Newsletter Volume 3 • Number 47
A united town legislature sends a clear message in favor of responsible governance
Greenwich Democrats believe in fact-based solutions,respect for professional expertise, and smart, efficient use of taxpayer dollars. We believe in listening to town agencies, relying on evidence, and putting community needs ahead of ideology. On Monday night, the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) voted to uphold those principles.
The clear message: when it comes to governing, expertise and science matter.
By large margins, the RTM cut two costly, ill-advised, directives included in the budget by Republicans controlling the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET).
- One required that a new HVAC for the Hamilton Avenue school be a polluting, gas-powered system even though the bipartisan Board of Education had endorsed a geothermal one
- The other prioritized a flood mitigation project of questionable impact in a BET member’s neighborhood over high-priority flood projects that Republicans unilaterally deleted
Both were pushed through despite scientific evidence from expert consultants, town agency priorities and approvals, and with little regard for fiscal prudence. So the RTM, our town’s 230-member legislative body, which can only cut budgets, struck them down.
A fossil fuel plant nixed
The Hamilton Avenue School had already received approval for a clean-energy geothermal HVAC system, supported by independent cost analyses, a school board vote, and prior RTM support. Yet BET Republicans, led by climate-change skeptic Chair Harry Fisher, added a mandate for a gas-powered system instead.
The rationale? Personal belief over evidence. The result? A landslide 180–17 RTM vote against the BET directive, signaling overwhelming support for sustainability, following expert recommendations and sound financial planning.
A $30 million solution in search of a problem
The second project was equally troubling. BET Republican Leslie Tarkington advocated for $1.5 million in design funding for flood mitigation work along West Brothers Brook, a stream near her home. The full plan would cost taxpayers at least $30 million, take 10–15 years, and according to engineers, offers “little to no” flood relief. Moreover, much of the work would be on private land.
But even as the BET allocated $500,000 for this, Republicans rejected much less expensive, higher-priority flood mitigation efforts on public infrastructure, such as a project on Dearfield Drive. That one—identified by the Flood Control and Erosion Board and the Department of Public Works—protects the main downtown emergency access road to Greenwich Hospital that washed out during Hurricane Ida. The RTM acted decisively, cutting the West Brothers Brook budget line by a vote of 154–49.
“The RTM Budget Overview Committee dug deep on the town budget this year,” said James Waters, chair of the committee which proposed the two cuts, “conducting analysis that was not done by the BET…It demonstrated that the RTM can effectively wield its limited tools to serve as a check to BET overreach. It also sent an important signal: the $4.5 million in amendments approved matches the amount of cuts the BET forced onto the school system.”
A vote for vision
The RTM represents every neighborhood in Greenwich. Its votes this week amounted to a bipartisan rebuke of the BET’s recklessness, and a recommitment to reason, facts, and forward-looking planning.
When we choose vision and data over ideology, we can build a better Greenwich. This November, vote for all six Democratic BET candidates. Let’s return respect for expertise and fiscal responsibility to town leadership.
The Cowardly Ryan
While Greenwich residents have been taking to the streets to protest Trump/DOGE chaos, the silence from local Republican leaders, like State Senator Ryan Fazio, has been deafening.
Fazio took his cowardice a step further on a recent podcast when asked by host Trevor Crow about the Trump tariffs’ impact and the lack of due process in deportations. Fazio summed up the Trump regime’s rollout in a supremely spineless whimper: “A hundred days in, it’s difficult to assess.” It’s not difficult for the rest of us, Ryan. It’s bad, and people are suffering!
Republicans like Fazio have gone missing
Across the country, Americans are looking to their elected leaders to lead and Republicans have taken to hiding. Evasive maneuvers range from canceling town hall meetings, to forcibly removing constituents who ask tough questions.
A recent viral video from a neighboring New York suburb shows a 64-year-old retired social worker being hauled from her seat by four armed police officers after she demanded her congressman, Republican Mike Lawler respond to her question. “I was certainly no threat,” she later wrote. “I asked my congressperson what his red line was to finally, vocally, oppose the lawless administration and he didn’t answer the question, so I called out for him to answer it and he had me removed.”
These are not normal times and we expect more courage from our leaders. Greenwich Democrats are standing up with you.
What we’re reading
When dissent is dangerous, democracy is in danger
As Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts graduate student who was kidnapped and detained in Louisiana for co-authoring an editorial, made her way back to campus following her six week ordeal, the question posed in this editorial caught our attention, “How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?” According to the authors, “We propose a simple metric: the cost of opposing the government. In democracies, citizens are not punished for peacefully opposing those in power.”Read the editorial here.
Action Calendar
May 21. Gather.
Join our monthly Greenwich Democrats meeting with special guest speaker, journalist and New York Times opinion writer, Josh Barro. 7:30 p.m., Greenwich Town Hall, 101 Field Point Road.
May 22. Learn.
Hear from Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas about how voting rights are being protected in CT. 6:30 p.m., YWCA, 259 E. Putnam Ave., RSVP here.
May 26. March.
Memorial Day Parade in Old Greenwich, May 26, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. March in one of our favorite events of the year! Join us under the Greenwich Democrats banner to pay tribute to the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedoms.
June 1. Celebrate.
Celebrate Greenwich’s LGBTQ+ community with elected officials, and religious and community leaders for a Pride flag raising, dance party, games, and ice cream. Greenwich Town Hall, 1:00 p.m.
| Volume 3, Number 47 • May 15, 2025 |
| Paid for by the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. |
| Greenwich Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 126 Greenwich, CT 06836 |