Opinion: New Milford Resident Says Mayor Gronbach is Misspending Spending Town Funds

NEW MILFORD, CT — The following is a letter to the editor written by New Milford resident Michael Barnes. The letter is an opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Patch or its editors. To send in your letter, please email wendy.mitchell@patch.com.

"The Mayor of New Milford, David Gronbach, has been desperately trying to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of Town money off-budget to renovate and repurpose 60-year-old John Pettibone School into town offices. He is trying to railroad his personal vision of this through without any public comment or advice and failed to seat a committee formed for exactly that purpose. To pay for this, he is illegally trying to take money out of the Landfill Settlement Fund in violation of the Town Charter and State Statutes.

In a letter dated October 21, Town Attorney, John Tower advised the Mayor that the Landfill Settlement Fund may be used for this purpose as a “supplemental appropriation”. Six days later the Mayor had his Director of Finance draft a “white paper” that stated the Mayor didn’t need to do a “supplemental appropriation” and he was free to spend the money in that special fund with no approval whatsoever from the Board of Finance.

In collusion with the Mayor, Board of Finance Chairman Gale Alexander abruptly cancelled the November 9th meeting where the Pettibone renovation money was to be appropriated. In an email to Board members Alexander stated: “Both the items in question from the Town Council meeting of October 24th, regarding the turf fields and the updating of the former John Pettibone School, meet the statutory test and do not require Board of Finance review or approval. This procedure has been vetted by our town attorney. Therefore they are not appropriate agenda items for our meeting.” This is in direct contradiction to Attorney Tower’s October 21 opinion.

I addressed this during public comment at the November 14th Town Council meeting:

"I wish to speak on how Town funds are being appropriated. First, I will address the absurdity of a White Paper stating that deposit of money INTO a fund is an “appropriation” when all of the English-speaking accounting world knows that taking a specific amount of money OUT of a special fund for a specific purpose is an appropriation:

STATE OF CONNECTICUT - OFFICE OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER
Definitions (CGS 4-69) "Appropriation" means an authorization by the General Assembly to make EXPENDITURES and incur LIABILITIES for specific purposes. This White Paper states that no “supplemental appropriation” is necessary for the spending of Landfill Settlement Funds but in the opinion of Town Attorney John Tower on October 21, it is DEFINED as a “Supplemental Appropriation.”

Frankly, it greatly concerns this member of the public that someone in the position of Director of Finance can have such an erroneous understanding of basic governmental accounting definitions. Mayor Gronbach is not the only voice of New Milford government: he is the Mayor and as such is restricted in what he can and cannot do when it comes to spending town funds. He has already made a number of rash judgments and committed a number of rash acts during his tenure. This latest attempt to redefine “appropriation” and do an end run around our Charter to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars without taxpayer or representative approval is particularly egregious.

The Mayor did not put any appropriation requests for refurbishment of John Pettibone School in the current year’s budget. The Mayor failed to provide the five-year capital budget required by our charter Section 602(e) with any plans for capital expenditures on Pettibone. Nor were there any “estimates of the costs of such projects” “submitted by each department, office, board, commission or agency” “by February first” as required by charter section 704(d). Frankly he failed to do this for the Bike Path capital project also but at least that appropriation request was sent through the proper channels for approval.

Per charter Sections 405 and 704, the Town Council has no authority to appropriate funds - only to recommend appropriations to the Board of Finance. The Council may overrule the Board of Finance only by a 2/3 majority of the ENTIRE town council, Mr. Mayor and that is one vote more than the five you think you have in your pocket. Per charter section 708, even emergency appropriations have to be approved by the Board of Finance. But, the Mayor knows all this already because he DID send the request for the appropriation of Landfill Settlement Fund money for the Bike Path to the Board of Finance for approval. He is just afraid that the Board of Finance won’t approve his Pettibone skullduggery and he is trying to short circuit the process.

Charter section 7-79 concerning the Landfill Settlement Fund states “Upon appropriation made in accordance with law…” APPROPRIATION MADE IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW! Anything else is illegal. I will remind the Mayor and the Town Council members of their personal legal exposure found in charter section 710: “Every payment made in violation of the provisions of this Charter shall be deemed illegal, and every official willfully authorizing or knowingly taking part therein shall be jointly and severally liable to the Town for the full amount so paid or received.” Are Council members willing to risk this kind of legal exposure simply because the Mayor is afraid to put his half-baked request in front of the Board of Finance?"

"When discussing possible charter revision, the Mayor expressed his desire that the Board of Finance be eliminated. Now he is trying to eliminate it by fiat. In a previous Town Council meeting he claimed he would not wait for permission to spend town money on Pettibone School refurbishing. You will wait, Mr. Mayor, as a mandamus action will be filed to force you to follow our town charter no matter how much you wish to circumvent it for your clandestine pet projects."

— Michael Barnes, New Milford, Conn.