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Resident criticizes selectmen over budgets, fields and special-interest influence during public comment
Summary
During the public comment period, a longtime resident urged the First Selectman to resign, criticized budget increases and urged reallocating school turf funds to repair junior-high courts, while accusing the board of favoring special interests.
Joan Puff, speaking during the March 9 public audience, used her five-minute allotment to sharply criticize the Board of Selectmen’s priorities, call attention to several budget items and urge changes.
Puff accused the board of catering to special-interest groups at taxpayers’ expense and questioned recent budget increases for the Board of Education and for selectmen-funded items. She proposed shifting money from a proposed Simsbury High School turf project to resurface junior-high tennis and pickleball courts she described as unsafe, and urged the town to revisit tax treatment for a local skating facility.
Her comments included a broad appeal to civic principles: quoting the Declaration of Independence, she suggested the community had a right to demand accountability from elected leaders and said publicly she might ask the First Selectman to step down.
The board acknowledged the comment during the meeting but took no formal action; the items Puff raised — capital allocation for athletic fields and tax status of private facilities — would require separate, formal agenda items and staff analysis before any policy change.
Ending: Public comment closed and the board proceeded with the scheduled charter revision discussion.
