He Said, She Said: Now Get the Truth In the last days of the campaign, we're all getting messages from the Opie and Morris campaigns claiming credit for things THEY didn't do and blaming Unk for things HE didn't do. Unk is proud to run on his actual record of doing what's best for Branford.
John Opie claims Unk increased Town spending by more than the rate of wage increases and inflation, destroying Branford’s reputation as having the lowest tax rate in Greater New Haven towns.
THE FACTS
Unk came into office after 14 years of Republican administrations that made political decisions to skimp on spending and pass the costs along to future taxpayers.
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The High School renovation was stalled and badly over-budget. Unk convinced the Board of Finance to approve the money needed to complete the job, then made sure that the job was completed successfully.
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Town Hall was crumbling. Unk crafted a community consensus to restore the historic building and installed the technologically advanced systems that now enable Town departments to efficiently coordinate services and provide citizens with easier access to Town records, permit applications, and other information.
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The sewage treatment plant needed to be rebuilt in order to avoid DEP and EPA fines. Unk negotiated no-strike contracts that brought the project in on time and under-budget. Then he used the savings to increase plant efficiency, providing more protection for Long Island Sound. That also set the foundation for the on-going nitrogen credit payments, more than $90,000 a year, that Branford gets from other towns with older systems.
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The Town’s pension fund was under-funded by $14 million. Unk paid down the balance to under $70,000, putting the money into investments that earn the Town the money needed to pay future pensions so that future taxpayers won’t have to foot the bill.
Cheryl Morris lowered taxes? Now you see it, now you don’t.
Cheryl Morris claims that she reduced the increase in the tax rate (the mill rate) to 2.62%, half of what it was under Unk and John Opie. In fact, all she did was shift the cost to a regressive fee that saved money on her own payments and made the people with less expensive homes pay more. She pays $205 less a year, while people in homes worth less than $370,000 pay as much as $80 more, a (tax + fee) increase of 8.59%.
Unk will work to create a more equitable system in which the amount paid is based on the amount of water used.
THE FACTS
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We used to pay for the sewage treatment system from taxes. People living in million dollar houses paid more than people living in modest condos because their property was worth more. Morris changed the system so that now everyone pays the same, $130 a year, no matter how much water they put into the system or what their income is. Here’s how it works.
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Getting the money from a fee means that less tax has to be collected. The current mill rate of 22.33 (taxes = 0.02233 x assessed value of property) would be 22.83 under the old system. (That would be a 4.91% increase in the mill rate, almost double the 2.62% increase that she brags about.)
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According to the records on the Town web site, the assessment on Cheryl’s $955,000 house is $668,800. Her tax under the old system would be $15,286. By shifting to the fee, her taxes drop to $14,934, a savings of $335. The sewer fee is $130, so her net savings is $205.
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Someone living in a condo worth $143,000 is assessed at $100,000. Their tax under the old system would be $2,283. With the fee system, their taxes fall to $2,233, a savings of $50. But the fee is still $130, so they pay $2,363, $80 more than they would have under the old system. Their taxes last year (mill rate = 21.76) were $2,176. $2,363 is an increase of 8.59%, almost twice what it would have been under the old system.
John Opie claims Unk stuck taxpayers with legal costs of more than $1 million.
THE FACTS
Unk defended Branford’s interests in court when it was necessary and defended them well. Time and again, developers who didn’t want to comply with Branford’s zoning and wetlands regulations sued the Town and Unk hired the attorneys who were best able to protect the town’s environment and quality of life. The Queach developers filed three suits against the Town and the Town won them all, including a landmark Connecticut Supreme Court decision that upheld Branford’s inland wetland regulations and protected wetlands across the state from destructive development.
John Opie claims Unk’s decision to change assessing consultants during the 2002 revaluation cost taxpayers $388,000.
THE FACTS Both Saber Appraisal, the first revaluation consultant, and Vision Appraisal, which finally did the job and is still working for the Town, were recommended by the State. Unk fired Saber when he realized that it was failing to fulfill the contract to provide the Town with a fair and accurate revaluation. Unk recovered the payments to Saber and an additional $40,000 in Town expenses.
The Facts about "Granitegate"
The Granitegate Smear Revisited
The Morris/Sullivan campaign has put out a mailing that claims Unk took granite from the Quarry while he was First Selectman without paying for it, asking, " Where are the receipts, Unk?" This is a revived attempt to smear Unk, known as Granitegate, that failed in 2006 after Morris’s Town Attorney, Ed Marcus, asked the Branford police to investigate how Unk acquired granite blocks at his stone contracting business. The police quickly determined that there was no illegal activity.
The Democratic Town Committee called on Morris to fire Marcus and an RTM committee conducted an inconclusive investigation at which Mike Milici (who Marcus said had supplied the evidence that Marcus gave the police) refused to appear.
We want you to have the facts.
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Unk did no "private business" with the Stony Creek Quarry while in office. He took no income and played no role in his contracting business during his time in office, 1997-2003. He worked full-time for the people of Branford, and only for the people of Branford.
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As First Selectman, Unk negotiated an increase in the annual rent on the Quarry from $1,000 to $20,000, increased the per ton royalty for dimension stone and added a royalty for grout and crushed stone.
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As First Selectman, Unk set up the special Open Space Fund to receive the rent and royalty payments from the Quarry and use them to acquire and maintain open space.
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All stone used on any jobs Unk worked on since he left office has been accounted for, whether he served as the contractor, the subcontractor or a joint venturer on the job.
The Facts about Queach
Cheryl Morris Fought Against the Queach Acquisition
Cheryl Morris claims that she acquired the Queach property after all previous administrations failed. In fact, she did everything that she could to encourage development in the heart of the Supply Ponds watershed.
We want you to have the facts.
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The people of Branford saved the Queach by their tenacious opposition to destructive development proposals for over a decade.
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The DaRos administration successfully defended the Queach in court when the developers, Queach Corp and Alex Vigliotti, filed three law suits seeking to overturn the Town’s inland wetland regulations and force the Town to permit development.
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Before her election in 2005, Morris and her political allies maneuvered to block the bipartisan RTM approval of the Queach acquisition.
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Once elected, Morris had “no opinion” when her Town Attorney, Ed Marcus presented a proposed plan that would have allowed more than 150 houses on the Queach, and dismissed those in Branford who wanted to protect the Queach as a “small vocal minority”.
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When confronted by nearly 500 people rejecting Vigliotti’s plan, Morris changed her position and said that she would immediately exercise eminent domain without trying to negotiate a price with the owner, leaving the acquisition vulnerable to invalidation by the courts and the Town vulnerable to high court costs.
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After the Land Trust and a major donor made it possible to negotiate a sale, Morris and Marcus agreed on a price with Vigliotti without first defining the boundary of the land to be bought, then pushed the Board of Finance and the RTM to approve the deal before the Land Trust could negotiate the boundary.
The Facts about the DOT and the DEP
John Opie claims he initiated the effort to revitalize Exits 53 and 56 to expand the commercial tax base.
THE FACTS
Unk started the process of negotiating with CT DOT to realign Exit 53. John Opie shifted the development focus for these areas from commercial and business to big box retail, which pays lower taxes and generates much more traffic in already congested parts of Branford.
John Opie claims he negotiated a reduction in the DEP fine for the problems with the sewer system.
THE FACTS
Unk negotiated the reduction in the fine and oversaw getting approval from the Board of Finance and the RTM. The payment of the fine occurred within weeks of Unk leaving office.
The Facts about the Town Website
John Opie claims he developed the first Town web site.
THE FACTS
Unk developed two web sites. The first was hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. Once the Town had the necessary technical and personnel resources, Unk’s administration created an independent web site, the first “.gov” municipal web site in the country.
