “…putting in there for free. I think that should be a follow-up. I also think that the Goshen website, at times, I think could maybe use a little more attention. I think it’s a good resource and I think it just needs to be maintained a little bit better… We’re going more and more digital and the Waterbury Republican is important to have also, but I think that to the extent that we can encourage people to use the online aspect of the Town Notice… I think the reason why they still do Waterbury Republican is there are a lot of people who don’t go online, there’s a lot of elderly people who don’t access, don’t have computers.”

“I would be definitely in favor of adding The Goshen News as a vehicle for public notice”.

6. All staff members in town have published contact information so townspeople can address them with their concerns.  All Selectmen also have published contact information for the same purpose.  Individual contact information for all elected officials must also be provided upon request, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). As these officials generally utilize their personal email accounts for conducting Town business, and may wish to keep their personal information private, a request has been made to all elected officials to set up separate free email accounts (such as Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo) that would be used strictly for Town business and would be published for that purpose. The 1^st Selectman has asked for this in a Board of Selectmen meeting, yet only 3 people have complied, to date.  Why do you think that is, and how would you correct that situation?

Carusillo: “Just to let you know we apparently are developing some type of protocol for members of our boards and commissions. I spoke with all of them, I even spoke with the Town Attorney and everyone’s recommendation is to get a Gmail or a Google account… I don’t know if some people don’t have time,… some people already did it. I don’t know what the rest of them are doing but I will put out another email to everybody…”

Olson: “It is right in line with everything I’ve told you, that our elected officials not only need to be accountable to the people, they need to be accessible to the people. I don’t see any issue with creating a GoshenCT.gov email address for our elected officials, having them all posted…Of course I would support that. I was in favor of that when it was brought up 3 months ago. I would question why any elected official would be opposed to that.”

Kinsella: “It makes perfect sense to have a Gmail account, it’s an easy thing to do… and I think that’s what I’ll try to figure out how to do. And I think that’s a really good suggestion. I think Todd has followed up on it…and I will again reiterate it at the next Selectmen’s meeting.”

7. At the most recent town meeting, it was stated that the situation of lack of indoor storage of town equipment was an emergency situation that needed to be addressed immediately.  The 1^st Selectman has stated that the Town looked at alternatives, including additions on the existing fire station and the existing municipal garage. In view of the urgent nature of the problem, wouldn’t costs be lower and approvals more easily obtained by expanding existing facilities, or at least the fire station? 

Carusillo: “At our current facility [municipal garage], our structure that is sitting out there that houses outside equipment is rotting and falling down, and we can’t rebuild there because it’s close to wetlands, they won’t let us.” “I got contacted by Chief Hall saying he wanted to put an addition on over there [at the firehouse] and I said we are looking for a new piece of property and when we find the right piece of property we could probably house some of your equipment”. So we had a local contractor from Torrington come up, they gave us a quote like a million five for a 3-sided building because you have to change the whole infrastructure of the building”.

“We have people in town that work for certain organizations that we could put the foundation in for almost peanuts. And even if we have to stick-build it, we have a lot of contractors in town that would probably volunteer their time. But we still needed something for Public Works. So why spend money building onto the Fire Department, an old building, which pushes us even closer to wetlands in the back? Why don’t we just buy a piece of property and build a new structure for storage?”

“I’m not thinking of just tomorrow, I’m thinking of 20, 30 years down the road. I just applied for a grant… and the grant we applied for, we just got a $500,000 grant to build, to construct this building, and we have to go, probably, to the Town to get whatever else we need to complete the project. But this is an investment we’re going to make, and it’s gonna’ be for 30, 40, 50 years, depending on the life span of a metal building. Maybe forever.”

Olson: “If the Fire Co. is coming to the Town saying that they need more space, I believe them… When they say that, that’s something I’m gonna’ hear, and I am committed to not only protecting but to adequately fund the Fire Co. so that they can do the job that they do, the most important job that anybody in this town does.”

“I know the 1^st Selectman has applied for a half million-dollar grant…which would certainly help to offset the cost of the building. I don’t know if that grant is specifically for a new, stand-alone building and would not allow us to add on to an existing, but I can’t imagine that’s the case… But four walls and a roof cannot be less expensive than 3 walls and a roof…[and] the utilities are there.”

Kinsella: “They’re crammed, they’re jammed in there in the Fire Dept., right now… They definitely need new space. We discussed trying to expand back behind there and there’s inland-wetlands problems there. The space across the street has been a commercial space… [a previous owner] had planned on developing it for years, for whatever reason they never did. The opportunity came up to purchase the property and I enthusiastically endorsed it. I would have liked to have had a public hearing or a discussion about it before, and to let Barry Hall and the Fire Co. talk about their dire needs… and also to get input from people about how we would go about developing the land so that it was esthetically pleasing… Let’s make it a green facility, I think the solar panels, if we decide to do solar panels, can be put in an area that’s not gonna’ be visible from the road, we can screen them sort of, if you put ‘em up in the back… Get as much positive input from people in town to make it a community project.

“My opposition to adding on to the firehouse…any type of a building you have to start with the foundation and the surrounding area to it. So anything you would do, you’d have to re-contour all the drainage… that’s a giant expense to begin with. The fact that the firehouse was not designed with the idea in mind that you would be able to add onto it means that there would be a substantial amount of reconstruction to the existing building in order to accommodate an abutting or adjoining building. So for those two reasons, the money spent on the drainage, changing things around to accommodate a new building…could be better spent on a stand-alone facility. You could get more space for your dollar, in the long run.”

8. It has been reported that the Town has accumulated over $800,000 in Title 67 funds. How do you think those resources should be used? (Note: Title 67 is a Town ordinance that created a Land Acquisition Fund in 2006 “for the purpose of accumulating funds for the acquisition of land to be used for open space, recreation or housing”. Funding for Title 67 is derived from State taxation of various types of real estate sales or transfers, as well as fees paid by developers to waive the open space requirements of State law and fines for violation of those requirements, and gifts or bequests to the Town.)

Carusillo: “It should stay where it is right now, because we’re collecting a lot of interest on it. There’s no current plans for it right now.”

Olson: “We are doing with Title 67 exactly what we should be doing. Just let it sit there.”

“It’s a great fund. Nowhere else in our town do we have a vehicle or a method that we can use to accrue money essentially at no recurring cost to the taxpayers. It can just sit there idly and grow… It’s a fund that people are passionate about protecting… and I’m committed to protecting that fund to the best of my ability.”

“When and where that money gets utilized is gonna’ be up to the people of this town, and right now you don’t spend it because it’s accruing. You don’t create a plan of what to do with it just because you have it… and when the need emerges, you can utilize it for that. You don’t create the need for it. Let that need emerge… and when that need emerges, we’re gonna’ have it there.”

Kinsella: “There’s a tremendous amount of money in there and there seems to be no focus about how we want to use it and I would be in favor of putting together a steering committee made up of a diverse group… to discuss… if it’s just gonna’ be a giant pool of money that we’re not gonna’ do anything with… maybe we should discontinue. I would be in favor of purchasing more public open space that would have public access, with that money.”