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To the Editor:
At last Monday’s Rotary debate, candidate for First Selectman Bill Gerber declared publicly again that he supported First Selectwoman Kupchick’s candidacy in 2019. He is not being honest or transparent with voters to try and appear bipartisan.
Filings with the Town Clerk’s office show Mr. Gerber donated to former First Selectman Mike Tetreau in April of 2019 and again in July. That same month Mr. Tetreau’s department heads were arrested in the first of many charges of the fill pile scandal, landing five of his department heads facing criminal charges, and ultimately costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
Melissa Longo, the Chairwoman of the Fairfield RTC, remarked, “It is no coincidence that, until this election season when running against a woman aiming to rectify this crisis, no member of the Democratic party has criticized Mr. Tetreau and his deeds. There has been no public condemnation of his actions by any elected Democrat official. Furthermore, in 2020, these Democrat officials allowed Mr. Tetreau to be nominated to the Democratic Town Committee once again, despite him being identified as a co-conspirator by the state’s attorney’s office.”
During the debate, Mr. Gerber asserted that he had no awareness of the developments regarding the fill pile. However, video recordings from RTM meetings in 2017 clearly depict Mr. Gerber was in attendance when Mr. Bartlet and Mr. Michelangelo discussed the Jullian fill operation.
During the RTM Meeting on May 6, 2019, when the Republicans attempted to discuss fill pile management, the Democrats quashed their efforts. Additionally, it revealed that the Democrats, including Mr. Gerber, defended Mr. Bartlet and Mr. Michelangelo, to the extent of raising a point of order when Republicans raised questions about the DPW budget. RTM Member Margaret Horton, who is running for RTM again this year, said she was “shocked to hear a level of professional skepticism and concern.”
Longo said, “Perhaps if there was more questioning of the prior administration by the Democratic elected leaders, we wouldn’t be facing this $30 million bill. But we will not allow Mr. Gerber to lie to voters about who he supported in 2019.”
Republican Town Committee
Fairfield