Can we stand up to bullies for a better Greenwich?
Last year was one of the nastiest years ever in Greenwich politics. One could hope that 2023 would be better and our community would be more civil. If the start of 2023 is any indicator, you can scratch that idea.
Just look at the current behavior in the Representative Town Meeting, our town’s legislature. Out of the blue, our election registrars asked permission to take a $500,000 grant from an outside not-forprofit organization. The grant is from the innocuous sounding Center for Tech and Civic Life and its affiliate. Their stated mission is to “connect Americans with the information they need to become and remain civically engaged, and ensure that our elections are more professional, inclusive, and secure.” Our elections are already exceptionally “professional, inclusive and secure,” so why would CTCL drop off $500,000 in one of the wealthiest towns in America? A question worth considering, but back to the RTM.
Previously unknown to nearly all town elected officials, the grant request appeared in RTM legislators’ mailboxes at 3 p.m. on Dec. 30 with a call to vote on the matter on Jan. 17. The Town of Greenwich has no standing policy about not-for-profit gifts and grants, so legislators have no guide to consider the question. Certainly, 18 days is an incredibly short time to make one up.
The critical and intelligent question should have been “should we allow private money into the heart of our government, particularly an area as sensitive as the conduct and management of our elections?” Unfortunately, this is not the question most RTM members raised. Instead, an exceptionally nasty partisan food fight with now popular and sadly acceptable personal insults broke out immediately.
It all started in the meeting of the first RTM committee tasked with considering the grant. It’s irrelevant who started what in the Budget Overview Committee, but it ended with the usual slurs of “extremists” and “conspiracy theorists” of anyone who asked questions about CTCL and their affiliates.
This was promptly followed up by an email from a BOC member Matt DesChamps citing the Anti-Defamation League calling people opposed to the CTCL as “conspiracy theorists.” When you’ve been involved in politics for more than 30 seconds, you know that citing the ADL is analogous to calling your opponent an “antisemite.” I was prepared to give Mr. DesChamps the benefit of the doubt until I learned he is a seasoned political player donating $122,000 in 2020 to Democrat candidates and SuperPAC.
Then the RTM Finance Committee met to consider the question assigned to them. Within mere seconds of the item being presented, Daniel Izzo, joined by our new elected state Rep. Hector Arzeno, used a parliamentary trick to attempt to shut down discussion and debate before a word was uttered. So much for our elected officials doing their jobs.
In the same meeting, RTM member James Waters called members questioning the grant “conspiracy theorists” three times even after being cited by the chairman for ad hominem attacks on fellow members. Waters is the son of Sandra Waters, president of the Greenwich League of Women Voters, who has waxed and waned about civility in politics.
Mr. Waters has a long history of this angry personal conduct. He is well known by candidates and elected officials as a social media troll. Sixteen instances of these types of attacks were recently presented in the official record of the RTM. This past October, First Selectmen Fred Camillo personally vouched that Mr. Waters had acknowledged his past mistakes and recommended him for a special appointment. Mr. Waters stood before the town legislature apologizing and forswearing this behavior in the future. Well, that didn’t last long. Here he is insulting his legislative colleagues who might have a different view than his own.
The cherry on top of this ugly tale was RTM member Scott Kalb circulating a letter to all legislators calling opponents to the grant conspiracy theorists of rigged elections, fear mongers and extremist rightwingers.
The genius of Greenwich used to be (and yes, I’m speaking of the recent past) that our elected representatives worked as a bulwark against importing the ugly politics of Washington and Hartford into our local discourse. At the end of the day, we are neighbors, community volunteers, and committed citizens. There was a big difference between sharply asking a question versus personally insulting an opponent.
Kalb is also a seasoned Democrat operative and donor on the national stage. He knows exactly what he is saying.
The genius of Greenwich used to be (and yes, I’m speaking of the recent past) that our elected representatives worked as a bulwark against importing the ugly politics of Washington and Hartford into our local discourse. At the end of the day, we are neighbors, community volunteers, and committed citizens. There was a big difference between sharply asking a question versus personally insulting an opponent.
The RTM was the preeminent example of this idea and was supposed to be nonpartisan, ideally to be respectful of alternate viewpoints. Somewhere, along the way this crowd imported a win-at-allcosts, personally-destroy-your-opponent approach to government. Greenwich is absolutely a lesser place as their behavior becomes the norm.
The question for 2023 is will we stand up to these bullies and trolls for a better Greenwich or will we just become like everywhere else where the politics of personal destruction is the new normal? The RTM is not off to a good start, but let’s be hopeful.