Verbal attacks fly at meeting

WINSTED — After dealing with several residents critical of The Board of Selectmen during two public comment periods at their meeting on Monday, March 4, selectmen discussed potential changes to future public comment periods.Typically, there are two periods of public comments at a selectmen’s meeting: One toward the beginning of the meeting after agenda review and one toward the end before the town manager’s report and selectmen’s comments.At the March 4 meeting, both public comment periods took up a combined 75 minutes of the two-hour meeting, with selectmen responding to criticisms made by residents. A majority of the comments were made by town government critics, beginning with resident Stephen Kosinski during the first public comment period.“Believe me, you guys are a real joke in this town,” Kosinski told the board. “What I want, and what you will give me, is a copy of the [fiscal 2010-2011] audit, so I can get it up to my classmate in Boston to have it analyzed. This is not a request. You will do this.”Town Manager Dale Martin told Kosinski the audit, which is now overdue by more than a year to the state, had not yet been completed.After Martin spoke, Kosinski continued to lay into the selectmen with more harsh words.“Do you realize that you are becoming a tremendous joke in the Northwest Corner?” Kosinski said. “It’s getting to the point where I really feel like the state should come in and take over. I have seen nothing but incompetency.”Mayor Maryann Welcome told Kosinski the problems in completing the audit, along with other governmental problems, have been going on for many years.“They’re all coming to a head,” Welcome said. “We have what I would prefer to look at as an opportunity to make things right. That’s what we’re trying to do here. When you get up and make statements like you have made, you are being very derogatory.”“It is not derogatory, it is fact!” Kosinski told Welcome.“But when you make those kinds of derogatory remarks, it goes into the newspapers and it does nothing to help this town,” Welcome said. “It does nothing to help this board to try to resolve these problems that have come to a head. This is what we’re trying to do.”The next resident to speak was Winchester Taxpayers Association President David LaPointe who said he agreed with Kosinski.“I believe that this board has been lacking in its responsibility to the town when the citizens of this town voted time after time not to increase taxes and to hold the public trust accountable by the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education,” LaPointe said. “The budget has been overspent by both boards. I think it is an atrocity to the citizens of this town to have to see this in the newspapers. I was actually talking to NBC tonight at Wendy’s Restaurant and they will be covering this. It is unfortunate because the taxpayers have spoken clear each and every year. They don’t want tax increases.”LaPointe then verbally attacked the selectmen and said there are members on the board who have conflicts of interest, including Mayor Welcome who works as a history teacher at The Gilbert School and Selectman Candy Perez who serves as the principal for Northwestern Regional Middle School.LaPointe went on to say he would campaign against any proposed tax increases made by the selectmen.Resident Jay Budahazy, who frequently speaks during selectmen’s meetings during public comments, disagreed with Perez about where her salary is paid from.“People pay taxes in this town to the state,” Budahazy said. “Some of that money comes from those taxes to pay for education. Any employee of the state, town or federal government is paid for by taxpayer’s money.”Second comment periodDuring the second public comment period, resident Virginia Shultz-Charette told the selectmen she does not mind paying more taxes, as long as it is spent by the town in an efficient manner.“I don’t think we pay high property taxes at all,” Shultz-Charette said. “With the assessment being as low as it is, some of us will be paying a lot less in taxes, while others will be paying the balance. I find it very strange that some of the same people who complained the property revaluation would cause a 20 percent increase in property taxes are now bemoaning how low their assessed values of their property is. A lot of that is due to the fact that we haven’t had much in the way of tax increases in this town. To think that you can maintain a town and do what needs to be done with no increase in taxes year after year is crazy.”Shultz-Charette’s remarks drew the ire of Kosinski and Budahazy, who took further turns at public comment time to scold Shultz-Charette. “If you can afford higher taxes, then go to the tax assessor’s office and find out how much 2.14 mills is on your house and you volunteer to pay it,” Budahazy told Shultz-Charette. “Anyone who wants to pay higher taxes, then volunteer to pay it. This way, people who are unemployed, under foreclosure or bankruptcy won’t have a tax increase they can’t afford to pay. Stop living in a fantasy world about taxes!”Shultz-Charette proceeded to speak for a second time and defended her remarks.“My husband was on rolling layoffs for 10 years, he is now on Social Security and I’m on Social Security,” Shultz-Charette said. “It has been tough, but I am so thrilled to be living in this town, even if it means paying a little bit more in taxes. I’m not living in a fantasy world.”Kosinski took another turn at public comment and spoke briefly about his military experience as he gave his opinion.“What this lady doesn’t know is that I have been around the world three and-a-half times, I have seen the worst of human nature and what it has done,” Kosinski told Shultz-Charette.“I’ve traveled around the world,” Shultz-Charette said in response.“Yeah, but you’ve never been in war,” Kosinski said. “This is a great town and it has great potential. If you can work at it and get it to 70 to 75 percent to the way it should be, it all will be in better shape.”Kosinki’s comments finished off the public comments portions of the meeting.Town manager, board respondAt the beginning of his report to the board, Town Manager Dale Martin defended the selectmen.“As we have gone through the budget processes I have been a part of, I think there has been a typical partisan divide between people,” Martin said. “I think this is healthy and represents different perspectives about the direction the town needs to take. However, I would wholeheartedly say the financial situation that has unraveled in the past three months has transcended the partisan bickering that has typically been in Winsted. I think every member sitting on this board is fully aware of the financial challenges confronting this town that have only come to light in the past three months. It’s going to take time to correct them, people. It’s ugly, but it’s going to take time.”Martin continued to criticize the dialogue during the second public comment portion of the meeting.“We spent the last 45 minutes going back and forth between people and it probably was the most unproductive 45 minutes I have spent in my life in Winsted,” Martin said. “If we do this every two weeks, then I propose we eliminate the second citizen’s comments on the meeting agenda. It is totally unproductive.”Toward the end of the meeting, during the selectmen’s comments, the board discussed the idea of changing how public comments are made during a meeting.“A long time ago, an old timer told me not to get in a pissing war with a skunk,” Selectmen Perez said. “I’ve taken that advice quite a bit in terms of trying not to do that. I do believe in public comment and I can appreciate everyone’s concerns, but I do think there is a lot of birdwalking when they express their concerns.”Perez suggested more guidelines to public comment periods, including a limit of how many times a resident can speak and further limits to speaking time.As of the March 4 meeting, residents can speak as many times as they want during public comments for five minutes at a time, or 10 minutes if they are representing a group of people.Selectman Michael Renzullo said he agreed with Perez.There was a brief discussion on re-arranging future selectmen’s meeting agendas, but the board did not make any decisions.It is expected the board will revisit the issue at its next meeting, Monday, March 18, at 7 p.m.