As discussions move forward on how to reuse an army base, West Rock’s alderman-in-waiting accused City Hall of creating a panel of yes-men and shutting his neighborhood out.
Darnell Goldson (pictured), who last month won the Democratic Primary race for Ward 30 alderman, made his displeasure known in an open letter to the mayor this week. He said neighbors in his ward have not been consulted about what they would like to have done with the George D. Libby Army Reserve Center at 200 Wintergreen Ave., which the federal government is soon abandoning. Goldson accused City Hall of stacking the deck against the often-overlooked West Rock and West Hills neighborhoods.
The base, which sits on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University, is one of several that the Federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) has scheduled for closure. The Army Reserve plans to leave the site in the next few years, leaving the 7.15-acre property available for another use.
An aldermanic committee meets Thursday night to decide whether to accept federal funds to hire a consultant to help decide what to do with the base.
Two competing proposals have emerged for the future use of the property. The city would like to use the base as a new home for the police training academy. This plan could include a new shooting range to replace the existing — and wildly unpopular— outdoor range on Sherman Parkway in the Beaver Hills neighborhood.
A consortium of homelessness agencies, in cooperation with Southern, has submitted a competing proposal, asking that the site be used for homeless services. Federal guidelines require that the base be offered free to anyone who can offer a viable plan to house the homeless there.
To help decide what to do with the base, the city has formed a Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA). The panel, made up of city officials and citizens, is charged with evaluating the competing proposals and determining the best use for the site.
A top city official defended the process, saying it includes a variety of viewpoints and neighbors from close-by Ward 29.
Goldson accused City Hall of stacking the LRA with people in favor of the training academy plan.
In an open letter delivered Monday to Mayor DeStefano, Goldson complained that the panel does not include a single representative from Ward 30, the neighborhood in which the base is located. He also criticized what he described as a lack of proper publicity about the panel’s meetings and about the base reallocation process in general. He called for the LRA to be expanded to include at least two Ward 30 residents, a Ward 30 aldermanic representative, and a Southern Connecticut State University representative.
Goldson’s criticisms continue a theme he introduced during his recent campaign for the West Rock/West Hills aldermanic seat. Upon announcing his candidacy, he came forward with a study showing the mayor hadn’t appointed any Ward 30 residents to a city committee or board.
Goldson didn’t express a personal preference for either the training academy or the homeless services option, beyond saying that he is opposed to an outdoor shooting range at the site. He said that he can’t make a decision yet, since his ward has not been heard from and local residents may even have other ideas of what to do with the site.
“This facility sits right smack in the middle of the ward,” Goldson said Wednesday. “It’s the gateway to the [West Rock] community.” Despite its location, West Rock residents are not being made part of the discussion of the base’s future, he said.
Goldson said he has recently been talking to neighbors about the base’s future and about the aldermanic committee meeting on Thursday night. “No one knew about this meeting,” he said. “They were shocked to hear about it. It’s kind of flying under the radar.”
Although the LRA has met twice since forming in August, Goldson said the city has not done enough to publicize the meetings so neighbors can attend. “I can’t find anywhere that these meetings have been noticed,” he said. “The process from the beginning hasn’t been open.”
Goldson also complained that the meetings have been held in the early afternoon, when many people have to work.
Goldson said City Hall had deliberately filled the LRA with people in favor of approving the police training proposal and moving a shooting range from Beaver Hills to the army base. “It appears to me that the committee has been stacked with one goal,” he said.
There are no African-Americans or Latinos on the committee, Goldson said, and “no representatives from the West Rock community.” Goldson’s letter complained that the majority of the LRA is made up of administration employees.
The committee includes city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts, neighborhood activist Nan Bartow, Board of Aldermen President Carl Goldfield, City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg, Kelly Murphy of the Department of Economic Development, traffic and parking chief Mike Piscitelli, and homeless advocate Gary Spinner.
“The federal guidelines are real clear that there has to be community input in every stage of the process,” Goldson said. “You don’t have community input when 75 percent of the committee is city employees meeting in the middle of the day in a city employee’s office.”
Goldson promised to take the matter to a higher authority if the city does not act on his letter. “I think that we will absolutely go to the feds if the city doesn’t respond to this in a positive way.”
“No Hidden Agendas”
Contacted by phone, CAO Smuts responded to Goldson’s assertion that the base is in the middle of his ward. It’s actually on the edge of the ward, he said, and the closest residents are in Ward 29. That’s why Beaver Hills’ Bartow and Goldfield are on the LRA, he said.
Smuts said he was open to the idea of adding more members to the LRA. “I don’t have a problem expanding it,” he said. But he said he argued that four more members, as Goldson proposed in his letter, was too many.
“We don’t want to have it too focused on one area,” he said. “We want to make sure we have a city perspective on it.”
Smuts said Southern was not invited to sit on the panel because the school’s administration “was one of the parties that submitted a proposal.”
“It’s a little complicated,” he said, acknowledging that the city had submitted a proposal as well.
Smuts said there is “nothing wrong” with the members of the LRA “having opinions” about what should be done with the base. “We will be full compliant with the regulations governing the BRAC process,” he said.
He mentioned that Gary Spinner is on the board as a voice for homelessness uses of the base.
“There’s no hidden agendas,” Smuts said.
In response to Goldson’s complaint that the LRA’s meetings have not been adequately publicized, Smuts said the city has abided by all legal regulations on the issue, including putting notice in the office of the City Clerk. Smuts said the LRA does not meet in an employee office, but in one of the meeting rooms at City Hall.
“There’s certainly a conflict of interest” for Smuts, Goldson said, standing in front of the base on Wintergreen. “He is the supervisor of the police department. He’s said in several venues that this would be a perfect venue for a shooting range… This committee’s clearly set up to get to the conclusion they want it to.”
Leroy Jenkins, a West Rock property owner, objected to the idea that the closest homes to the base lie in Ward 29. He said that he lives in one of three houses he owns on Springside Avenue, “less than 1,000 yards from here.”