Board of Selectmen Meeting June 28, 2021

Board of Selectmen Meeting June 28, 2021

The Board of Selectmen and Town Manager Maria Capriola cannot continue with their cancel culture agenda. Public Audience comments and pictures are now controlled by the participant and viewed by the public.

On June 14, 2021 Town Manager Maria Capriola had employee recognition morning with a cold pre- packaged breakfast in the Main Meeting Room of Town Hall.

Emails were sent out hastily alerting some employees and not others that a cold pre-packaged breakfast is the only recognition that they will receive from Town Manager Maria Capriola.

Town Manager Maria Capriola was not present since she does not feel obligated to personally recognize the employees that worked long hours to fulfill their cumbersome work-load. during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the same time Town Manager Maria Capriola was at a Zoom Union Arbitration Meeting to determine the salary of employees that hadn’t received a wage increase since 2019.

Many of the employees in the Union have not received any pay increase since 2019 while Town Manager Maria Capriola received her pay increase every year.

Maria Capriola treats her employees as Indentured Servants with no recognition forcing them to respond to her 24/7 demands.

It appears that the Board of Selectmen are a bunch of political hacks, only concerned about getting reelected and giving Town Manager Maria Capriola a salary and benefits of over $200,000 that is undeserved.

The Board of Selectmen have blurred the lines between being professional and political activism, catering to the whims of an unhinged Town Manger.

On June 16, 2021 there was a Flag raising ceremony at Town Hall, celebrating Pride Month where the Flag was raised under the Town’s American Flag.

Town Manager Maria Capriola was distributing flags to the attendees and Deputy Selectman Sean Askham and Selectman Wendy Mackstutis made speeches at the podium and watched the flag raising.

In a recent article in the Hartford Courant the Headline stated Suffield votes no in Pride flag fight. The Selectmen stated that only the US Flag should be allowed to be flown on town flagpoles.

Now that Simsbury has endorsed raising the Pride Flag, will they also raise other flags for Black Lives Matter, Blue lives Matter, Don’t Tread on Me, Confederate Flag, Antifa, Proud Boys, Pow Mia, White Supremacy flag and oath keepers’ flags?

This was another indication of blurring the political lines with social correctness.

Recently the Democratic Town Committee nominated candidates for expired terms on the Board of Education.

Without any explanation, the nominating committee chose a candidate to replace Tara Donohue Willerup on the Board of Education after she has contributed her time to the Board of Education for many years, making our educational performance one of the best.

It appears that the Democratic Town Committee in Simsbury have members that appear to be a cult of left-wing progressives. Most of the moderate Democrats were not nominated to the Town Committee.

As a result of Covid-19 Democratic voters do not have the ability to come to the caucus as they did before to overturn the nominating committees’ candidates. Only the Town Committee, who selected these radical candidates will have the final vote. This subverts the democratic process.

Simsbury residents should be alarmed by this takeover of the Democratic process with left-wing progressives that could mandate that Simsbury schools should include the Critical Race Theory into the school’s curriculum.

Recently a resident voiced her concerns about the response time the Simsbury Volunteer Ambulance responded to her call for medical attention at a Public Safety Meeting.

It appears that volunteerism has been reduced over the years and the Simsbury Volunteer Ambulance’s response time has been lengthened or other Town’s volunteer ambulance services are asked to respond, causing a longer response time.

Many Towns in the Valley presently contract with AMR, with paid staff and 24/7 response time. With psid staff AMR Ambulance Service has lived up to their contractual obligations and the Towns are pleased with their performance.

The Board of Selectmen should have AMR present their mission and responsibilities at a Board of Selectmen Meeting to decide whether this organization would serve the town’s needs better as the population increases. The only cost to the Town would be to provide a building for their equipment

Now that Marijuana has become legal and the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center will be having concerts and activities on Town property, will the Board of Selectmen regulate the use of Marijuana Town property?

The taxes will be coming due soon, with a 38.63 Mill Rate, the highest in the Valley. With a large increase in revenues, Simsbury has continued to be a tax and spend community with another increase in taxes and no relief for the community.