Clueless?
The entire RTM Labor Contracts Committee has taken the hint and will leave. Hundreds of millions of dollars are involved in those contracts, so this might be a big deal.
Six of the committee’s seven incumbents were part of a slate that was put up for reappointment during the June RTM meeting.
Notable among those incumbents who have since withdrawn from the running is Joan Caldwell, the committee’s vice chairman and longest-tenured member who is also second in command of the full RTM.
“If there was no confidence in the Labor Contracts Committee or me as a member of the Labor Contracts Committee, why would I be stupid enough to put my name forward?” Caldwell said.
Caldwell defended the work of the committee, which she said has been functioning effectively as liaison between contract negotiators for the town and the legislative body until it came under fire from the RTM Finance Committee during the past two years.
“I think there’s infighting going on in the town meeting, initiated by the Finance Committee,” Caldwell said. “They seem to have a much better idea of what should be done than we do, even though we’ve been doing it for 30 years.”
I don’t know much about the personalities involved; I leave that to Fudrucker, and others who might care, but if Caldwell thinks her performance with the town’s labor contracts over the past thirty years supports her continuing in the job, I’d say her retirement is long overdue.
404 million dollar budget 358 goes towards salaries pensions and benefits 42 million left for 15 schools, however many parks and roads and other facilities to maintain and i would say they all need to go
Amen – the damage done will cost generations of Greenwich citizens….
Wow, you guys screwed the pooch big time if the figures are correct. 45 mil to run that town after the salaries and pension costs are paid??? Good luck with that.
John
Those figures are correct, unfortunately. As to how we got to this sorry condition, check my latest post on Connecticut’s imposition of mandatory binding arbitration – the unions deliver their wish list, the towns resist, the matter is referred to a Democrat arbitrator who could choose between the town’s last offer and the union’s but always chooses the unions and voila! – The next year’s cost increase is baked in.
Unions, arbitrators & politicians: a vicious circle of jerks.
It’s time that tired old hag Caldwell got the hint. Has everyone totally forgotten she was Peter Brant’s paid PR representative and lobbiest back when he was assembling the properties and getting town approvals for what is now the Conyers Farm real estate development, and all those buildings like the old country club building and the barn full of horses mysteriously burned down in succession?
Talk about carrying a torch for someone!
Very clever Greg!!!!
The RTM is a waste of time. Why is it that people who are against government anything support a 230 person TOWN parliament. Time to get some real accountability. The Joan Caldwell story is exhibit A
I recall reading that the RTM was created as protection against Cos Cob’s Eyetalian masons and factory workers voting in their friends and pet projects while the hard working gentlemen who were footing the bill for such largess were hard at work at proper WASP jobs down in the city.
Not sure that ever worked, and since Cos Cob still governs Greenwich 100 years later, it’s probably time to try something else.
Did Neil Vigdor really write, and did the Greenwich Time really publish a several-hundred word article about this Labor Contracts Committee tempest-in-a-teapot without listing the names of the outgoing or incoming committee members?
The silly paper is more interested in stirring up the controversy than actually providing the reader any useful information on the topic.
If you don’t like the way the RTM is working, get involved and change it! There are frequently openings in most districts, and, if you can bribe enough of your neighbors to sign a petition, you can get your name on the ballot in November. Try it, you may like it!
GW