To the Editor:
First Selectman Tim Griswold has been running for re-election primarily on the basis of his years of experience. In response, a number of people think that this experience has not translated into competence in office, criticizing his lack of responsiveness, carefulness, transparency, information-sharing, timeliness, and judgment. These concerns were dramatically illustrated earlier this week.
During a debate hosted by The Day on Monday, the First Selectman admitted that he recently submitted a Petition for Amendment of Zoning Regulations (regarding the Halls Road district) to the Old Lyme Zoning Commission without having even read the proposed regulations. When asked about that, he replied “I sign a lot of things.” To make matters worse, the First Selectman submitted the petition to the Zoning Commission without having first shared the proposed regulations with his Board of Selectmen, which would have given them an opportunity to comment and, if they deemed it appropriate, to hold a public meeting or to solicit further information from the Halls Road Improvements Committee.
In the same debate, Tim was asked about a town meeting in August in which an appropriation to cover police overspending was defeated for lack of information. According to The Day, Tim “argued that many topics go to a town meeting with ‘a small amount of information.’ He said people who want to know details should ask for them at Town Hall before the meeting instead of expecting written explanations. ‘I think when we have all these matters going on, it would be quite a burden to have total information on all these matters,’ he said.”
This town meeting addressed four matters and lasted 31 minutes.
These examples are typical of how poorly Tim does his job. Old Lyme deserves better, much better. We can rest assured that Martha Shoemaker will do better. She is notoriously smart, thoughtful, conscientious, careful, responsible, responsive and inclusive. We must elect her next Tuesday.
Sincerely,
Marisa Hartmann,
Old Lyme.
Editor’s Note: The author is a member of the Democratic Town Committee.