Cosgrove Confronted Over Inland Wetlands Appointments

The chairman of the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) and the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) minority leader last night chastised First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove for removing two long-term commissioners, including Dr. Richard Orson, one of the leading inland wetlands scholars in the state.

“This is a sad moment for the town of Branford,” Daniel Shapiro, IW chair (pictured above), told the three-member Board of Selectmen.

Shapiro, clearly upset, asked why Cosgrove removed Orson. He said Orson has a wealth of knowledge about local and state wetlands and water regulations. He said Orson, who holds a master’s degree in botany and a Ph.D. in wetland ecology, was considered the scholar and the scientific leader of the commission.

He was one the toughest examiners when developers brought their plans to the commission, just as developers of a planned new Costco plan to do next month. Last week wetlands officials said Costco is expected to submit its application for the Sept. 10 IWC meeting.

By that time, two new Wetlands members will be seated on the commission. Cosgrove placed them immediately on the commission rather than moving up alternates. Cosgrove also appointed a new alternate. The new commissioners, once sworn-in, are attorney Merle Berke-Schlessel, who is currently the CEO of the United Way of Eastern Fairfield County; James Goggin, a former school teacher, who had served on the Inland Wetlands Commission in Harwinton, Connecticut; and Richard K. Greenalch, an engineer who works for Munger Construction in Branford.

Developers have long considered Inland Wetlands the toughest commission to get through In part because protection of wetlands and waterways are overseen by state statutes, regulations and enforcement provisions designed to make sure fragile natural resources are not built upon as they once were. Shapiro said the commission is losing ​“a guy with scientific legs underneath him. He can separate the wheat from the chafe.”

Cosgrove said he make the changes because it is time to make IW a more ​“balanced” board.

Chris Sullivan, minority leader of the Representative Town Meeting, told the BOS and a group of Republican RTM members seated in the audience that ​“the amount of institutional knowledge that these commissioners hold is critical for Branford. Their replacements, as far as I can tell are certainly not as qualified as the incumbent citizen commissioners, all of whom have expressed a desire to continue serving the town.”

The three IWC members whose terms expired May 31 are Orson; Dr. Wesley Vietzke; and Leo Stanlake, who is an alternate. The IWC is comprised of seven members and three alternates. Vietzke and Stanlake are Democrats. Orson is unaffiliated. This photo was taken last week. The seven-member board at that time included Shapiro, Suzanne Botta; James Killelea; John Rusatsky; Robert Valley; Orson; and Vietzke. There are three alternates: Peter Basserman; Steven Gangi; and Leo Stanlake.

Sullivan said to Cosgrove: ​“I have a couple of questions for you.”

“How did these sitting commissioners conduct themselves in the service to the town that you found so wrong that you found it necessary to remove them from their posts?” Sullivan (pictured) asked.

Cosgrove responded, ​“It is really about the commission as a whole.” He said he, too, values the environment and he does not believe ​“the three new appointees would jeopardize the environment. The record is clear as well as my actions that I value the environment. I do not feel this is in any way jeopardizing the environment. I feel that it is most important to have a balanced commission. This is something that I heard about not only from the residents but I have heard from other commissions in town.”

At that point Democratic Third Selectman Bruce Storm interjected: ​“Can you possibly tell me what a balanced commission means?”

Cosgrove Hints Why Orson Had To Go

“I think you have certain members in there for a long time … where essentially it should be contributions by all commissioners and not just being led by certain ones,” Cosgrove said.

Bill Horne, one of the town’s leading environmentalists, attended the meeting but did not speak. He stood in the back of the room. In an interview after the meeting, Horne said: ​“It’s disappointing that Cosgrove didn’t care to share the criteria he used to evaluate the candidates who were appointed and the commissioners who were retired, and explain how those he appointed will improve the protection of Branford’s wetland resources. His claim that these appointments are aimed at creating a commission where all members contribute to the analysis and deliberation only exposes his lack of understanding of how the IWC has functioned and shows a lack of respect for the efforts and contributions of all the members.”

The loss of Orson and Vietske, he said will have direct impact on the commission’s standing in the legal world. Regardless of how the newcomers perform in the future, he said, ​“the immediate effect of removing commissioners with Orson’s and Vietske’s knowledge and experience, and particularly with Orson’s professional credentials, is to reduce the credibility of the commission if a decision is appealed, whether by an applicant or by someone opposing an application.”

Bypassing Alternates

The IWC is comprised of seven members and three alternates. Cosgrove told the BOS that five members remain and only two new appointees are coming on. 

“He bypassed the alternates and put the new appointees ahead of them, people who have been on the board for eight and five years. It’s never happened in town in the last 20 years that I have seen,” Shapiro said in an interview.

Shapiro and Sullivan both said Cosgrove acted disrespectfully when he declined to move up two long-serving and knowledgeable alternates on the IW commission. Instead Berke-Schlessel and Goggin will jump over the alternates to become regular members of the commission. Greenalch will be an alternate.

“ I wish you had made a different decision,” Sullivan said.

“You have disenfranchised these alternates who have put in years of work. They are being bypassed. You are disenfranchising them,” Shapiro said. He told the BOS that one of his alternates, whom he described as ” workhorse” for the commission, wrote to him yesterday morning to ask if he had done anything wrong. 

Shapiro said Orson’s loss will also be monetary because having an expert on the board meant Orson could go into the field and help an applicant.

“The commission is going to be required to ask applicants for more money,” Shapiro told Cosgrove. “How is that a good thing?” he asked.

At one point Shapiro, who stood sideways while he spoke, said he would “rather walk away from this commission than see Orson removed from this commission. I think that this is a desperate act.”

“Jamie, you didn’t give me an opportunity to speak to you as you told me you would before you made this decision.”

Cosgrove did not answer.

Then Shapiro looked directly at Selectman Higgins, who has seldom spoken at meetings for the past two years. “I would like to hear from the second selectman that is going to be the swing vote on this decision.”
 
“What do you think of the idea of putting on new, full commissioners on and bypassing alternates?” Shapiro asked Higgins.

Higgins replied: “Change is good.”

In other action, Cosgrove recommended the reappointment of Jeffrey Vailette, a Democrat, to the Board of Finance (BOF) and reached back to a former BOF Republican member, Lorraine Young, seeking her return to the board. A banker, Young, retired in 2010 after serving on the board for more than 18 years. She will take Kurt Schwanfelder’s seat. Schwanfelder, too, had sought reappointment without success.

When Cosgrove ran for first selectman two years ago, he promised to bring Costco to Exit 56 and he promised transparency.

Aniskovich Discloses IW Move

The first forewarning of controversy over the IWC reappointments came when local environmentalist Bill Horne raised the issue following the June 18 meeting of the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission. “Unfortunately, the reappointment of the Inland Wetlands commissioners appears uncertain,” Horne told the Eagle the day after the P&Z meeting. “Town Counsel (Bill) Aniskovich told me last night that the first selectman is looking for names of people to appoint to these vacancies,” Horne said. Click here to read that story.

The main issue at that June 18 meeting was Costco’s proposed Master Plan and Planned Development District (PDD) at Exit 56. Some P&Z commissioners said if they approve the PDD, they trust the IWC members to thoroughly review the application when the site plan is submitted to them.

At public hearings regarding the Costco plans, Horne stated that Costco’s PDD impinges on the wetlands and could adversely affect stormwater drainage and watersheds. Click here to read about that.

The Costco master plan and PDD was approved July 9 by the P&Z commission by a 3-2 vote. Costco must now present detailed site plans to both the IWC and the P&Z, and additional public hearings will be scheduled.

This is not the first controversy at a BOS meeting regarding appointment to key regulatory boards. The BOS unanimously approved Paul Higgins Jr., who has an extensive background in the insurance and risk-management industries, as an alternate to P&Z in May.

Sullivan spoke up during that meeting and said another candidate had 15 years experience on the P&Z commission in Durham, and was endorsed by Branford’s Democratic Town Committee. Click here to read the story.

Diana Stricker contributed reporting for this story.

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