Independent police force supporters try to make case

Referendum set for March 8 in Montville

“Honestly, I’m open to talk to people about it anywhere, any place.” JOSEPH W. JASKIEWICZ CHAIRMAN, MONTVILLE TOWN COUNCIL

Montville — When voters go to the Fair Oaks Community Center on March 8, they’ll be making a decision similar to the one Montville residents considered 14 years ago.

In January, the Town Council passed an ordinance creating an independent police department with a chief instead of remaining in the state police resident trooper program.

Town councilors, former town officials and residents who signed a petition to send the decision to a public vote all agreed: on an issue as important as this, the people should decide. On March 8, voters will have the chance to overturn the police department proposal for the second time since 2002.

But, proponents of the independent department say, a lot has changed in the last 14 years.

What has changed

The biggest difference, Montville Police Lt. Leonard Bunnell said, is that the town now has a building with plenty of room to house the new department.

Bunnell said the $ 6.5 million, 17,000-square-foot public safety building that voters approved in 2010 was built with booking capability and enough space to one day house an independent department.

There are other arguments: the cost of the resident state trooper program to the town is destined to increase beyond what the town pays now, about $175,000 a year.

“The catalyst that started this whole movement is that fact that the state has been, and will continue, to raise the cost of the resident trooper,” Bunnell said.

Over the past several weeks, Bunnell, town councilors and Montville residents have set out to convince voters to vote “no” and not overturn the council decision on March 8.

Open houses

Bunnell has arranged open houses at the public safety building, attended a half-dozen neighborhood watch meetings and spoken at public hearings on the issue.

Town Council Chairman Joseph W. Jaskiewicz, who supported the independent department in 2002 and still supports it today, is taking a more individual approach.

After a Montville school board meeting last week, Jaskiewicz found himself in a conversation with another resident, explaining again why hiring a chief would be a good idea.

For someone who has been fighting for the same thing for more than 20 years, Jaskiewicz

explains his side of the issue with patience.

“Honestly, I’m open to talk to people about it anywhere, any place,” he said. “I just give them my reasons, and people will talk back to you.” But, he said, “they’re always very nice about it.”

Outside of town meetings and one-on-one conversations, much of the discourse is happening online, where patience can be scarce.

On a private Facebook page reserved for Montville residents, comments about the referendum have kept moderators busy in the past several weeks.

Some worry that the speed that information travels on Facebook makes misinformation more common.

“This is the new way of looking at things,” said Donna Geary, a Montville resident who often posts about the referendum. “A lot of people just don’t bother to get it, or they don’t know.”

Geary read the report an independent committee released in November supporting the independent department cover to cover, she said.

That report, as well as copies of the ordinance and an explanatory text that will accompany the ballot, have been posted on the town’s website and on various Facebook pages.

Still, many residents argue that now is the wrong time for a department.

“Sometimes I wonder, did you read these things?” Geary said.

The wording of the question facing voters is not quite intuitive, causing more confusion.

Because a vote in favor of overturning the Town Council’s ordinance is a vote against the independent department, developing a pithy slogan for either side has proven difficult.

“I’m hoping ... people will read the question,” Jaskiewicz said. He said the explanatory text should help, but acknowledges not everyone will read it.

“I dont know how much more you can do,” he said.

Town Council member Kathleen Pollard, who opposes switching to an independent model, said she has tried to stay out of the debate in recent weeks.

In January and February, she helped gather more than 400 signatures on a petition calling for the referendum.

“I’ve already done the work that I needed to do,” she said. Uncertainty about the possible impact on Montville residents’ tax bills should speak for itself, she said.

“They wanted to see what it’s going to cost them,” she said.

An exact number might be hard to come by, said Finance Director Theresa Hart.

“Obviously, we’re not going to get down to the penny,” she said.

Hart stands by the ad-hoc committee’s conclusion that an independent department would add about $300,000 to the town’s police budget in the first year.

But she said she still hears from residents who think it will cost the town millions of dollars.

“I’d be interested to see if we’re missing something,” she said. “I don’t think anyone has said that this will be a cost savings,” but “how we could be that off the mark, I just don’t see it.”