Mr. Stern is entitled to his opinion, however, I would like to point out that several statements in his letter are untrue:
1.) Mrs. Polansky did not dismantle a security camera;
2.) Mrs. Polansky never ordered portraits of the founders to be discarded. That is absolutely false;
3.) The long-standing secretary that Mr. Stern references started in 2005, not 1992 (according to an appointment letter from Mr. Wise) and the administrative assistant he references stepped down of her own volition;
4.) Mrs. Polansky had her weekly meeting with residents today in the community room and the door to her office was open. This was observed by more than one person and therefore, it is not closed at all times;
5.) I have difficulty understanding how one can make statements of purported fact, as Mr. Stern does in his letter, when he has not been to Stern Village in recent weeks or months to make these observations personally and to the best of my knowledge, no longer lives in Trumbull;
6.) In late November, after Hurricane Sandy, I met with Mrs. Stern to discuss the emergency reports that had been generated by Emergency Management and the Fire Marshal. Also at this meeting was the Town Attorney. I voiced my concerns with the reports and the response from the Housing Authority after the hurricane. Mrs. Stern defended the actions of the authority and did not believe that further action was required;
7.) My decision to not re-appoint Mrs. Stern had nothing to do with politics. My decision not to re-appoint Mrs. Stern, in addition to another commissioner dealt exclusively with the response from the THA in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy;
8.) Today, nearly fifty seniors attended a coffee with the new interim Executive Director. This meeting was covered by the Trumbull Times. I encourage you to read the article and I would also encourage Mr. Stern to read the article as well:
http://www.trumbulltimes.com/6218/polansky-talks-with-stern-village-residents/
[Editor's note: Trumbull Patch's story is here.]
The comments from the residents are very clear.
I have been honest and candid as to why I elected to appoint new people to the Trumbull Housing Authority and in the coming weeks, I hope the new THA and their interim executive director will work quickly to address the following:
1. Fully implement the emergency readiness plan;
2. Install emergency generators that will allow the community room to function as a shelter, should the need arise;
3. Develop a safety manual for residents;
4. Implement computerized systems;
5. Develop a capital improvement program that improves lighting and walkways throughout Stern Village.
These are some of many priorities that need to be addressed.
I respect what Sam Stern, his wife and his son, did for Stern Village. I also respect many of Judi’s contributions. However, I cannot ignore the recommendations of emergency management professionals and I certainly cannot ignore actions at a meeting that disregarded the findings of those professionals. When you are the leader of a community, you have to make difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions. We have a moral obligation to protect the public health, safety and welfare of our residents. I think the people of Trumbull know how seriously I take this obligation in how the Town has responded to Irene, Alfred, Sandy and Nemo. The actions I have taken have always kept as my highest priority the health, safety and welfare of the residents of Stern Village and every resident of Trumbull.
Thank you,
Tim Herbst
Try as he might to disclaim the obvious, how can the First Selectman reasonably claim that he has the safety and welfare of residents at heart when he appointed a new resident Commissioner who was on warning for smoking in the Congregate Building around people who are on oxygen in violation of the Stern Village rules? How can he say he's improved the safety at Stern Village when he has appointed four new Commissioners with no previous experience in public or senior housing, two of whom are Republican insiders and members of the TRTC, and the third is a long-time political supporter? How can he reasonably claim that safety has been approved when those four Commissioners with no experience bought out the contract of the long-time Executive Director and hired an "interim" replacement that had no experience in public housing during the height of the winter snow season? How can the First Selectman reasonably claim that the best possible candidate for this job simply "stepped forward" after reading about Stern Village in the newspaper and volunteering to help out? Was any type of scrutiny or effort made to find a more experienced person, even on an interim basis? Mr. Herbst, you can't change the facts.
Loading the Boards and Commissions with friends, family members, and political bosses while getting rid of long-time community servants may be an efficient way to exert control, but in my opinion, it does not improve the performance of those Boards and Commissions. To paraphrase Scripture, no man (or woman) can serve two masters, and as long as so many of Mr. Herbst's appointments continue to be TRTC leadership and insiders, politics will always be at the center of these important matters. Trumbull deserves better.
1. The director should be able to be reached at all times, prividing the director with a cell phone could help with this situtation. (THA heard this and planned to provide the director with a cell phone). 2. A current list of residents should be available at all times. This should be updated at least monthly. (Such a list is available, but due to the power outages and other, more pressing problems an old list was delievered to the fire marshal in error.) 3. Asking residents to check in with the director, and keep a written list when residents plan to be away for more than one night to keep an accurate track of the population. (This completely misses the point of THA. THA does not keep track of its residents' comings and goings, ever. It is a rental complex, not a caretaker.) 4. Having a plan to help relocate these residents when needed, especially those with medical needs that the shelter cannot accomodate. (Again, THA does not keep track of these things, and the shelter issue did not arise until after the storm.) 5. Providing the community room with a generator to allow residents to have a warm place to go with proper lighting (continued)
Note that NOTHING in any of these recommendations was cause to dismiss long-time employees and volunteers and denegrate them publically. Nothing shows any lives put at risk. Nothing shows any needs were ignored. Several also misconstrue the purpose of THA entirely and suggest the residents are unable to manage their own lives and need THA oversight. Unless the residents of THA want to be overseen by THA, their commings and goings should not be recorded, nor their medical needs inquired into. The simple fact is that the commissioners disagreed with Mr. Herbst and decided the current executive director had been there for years, done a great job, and should be retained to impliment these and other improvements. Mr. Herbst disagreed, cleaned house, and dirtied their names in the process. (continued)
I still haven't heard the justification for appointing Commissioner Meehan. Anthony Musto
Anyone in the political arena needs to understand that they are employees of the people, start acting like grownups, and earn an honest living. Both Herbst and Tom Kelly: get over yourselves. If you are truly working for the betterment of Trumbull, quit the public bickering, it only makes you look foolish. Both Democrats and Republicans at all levels have nothing to be proud of these days; without communication and conviction to the people, we continue spiral downward. Learn to work on solutions, and compromise if needed to get to aresolution. We try to teach our kids that bullying is not acceptable, however both Herbst and Kelly seem to relish the public fight and back stabbing. Enough already.
Amusingly, I see that Tim's response is time stamped 1 minute earlier than Mr. Stern's original letter. Is it policy to give the First Selectman advance notice of material to be published? Are people referenced in the First Selectman's frequent missives also given advance notice in order to publish a simultaneous response? I appreciate your desire to serve both sides as long as it is policy to give such treatment in all instances. Thanks.
Furthermore, I understand there is much to this story that has yet to be told. Stay tuned and BRAVO to Mr. Herbst.
And yet, there's more to be told? Really? If there's more to be told, what the heck is Tim Herbst waiting for? "The whole story hasn't come out" is usually the refuge of people with nothing plausible left to say.
From Tim's response on Trumbull Patch: "...during the recent blizzard [the THA was]... communicating with the police department to ensure that there were regular patrols to guarantee adequate emergency access." From the Police Commission minutes: " By 1:30 a.m. the Police Department was not able to respond to any calls as the snow was too deep for he patrol cars to drive through. "Chief Kiely's report. My question: Did the police make regular patrols of Stern Village during the blizzard on snowshoes? According to the Chief of Police, the police were unable to get out of the police station because the snow was too deep. So which is it? Regular patrols or parked police cars? It is hard to believe anything that Tim says anymore. The nurse at Stern Village was removed by Tim. Now he says she must become a part of Stern Village. He says regular patrols were made during Nemo. The chief of police says that no cars could get out. Perhaps you can see why I am skeptical?
And when accusations are made, I do try to give those being accused notice so they can respond. I also asked Russ Friedson for a response as well. If I knew how to reach Judith Stern, I would have notified her too.
During the crisis Mr. Herbst (with our police and fire) heroes, went door to door at Stern Village.. The previous SV administration failed to show up when ordered to report to the crisis command center. As for the portraits, MRS. STERN TOOK THEM DOWN. The Stern family is still a well respected family in town despite Mrs. Stern's confrontational attitude.. As for my Hybernian brother, I grew up here unlike you. I have much in stake in the success of this community and chose to raise my family here. I watched Mr. Herbst on the THS football field and I am glad he in our leader. It is not about party affiliation. It's leadership. Tim has shown us that he will confront the uniformed, fix the wrong and deal with the highest level of integrity. I know many will disagree. However, there is a silent un-bloging majority that supports him and his vision for Trumbull.
On that Saturday afternoon, Mr. Herbst told me, on We Are Trumbull, that I should be ashamed of myself for responding to an inquiry from my district council rep as to "how we were doing." I had no concern that my road was not plowed as we were safe at home, with no where to be and knew the plows would get to us eventually. I did, however, post a comment by Mr. Littlefield, a Stern Village resident, who said that he was concerned about the lack of assistance from the town. Here is his post (continued:)
Most units have their front doors blocked with snow. Cabin fever and worse, the feeling of being trapped and helpless is beginning to take hold. A dreadful feeling to experience. There are people on Meals on Wheels who can't get fed. There are people who need oxygen delivered and can't be reached. These are people for whom the volunteer firemen showed up in "good" weather, Hurricane Sandy, but conditions with this storm are dangerous to health, safety and welfare. I have been assured that if there is an emergency call, fire or ambulance, a town plow will clear the way. Not down this cul de sac they wont, and there could be a complete loss with people trapped in their unit. Where is the care and compassion of the FS? Just been told not to expect any volunteers to be called out by the town. Do NOT believe the erroneous report that Stern Village roads are cleared by a 'private contractor'!"
Mr. Herbst responded, after chastising me for posting the message from the Stern Village resident, that crews and police had been sent to check on a regular basis. As Mrs. McGannon states from the Police Commission minutes, if the police cars could not get out, as they themselves hadn't been plowed, how could they be responding to the needs of Stern Village? Why was the resident who called on Saturday at 7:30, 11:30 and 3:30 told that Stern Village was not a plowing priority? And then the after-spin is that all that could be done was done, on a timely basis? This was a mega-storm. No one disputes that. But why should the FS shoot the messenger vs. stating that they couldn't keep up with the storm. Why make someone trying to help look like the bad guy and that they're throwing rocks at the dpw crew? Why not say we couldn't get there until the next day. Why make it look like they were there when they weren't? So, PP a few questions about what actually happened, and when, at Stern Village.