By John H. Palmer
If you’ve been following the news in the last few weeks, you know that there is a lot going on. First, the Planning and Zoning Commission is in the final stages of holding public hearings for the Hamlet development in Saugatuck. The commission is legally required to close the hearing phase stage no later than June 18. At that time, the process will enter a 65-day deliberation phase at the end of which a negative or positive vote will be held whether or not to approve the development, which could end up being the largest ever seen in Westport, consisting of a multi-use development of 11 buildings, including retail, hotel and residential buildings between the Saugatuck River, Charles Street, Franklin Street and Railroad Place.
Next, town boards are in a hurry to meet a state funding deadline of June 30 to help pay for the $108-million Long Lots Elementary School, which is scheduled to open in 2027. The rush began last week, when it was revealed by the Long Lots Building Committee that there is a mandated 2-week pause built into the town charter for any expenditure over $500,000, taking many town officials by surprise. As a result, the school building plans must pass required approvals before June 16.
The Planning and Zoning Commission, in addition to Hamlet, must also meet to issue a new 8-24 land use report on the school project, because the Westport Community Gardens that had been included in the original school rebuilding plan were removed from the project by First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker on May 14. They will take that on at Monday evening’s meeting.
The full RTM must also approve the school project by June 16 before a request for funds to build the school is sent to the state by the June 30 deadline.
We are attempting, as best we can, to keep up with the information surrounding the meetings coming up in the next week or two, which has been changing on a daily basis. Our goal is to give you as much information as we can – a viewer’s guide, if you will – so that you can plan to be present in person, or to watch on the various electronic methods. We’ll be there, too!
Upcoming meetings (which are subject to change) include the following:
EDITOR’S NOTE: We are aware that the amount of the appropriation requests that different town boards are expected to vote on are different, ranging from $93 million to $102 million, and that the entire amount of the project may be as much as $108 million or more. At this time, we are basing our reporting for this meeting list on information contained in legally-posted legal notices on the town of Westport’s website.
Monday, June 9
- 6 p.m. (Electronic) – Planning and Zoning Commission, Commission to discuss and vote on new 8-24 report for Long Lots School
Tuesday, June 10
- 2 p.m. (Zoom) – Flood & Erosion Control Board – Work Session for Hamlet
- 5:30 p.m. (Town Hall Room 201)– RTM Education Committee, potential approval of appropriation request of $93 million for Long Lots School
- 7:30 p.m. (Town Hall Room 201)– RTM Finance Committee, potential approval of $93 million appropriation request for Long Lots School
Wednesday, June 11
- 9 a.m. (Town Hall / Live Stream) – Board of Selectwomen – Acting as both the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority and the Traffic Authority, the selectwomen will be discussing the Hamlet application.
- 6 p.m. (Zoom) – Planning and Zoning Special Meeting – Hamlet public hearing
- 7:30 p.m. (Town Hall /Live Stream) – Board of Finance public meeting, potential vote of approval of $93 million appropriation request for Long Lots School
Thursday, June 12
- 7 p.m. – (Town Hall/Live Stream) – Conservation Commission meetings to discuss Hamlet development
- 7:30 p.m. (Town Hall/Live Stream) – Entire RTM meets to discuss and vote on final $102 million appropriation request for Long Lots School
Thank you for this summation.
A couple of more important details.
The details of the MASSIVE $100 Million-plus Long Lots appropriation are being DELIBERATELY HIDDEN FROM THE PUBLIC (yes I’m shouting). This is outrageous! What are they hiding within this extravagant proposal – the most expensive elementary school around?
The obvious conclusion is “They must be hiding something.”
The June 10 meeting of the RTM Finance Committee has been revised to include a contrived Executive Session. All 36 RTM members are invited to sit in during this private meeting at which time they will be shown the financial details behind the $108, $118, $102 or $98 million dollar appropriation/tax increase. The public is not invited to this portion of the meeting. Nor are they allowed to review the financial background.
The attorney who told the RTM this was “ok” is the same who represents the applicant who is asking for the money.
The BOF pulled a similar stunt.
You the taxpayer will never know what is behind these numbers. The contrived excuse is that the construction needs to be bid out. As if every contractor in the state and beyond doesn’t already know this is the most extravagant school building project on the planet.
If you don’t really believe the town would deliberately try to withhold information from you, here is the RTM Miderator, explaining the plan for a heist, in his own words:
“I have been speaking with many of you regarding the availability of financial information regarding Long Lots School.
“Different considerations have led us to change that information exchange to occur at an Executive Session presentation at the RTM Finance Committee on Tuesday June 10, 7:30 pm. This is consistent with the treatment by the Board Of Finance.
“The building committee has been very helpful in trying to come up with a way that we can gain access to the financial information we need for our vote on Thursday night, June 12.
“My initial expectation that we would have a room available for the RTM on Monday seems to have hit a hurdle. By having such a room available to RTMers, our Town attorneys believe that information would become FOIable to the general public at any time. “
There you have it. Deliberate attempt to circumvent the law that gives you the right to public information about a project that you will pay for through taxation.
If you think your representative will protect your interests, keep in mind the words of Danielle Dobin* at the recent Board of Finance meeting: “I fully support building a ‘Mercedes Benz’ school.”
If only we could spend the money on the real education — teachers and programs— and not on gilding the cage.
*Ms. Dobin is credited with force-feeding us the gateway-drug of a text amendment zoning that is allowing the town’s biggest ever commercial development: The Hamlet.
Thank you, Toni, for quoting my email to the RTM advising the move of our financial review of Long Lots to an executive session.
The executive session is not “contrived,” and you really are more analytical than to believe that is so. The building committee has asked that the lengthy line-by-line financial projections, much of which will be subject to a bidding process over the next few years, be available to elected officials only to ensure that bidding is fair and competitive and that bidding expectations are provided through specific Requests for Proposals to all on an equal basis.
This is the request of the building committee, and the procedure proposed by the town attorneys to keep the costs of the Long Lots school as competitive as possible.
Each resident of Westport is represented by four elected members of the RTM and seven elected members of the Board Of Finance, all of whom have reviewed and/or will be reviewing the financials. Those financials have been prepared by architects and engineers and have been reviewed by two consulting firms who monitor construction trends and developments.
Despite all that has gone on during this long project, I hope the vast majority of Westport residents are comfortable that the approval of this huge appropriation will be completed in a responsible manner and in a timeframe that allows the Town to begin construction in the foreseeable future.
Jeff, it is cringeworthy to say the least to assert that RTM will represent the views of their constituents when very clearly 2 years ago they did just the opposite on the famous right of citizens to petition, ( aka the rtm 29) and more recently on the citizen petition to overturn the PZ text ammendment change, where 33 RTM most certainly yet again did not represent their constituents.
The only singular vote to overturn hamlet, was Sal Liccione district 9, and in doing so was the sole member of the RTM speaking for the vast majority of the constituents. And by vast majority I’d estimate Sal represented 90% of this town while the 33 RTM REPRESENTED 10%.
Same goes with the RTM 29, though in that case I think the 29 represented 1% of the town while the 6/7 rtm’ers represented 99% of the town.
So to infer that we are going to be represented in the manner we should be by the RTM is laughable.
History very much tells us otherwise.
Some of us are now privy to a summary of line items adding up to the total for this massive build.
That is because it was mistakenly left behind after the last meeting.
The RTM was still not in possession of that document let alone the more detailed version.
I’m not sure how other than to rubber stamp them, can they possibly have enough time to read and process all the numbers and in turn make an informed vote.
They simply cannot. In fact many members of the tax paying Westport population are far more likely to understand and process those numbers especially if they are in the construction field.
Several examples which stick out like a sore thumb !
HVAC – while geothermal had been suggested as a possibility and then we were told likely might end up being too costly and not worth it.
13 million dollars..
yes folks.. 13,000,000,00
The cost of a conventional and highly efficient HVAC system on a building of this size ( especially going into a new airtight build) is 2.5 – 4.5 million.
So potential savings of 10 million dollars if we do a top of the line high efficiency electric or gas system.
It is inconceivable to be using geothermal in this situation and I question why the BOF missed or ignored this.
There is simply no excuse for this PROFLIGATE spend of constituents hard earned and paid taxes.
I SINCERELY HOPE THAT THE RTM will represent its constituents on this.
I am assuming this is not the only line item with a price tag 3+ times a perfectly appropriate and top end alternative.
Almost 40% of this build is materials.
We should be importing anything that is otherwise imported and marked up by suppliers ourselves.
We should be looking at India over China, ( as it pertains to having to use foreign imports)
Rice husk composite materials, majority are Indian produced, and tariffs far better out of India.
Rice husk takes the place of almost all wood products and looks and feels like wood.
It is a fabulous product. Not inexpensive if purchased in USA, from a vendor who has imported it and marked it up x10
It’s an ideal opportunity for us to self import it saving multiple millions.. I imagine in the $8-10 million range.
Windows and doors are the exact same.
An ENORMOUS saving if we send specs to a consolidator in India and import OURSELVES.
This may not be the conventional way of doing business when building a home, but for a project like this it is a no brainer.
Done in a smart and thoughtful way I guesstimate savings could be in the 20-30 million range. And add to that the removal of geo thermal, this project could sit at tens of millions less.
Since the finance board didn’t bother to make these suggestions, how are we to have any faith in this appropriation which is like a runaway horse.
I’m going to add to this that with more schools coming online in need of renovation etc.. we really could quite literally be looking at an almost doubling of our mill rate.
I would love Brian Stern to comment here on the potential increases we might see.
He always told it like it was, no sugar coating and I would be surprised if he is not incredibly nervous of this spending spree.
I am going to add here that Westports great at spending money on new shiny toys and not doing anything to maintain them.
That is why we are in this position now.
Years of neglect coming back to bite us in the ass.
So I sincerely hope that the RTM reaches out to somebody knowledgeable, perhaps an architect or developer who lives locally, who might explain these numbers to them and the potential to SELF IMPORT, saving millions.
There is zero point in having the LLSBC guide the rtm because their architects and consultants already have their fingers in the pie.
This school can be built for $50-60 million.
And it can be a “Mercedes”.
Just not a “maybach”.
I have great sympathy for the RTM, trying to do its job with the proverbial gun to its head. It’s hard to imagine how it and the boards and commissions involved can possibly give the Long Lots proposal the careful scrutiny it deserves. It’s like trying to keep your hat on your head while passing through a wind tunnel.
Having said that, there is one aspect of the inquiry which puzzles me and gives me pause, and that is the decision to keep the particulars of the budget from the general public. This is wrong and perhaps even illegal because, among other reasons, the public has a right to petition for a referendum on the projected cost and it is difficult to see how that right can be exercised when the budget is sequestered from public view. Or maybe that’s the point ( if you keep the budget a secret, that will discourage, if not prevent, a referendum.
There should be a public referendum to vote on this Long Lots palace. The public needs to decide what amount of money should be spent not committees. In regard to the upcoming “executive session” that the public is specifically excluded from that is a disgrace and must not be tolerated.
Mr Wieser:
It was through the Freedom of Information Act that I was able to obtain from the state, via the Schools Superintendent, a copy of the grant application as submitted so far.
This is a public document. Included in the grant application is a schedule of estimated costs. Any citizen has a right to this information.
So I have to ask, why contrive an executive session over potential future contract bidding (which is not defined as an exemption to FOIA/Open Meetings) when the data is publicly available? You guys had to jump through a few hoops to keep this information away from your constituents. The advantage for you and the LLSBC was that is was not readily available and I had to jump through a few hoops to expedite my FOIA request.
Here’s that document — I’m sure the lower numbers are outdated since it was filed a month ago.
https://tonisimonetti.substack.com/p/they-are-public-after-all
This is fascinating reading, I love it. I dont really have a dog in the show, aside frome having attended Long Lots as a student. However, the coverage from the journal is fantastically complete and engaging. The comments are pertinent and compelling. Our town government is feeling like a blob but our citizenship is lazer focused– nice!