How could anyone take another person's vote away without discussion or recourse? I learned that night that it appeared it was very easy for some. I take being an American very seriously, and since the age of eighteen I have never squandered a vote that I knew was mine to cast.
http://articles.courant.com/2013-05-23/community/hc-enfield-thompsonville-budget-20130523_1_approved-budget-legal-opinion-referendum
Let's backpedal a little to the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Thompsonville Fire District, a meeting we traditionally discuss the upcoming year's budget, suggest and vote on changes as we, the tax payers see fit. When we are in agreement through our vote we then as a district vote the annual budget in or out... a vote that had been going on for at least 35 years, a vote that is traditionally voted favorably upon... a vote that was taking place over 100 years ago. This meeting was different, rumors had been going around that a vote would not happen... when the Commission was asked if there would be a vote their response to the tax payers they serve was silence. Any attempt at tax payer discussion was ignored; in the coming weeks one Commissioner was quoted in the Hartford Courant as saying "I don't even listen to them."
http://articles.courant.com/2013-06-14/community/hc-enfield-thompsonville-fire-chairman-0614-20130613_1_thompsonville-fire-district-alaimo-and-gillespie-dominic-alaimo
In the most recent past years it has been increasingly difficult to be heard by and acted upon by the Commissioners of the Thompsonville Fire District. Some of these issues being self inflicted on ourselves the tax payers by trusting those we voted in and not being as involved as we as tax payers should have. If nothing else we should have been attending meetings on a regular basis, keeping ourselves fully informed and speaking up as our personal need arose... shame on us.
The next few days following the annual meeting emails, phone calls and face to face discussion began and plans to get as many people together to discuss our options as tax payers. Our first few meetings were conducted with members standing in every nook and cranny of the room, and sitting in folding chairs we each brought to a house that was being renovated on Lincoln Street.
In the beginning the pace of the group was fast, a Board was elected, a name for our group agreed upon, a mission statement made, the decision to bring a lawsuit on the Commission, plaintiffs for the lawsuit, came forward, we found our attorney Ryan McKeen and we almost immediately outgrew our meeting place on Lincoln Street. So the Concerned Taxpayers of the Thompsonville Fire District (CTTFD) was formed.
Monetary donations started pouring in, five, ten, twenty, and maybe just maybe if we were lucky a hundred dollars at a time. We quickly had the two thousand dollars we needed for our attorney to research our viability of bringing our cause to a lawsuit; it also afforded us some monies to move our meetings to the Old Polish Home on Alden Avenue in Thompsonville. By this time we were having meetings that included one hundred or so tax payers on a weekly basis.
Two thousand dollars to the attorney turned into ten thousand dollars more and our lawsuit was filed July 2, 2013 in the Hartford Superior Court. The core group of about thirty individuals, those that have held steadfast and true; in one hundred degree weather went door to door handing out fliers and talking to tax payers about our cause. The donations kept coming in, some as high as five hundred and a thousand dollars... we have had money come from as far away as Washington state. It has come to our attention that fire departments all over New England and the country are following our story. Needless to say it's been a wild and incredibly crazy ride, one I am extremely proud to be a part of.
As a group the CTTFD started showing up at the Thompsonville Fire District and Town Council meetings making ourselves known and heard. In hopes of regaining our vote back quickly through the lawsuit we began the process to stall the building of our much disputed fire station, hoping to still have an opportunity to vote on the new station. For myself as well as a majority of the CTTFD it wasn't that we are against a much needed new fire station; it was the process with the lack of a vote in favor of the station being built that we to this day disagree with.
The next step in this incredible adventures is the first tag sale. People from all over Enfield donated their good, useable items for us to sell. The first tag sale netted us over twenty two hundred dollars. The core group of CTTFD supporters was tireless, they all worked together and watched out for each other as it again was a very hot day. The highlight of our day was a gentleman from Plainville Connecticut who had been following our story coming to the tag sale personally to hand us a donation for our cause.
During the first tag sale we noticed the signs for the local Congregational Church's annual tag sale. The plan began to save what was left from tag sale number one, add more donated items to what was remaining and return to sell again. The second tag sale was much more work, tougher, the large money making items had already sold the first time around. In the end we collected over two thousand dollars, with sales of fifty cents to a couple dollars for each item sold.
The initial lawsuit was dismissed as the judge didn't believe their was any loss to the tax payers of the district so she deemed we had no standing. The plaintiffs met together and decided they would proceed with an appeal.
It is now December of 2013 to January 2014 and the CTTFD makes it's official request to State Representative David Alexander to help us make changes to the Act that governs our Fire District to clearly state we had a right to vote. Other requests of the legislative body that were made were to increase our district's current three seated commission to five, and to include limited liability corporations in the right to vote .
More donations for the appeal were needed, this time along with the smaller donations we receive donations in the thousand dollar range, each and every step of the way I am humbled by the support we receive. Just when we think we aren't going to make the next hurdle someone steps up to the plate and gets us by.
So unto us a bill is born... RB-5541 had it's hearing before the State of Connecticut's Planning and Development Committee on March 21, 2014. Almost twenty of our members were able to adjust their schedule and stay the entire day. The dedication of the CTTFD was evident as no one left the committee chambers for anything else but to use the restroom. I can't say that I saw anyone take the time to eat, from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm we sat there quietly and respectfully listening to countless people's testimony for whichever hopeful bill they were there to support or dispute.
A few days later the entire Planning and Development Committee numbering twenty members voted favorable to raise our bill to the House of Representatives with a clear 20 Yay to 0 Nay vote.
http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=HB5541&which_year=2014
So here we are, it's April 8, 2014 and I am about to make my first political run... that of Fire Commissioner of the Thompsonville Fire District.
Other articles of interest:
http://articles.courant.com/2013-02-16/community/hc-enfield-thompsonville-fire-20130216_1_fire-district-new-fire-station-fire-commissioners
http://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/enfield/thompsonville-residents-seek-to-void-fire-commission-s-approval-of/article_454effd4-e979-11e2-bb39-0019bb2963f4.html
http://enfield.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/bob-gillespie-resigns-from-thompsonville-fire-commission
http://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/enfield/testimony-begins-in-thompsonville-fire-district-budget-suit/article_82d8948e-0b4b-11e3-b726-0019bb2963f4.html
http://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/august-letters/article_65218a56-0a40-11e3-a23b-001a4bcf887a.html
http://articles.courant.com/2013-09-06/community/hc-enfield-thompsonville-fire-construction-20130906_1_thompsonville-fire-district-fire-station-fire-commissioners
http://articles.courant.com/2013-10-08/community/hc-enfield-thompsonville-lawsuit-1009-20131007_1_jeffrey-cross-thompsonville-fire-district-concerned-taxpayers-group
http://articles.courant.com/2014-01-08/community/hc-enfield-thompsonville-0109-20140108_1_thompsonville-fire-district-commissioners-replacement-commissioner-commissioner-gillespie
http://www.dailydispatch.com/StateNews/CT/2014/February/13/Lingering.Dispute.Disrupts.Thompsonville.Fire.District.Meeting.aspx
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=17&ved=0CFYQFjAGOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailydispatch.com%2FStateNews%2FCT%2F2014%2FMarch%2F17%2FThompsonville.voters.to.decide.on.fire.panels.size.aspx&ei=m-xDU6WzCoSQ2QWh1IGoCQ&usg=AFQjCNEy2thkUgI6tefoCbQIVfxdThFSCg&sig2=qj8v7cjSjqY2nIfsraFJcQ
http://articles.courant.com/2014-03-19/community/hc-enfield-thompsonville-taxpayer-vote-20140319_1_thompsonville-fire-district-taxpayers-annual-meeting-bob-gillespie
http://articles.courant.com/2014-04-02/news/hc-enfield-tville-taxpayers-20140324_1_public-budget-vote-taxpayers-proposed-budget
http://www.courant.com/community/enfield/hc-enfield-thompsonville-fire-commissioner-nominat-20140409,0,1607938.story
http://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/april-letters/article_70655f2a-c091-11e3-9e8e-0019bb2963f4.html
http://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/enfield/candidates-seek-seats-on-thompsonville-fire-commission/article_6f09cc66-c0b8-11e3-b3cf-0019bb2963f4.html
http://www.courant.com/community/enfield/hc-enfields-thompsonville-fire-district-to-hold-budget-hearings-april-21-22-and-23-20140411,0,5807265.story
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