By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — Amid questions about transparency and legality, a $46,900 contract for a feasibility study of downtown parking options, including construction of a parking structure, was approved Wednesday by a split vote of the Board of Selectwomen.
The study, designed to update the town’s 2015 parking plan and a study of parking management strategies, was awarded to BFJ Planning of New York. The firm submitted the lowest price among three bids and has prior experience working with the town, according to Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich.
The main objections to approving the contract were made by Jennifer Johnson, a District 9 member of the Representative Town Meeting, who commented during the board’s Town Hall meeting.
Johnson asked the selectwomen to hold off acting on the contract, listing three concerns:
- Awarding the contract would be improper without additional approval from the Board of Finance because the scope of the project has changed from the RTM’s resolution, as has the amount of the appropriation.
- Improper notification of the “working group” meetings of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, where the contract specifications were established and the winning bid chosen. Also, keeping the majority of DPIC members, not in the working group, in the dark about bids on the parking study.
- Improper notification of the contract vote on the selectwomen’s agenda for Wednesday, giving the public inadequate advance notice of the meeting and ability to comment.
“It is going around our regular process,” Johnson said of voting on a contract with a different appropriation amount and revised intent than originally planned. If the modified contract were to go before the RTM and Board of Finance again — as it should, according to Johnson — “the public would have the opportunity to follow it and have the opportunity to comment,” she said.
“We’re not doing a parking at Jesup Green study; we’re doing a parking deck study. … It should go through the regular approval process.”
Assistant Town Attorney Eileen Lavigne Flug was called on at the selectwomen’s meeting to address some of Johnson’s concerns, some of the same issues that Selectwoman Candice Savin had before she voted against approving the contract.
Flug said that although the agenda item for the contract was stamped as received by the Town Clerk’s office only five minutes before the 24-hour deadline expired, it was legal. Freedom of Information regulations do not require agendas to be posted on the town’s website and, in fact, the contract could have been added to the selectwomen’s agenda by a two-thirds vote at the meeting as another item was Wednesday, Flug said after the meeting.
As for changes in the study’s purpose and appropriation, and the questions about public notification of the DPIC working group meetings, Flug said she would have to research those issues. She was not available to comment on the questions Thursday.
Before the selectwomen voted on the contract, Savin said that she would like to have answers to some of Johnson’s questions. “It is important to have clarity in the process,” she said.
Savin added that she felt it would be useful for the firm conducting the parking survey to know whether Police Department headquarters will be moved from Jesup Road, an issue that’s the topic of a separate study. “Isn’t that essentially a scenario that they will have to consider?” she asked.
Savin also said a parking structure that is aesthetically pleasing would be far more acceptable to the community than structures pictured in drawings accompanying the bid package.
“I do think it’s important to people in town if we decide to go in the direction of a parking structure … the aesthetics of it are very important … I hope that finding a structure that looks nice architecturally in our community will be the criteria,” Savin said.
Ratkiewich said the study proposal includes a request that the consultants consider “if it is feasible to make a parking structure that will integrate into our historical downtown.”
BFJ Planning, he noted, will be producing conceptual ideas only, not architectural drawings “If we decide that this is the way to go, we would hire a firm to design it,” he said.
The contract was awarded on a 2-1 vote by the board, with First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker and Selectwoman Andrea Moore in favor, and Savin opposed.
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.
The last thing we need to address the downtown parking deficit is yet another “feasibility study” by a carpetbagger consultant.
What we do need is a thoughtful, practical, affordable, attractive design for a parking structure on the Baldwin lot which will more than compensate for the number of spaces lost in the Parker Harding redesign.
Enough navel gazing! it’s time to get the job done.
And while we’re at it, we need to do a better job of involving the public – and particularly the merchants and other stakeholders – in the planning process rather than informing them after the fact of decisions taken in meetings which are insufficiently noticed and consequently, poorly attended..
Right on.
More brazen acts by the Board of Selectwomen. They even drove right through the stop sign put up Asst Town Attorney Eileen Flug put up……A very Westport move. They are not even pretending anymore to care about the legality and transparency of their actions.
If I was shopping downtown, I would park at Parker Harding, let’s say, to run into the Gap. If there were no spaces, I would not go to the parking garage and then walk to the Gap from a parking garage. That would ruin the whole downtown shopping vibe. Does the out of town planning company have 50 plus years of shopping downtown, as I have? No. Better watch out…progress is not always progress. Quality verses quantity. What makes downtown a great place to shop? The quality of the parking. Its rare to seepeople with shopping bags looking out at the river, just gazing. That is why Jesup Green and the river walk are on the other side of Boston Post Rd. A parking garage is not a replacement for spot in Parker Harding. Parker Harding is not a water front park…. it is for Westporters to access shopping in a convenient manner. We have a river walk already. I have a flo chart for downtown systems completed.
I could not agree more with Todd. Confused by the 5 haters ! Under the new system Westport journal has, of giving spineless people the opportunity to tick like/not like, without commenting.. talk about being part of the problem.
Todd is correct.
And I am a merchant contributing to this community.
Yes, they are obviously spinless, afraid to make themselves known because their motives are suspect. Would seem to have touched a nerve… anyhoo, i began studying this issue as a child when my mother brought me to see Sigrid Schultz a few times a week. Sigrid divulged to me ….. my grandfather worked for her in Berlin as a photographer, in the 30’s before the war. …. everything about the town’s motivation for her to die because of said parking lot. She wasnt bitter about it, she gave great chuckles, with her house in the parking lot in the center of town. Many decades later, my boss Drew Friedman further elaborated to me about the nessecity of keeping every spot in Parker Harding. Drew of course, was the founder of the DMA in 1970. He also own property ubutting Elm parking lot and Sigrids property. The point is that I know who the spineless opposition is.. ha… unfortunately I am on assignment in California. God its so beautiful out here. The merchants need to regroup or downtown will be further diminished. Downtown needs an anchor and its not a riverwalk. Downtown is a complex system, very easy to unravel with basic logic… westport shoppers are the key, not out of town shoppers. More later
Sometimes I agree with your comments. Sometimes I disagree with your comments. But when someone complains about people thumbs-downing their comments, I assume they are an unstable and narcissistic person who should seek professional help.
Dont you think terms like narcissistic and should seek professional help are catch all phrases, used all the time these days? To say that about someone is not really saying anything because of the overuse and un originality. You could say, what you agree with or dont agree with, try to add clarity to your critique. Everybody needs professional help sometimes. So without clarification it comes off like an insult for insults sake, like you are having an emotional response.
No, I’m precisely not agreeing with or disagreeing with this person’s opinions. I’m saying that if they are so mad that they got thumbs-downs on a comment that they need to complain about it to everyone, that sounds pretty narcissistic to me – and I think that is fairly precise.
If someone is counting on getting thumbs-ups on social media comments for personal validation, they could probably use some help. I’m not sure what is unclear or what you think is emotional about my comment.
The day I go out of the way to say that I am mad that someone thumbs-down a comment that I make, I hope someone suggests that I get help.
It is obvious that some people know that they can wind up this person without even commenting on what they say, so they do it. And it seems to work.
Todd I agree tho would not hesitate to park in Baldwin decked. The insanity of putting a public park in the middle of a busy parking lot loosing some 40 odd prime parking spaces
befuddled me to no end -not to mention the later plan to desecrate Jessup Green as an alternative. That was their solution???
Yes we already have a lovely long river walk on the library side. Interesting folks are expected to walk a longer distance to shop- bags, strollers ice,rain, cold, heat and all not to mention our significant senior population with their challenges yet walking across the street while in town to walk the river front is not sufficient at this point in time for our Administration and its DPIC. Just what exactly is ther aversion to our merchants who are just recovering from what the pandemic did to their businesses. One would think the owners of these buildings would support the livelihoods of their merchants to every possible extent. Only if the merchants get a level playing field to succeed will downtown property owners investments succeed in both the long and short runs. Makes it difficult to understand why the conflict and current dog eat dog mentality that is getting
us nowhere fast. We must reconcile these forces before we can actually move forward.
I remain baffled by this administration’s constant surreptitious approach to governing. What is the allergen to transparency with this governing body?
Could it be an overall ineptitude of leadership? How many parking studies will this administration commission, burning through tax dollars?
A parking deck on the Baldwin lot has been discussed for over (30) years. Those of us who have lived here for three decades can attest to that fact.
With a $100M+ new school building, countless parking studies, new ball fields, discussions about a new police station with a parking deck on the south side of the Post Road, discussions about new central fire house, our First Selectwomen’s leadership is so inept, it is as if she spends tax dollars in search of a cause to spend more tax dollars. Thankfully, we live in an affluent community and we are fortunate to have the revenue to maintain this amazing Town, yet leadership needs a serious lesson in fiscal conservancy, along with how to work with others.
I gave the administration a concept design for the Baldwin deck. I gave the administration a concept site plan for Parker Harding reconfiguration. I created those concepts pro-bono, without pride of ownership. I created those documents because this administration is lost when it comes to infrastructure development.
Petty politics prevents the First Selectwomen from engaging her most effective tool in her toolbox; the volunteer group known as the Public Site and Building Commission, the appointed body of architects, engineers and builder’s assembled to act as the Town’s representative. The PS&BC is the Town’s, owner’s representative.
Sadly, the cancer we are all suffering through in our national politics has trickled down into our community whereby one political party is trying to run our town without the willingness to work with folks across the aisle. It’s bad enough we’re forced to endure this childhood nonsense in Washington, I never thought I’d live to see the day when my fellow Westporters, place the best interests of our wonderful community aside for self interest, insecurity, ego and tribalism. Our community is way better than that and we deserve competent leadership.
~ Joseph V. Vallone, A.I.A.
Well said, Joe. We need leaders with a vision for the people. We need leaders with fiscal integrity. We need leaders who are unafraid to come out from behind the veil of secrecy. We need leaders who are smart and honest, not cunning and deceptive. We need a change in Westport.