the Town of Greenwich by Frank Trotta

Governor Malloy has delivered his much anticipated budget proposal to the State Legislature. In short, I am extremely disappointed in the path he chose to close a $3.2 billion deficit.

While Dannel Malloy did not create this fiscal disaster, and has been brutally honest in his plan to fill it, I will respectfully vote no on it if it comes up for a vote in the House chamber, if the tax increases stay in place, and the increased spending levels and non-reduction of the the public sector remain. In a time when each individual, and each family, in our State is learning to live with less and in the process to become more efficient, we are actually increasing spending by 2.4% in each of the next two fiscal years, according to the Governor’s own numbers.

On the efficiency side, his budget trims only 150 out of 45,000 State employees. Honestly, I was expecting significantly more to be done in this area, but it was hardly even addressed. Connecticut remains with a very high number of State employees, a fact that highlighted by close to $70 billion in unfunded pension obligations.How are we to right the ship and become more competive when our large public sector remains virtually untouched and private businesses are being asked to pay even higher taxes?

Remember, over the two years, we in Connecticut took $1.5 billion in Federal money, used our $1.4 billion Rainy Day Fund, and raised taxes $1.6 billion. To ask our over-taxed and struggling citizens to pay close to another $2 billion in taxes without cutting one nickel from the budget is just plain wrong, and unfair.

I do salute the Governor for his combining of a few departments and establishing a Dept. of Energy, something I campaigned on in the last election. While my plan involved a different route proposed, I am grateful that there will now be an energy policy in our State, something that is critical if we are to become greener, more ecologically/economically competitive, and less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

The Governor also is asking the unions to concede about $1 billion a year, a good first step. It will be interesting to see how they react to his proposal because when a Republican Governor tried it, the effort failed.

On a personal side, he has been very accessible to everyone, Republicans, like myself, included. He has spoken to me a few times and each time I left feeling like he had heard me and wanted to continue the dialogue. He has my respect, no question about it.

The above disagreements aside, Governor Malloy is an extremely bright man, hard working, engaging, and, I believe, intending the very best for our State. I look forward to working with on the issues we agree on, and respectfully engaging him on those topics we differ on.

Fred Camillo
State Representative
151st District

The Greenwich Council of the Boy Scouts of America will be conducting its annual Scouting for Food drive on Saturday, March 5th from 8:30AM to 11:30AM.  The Scouts are working in conjunction with Neighbor to Neighbor in an effort to help our fellow citizens who are in need of food.

Drop off locations are at

Christ Church Parish Hall

254 East Putnam Avenue

Old Greenwich Firehouse

207 Sound Beach Avenue

Cos Cob Firehouse

200 East Putnam Avenue

American Legion Post in Glenville

248 Glenville Road

Join me in supporting this great cause!  Any donation of food would be greatly appreciated.

I would also like to thank Beth Auch and Melissa Norrgard for putting the food drive together this year!

For more information, please check out the Scouts’ website: www.GreenwichScouting.org

Best,

Fred Camillo

State Rep. 151^st District

Town of Greenwich businessman, Lewis Lerhman, was on the Cavuto Show last night speaking about the gold standard and other topics. Watch a portion of the interview here.

The Town of Greenwich Police are asking residents to report any suspicious activity, especially in the East Sector.

Community Impact Officer Dan Paladino told members of the East Sector Community and Police Partnership to alert their neighbors to the fact that there were four motor vehicle burglaries in the last week
from the east side of town. Several vehicles were broken into on the
following streets;

Francine Road
Silver Beech Road
Winthrop Drive
South Stanwich Road

In all cases the vehicles were left unlocked and loose change and
electronics were taken.

Seen in the area of the Silver Beech incident on Monday was a Red or Maroon Nissan Pathfinder with unknown CT Registration plates. The Pathfinder was covered with a heavy film of dirt and road salt on it. The pathfinder was occupied by two males and seen exiting the passenger side was a white male who then entered a motor vehicle in a driveway.

The vehicle was also seen in the area of Mary Lane and Janet Court.

Please pass this info onto your associations and if the vehicle is observed please contact the Greenwich Police Department at 203 622-8004.

The front page of the local daily had a story about a “rash of robberies” in Greenwich.  In recent weeks there have been four high-profile armed robberies in the town of Greenwich.  Amazingly, GPD has solved three of them within hours. 

The two drug-related CVS robberies — one in Riverside and one on Greenwich Avenue — were solved with near-immediate speed by fine police work initially from the patrol division who spotted the suspects promptly after the crime was said to have been committed.

This past Sunday patrol supervisor, Sgt. John Thorme (known to many in the town of Greenwich as the handler for now retired K-9 officer Shilo, and first Neighbor Resource Officer or NRO for the East Sector Community and Police Partnership or “East CAPP”) spotted the Greenwich Avenue CVS suspect minutes after the alleged robbery. As NRO for East CAPP, Thorme arranged for CAPP members to experience a small sample of the training required of officers, including shoot, don’t shoot scenarios. Thorme’s training and experience paid dividends when he confronted the suspect who was armed with what appeared to be a Beretta hand-gun but turned out to be a look-alike BB gun. Thorme used excellent judgment and skill to have the suspect comply with his order to drop the gun. An inexperienced officer may have shot the armed suspect first. Thorme’s training and skill saved a life.

After the arrest of the Greenwich CVS suspect, officers from the detective division developed evidence to make an arrest of a different suspect in the Subway Sandwich Shop (28 Greenwich Ave.) robbery which happened less than 36 hours earlier.

The Riverside CVS robbery suspect was noticed within hours of the incident by patrol officer Schuttler who knew the suspect from prior police contact.  She alerted other officers and with evidence developed by Detectives Pier Corticelli, William Weissauer, Rich Stook, Sgt. Joe Ryan, Sgt. Tim Hilderbrand, and Patrol Officer Barrow an arrest was made immediately.

Difficult economic times may explain the recent armed robberies.  Outstanding police explains why the town of Greenwich remains a safe place.

PRESS RELEASE 2/12/11:
REPRESENTATIVE FRED CAMILLO JOINS FIRE POLICE

Joe Kaliko, President of the Cos Cob Fire Police Patrol, Inc. (the “Patrol”) announced today that State Representative Fred Camillo (R-D151) had applied for membership in the Patrol.  This past Wednesday, February 9, 2011, the Patrol voted to induct Representative Camillo as an Associate Member.

Fred was sworn in today, February 12, 2011, by Chief Brian Kelly in a ceremony held at the Cos Cob Firehouse. Fred has expressed an interest in learning more about the needs of the volunteer firefighter community in general, statewide. In fact, he has already been active sponsoring H.B. 5054 AN ACT CONCERNING INDEMNIFICATION FOR VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANIES, VOLUNTEER FIRE POLICE PATROLS AND VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE SERVICES” pending before the state legislature.  This legislation seeks to put on par with municipally employed emergency service providers, the same indemnification and defense provisions municipalities are now obliged by statute to extend only to paid staff.

Additionally Fred has expressed a desire to learn more about Fire Police Patrols operating throughout  the state; and how these resources can be best utilized in a tough economy to save the state and strapped municipalities money.Many people do not even know what a Fire Police patrol is.  There are even some who do not appreciate just how much volunteer service providers, such as volunteer firemen and ambulance workers, enhance a municipality’s emergency service provider portfolio.  Fred’s membership in our organization will help change that.

We understand that Fred plans “from the “inside” to and evaluate the needs of volunteer service providers and how those needs could be addressed via the legislative process at the state level; and via ordinance or policy at the local level. Speaking on behalf of the Patrol, we are very proud and honored that Representative Camillo has taken an active interest in our organization and welcome him to the Patrol.

SUPERINTENDENT and GREENWICH HIGH SCHOOL HEADMASTER

ANNOUNCE HIGH SCHOOL ADMINSTRATION REORGANIZATION

(Greenwich, CT: For Immediate Release, Thursday, February 10, 2011) Superintendent of Schools Dr. Sidney Freund and Greenwich High School (GHS) Headmaster Chris Winters have announced a reorganization of high school administration. The GHS administration has been restructured with three goals in mind:

1. To maximize administrative time devoted to instructional leadership including classroom observation, teacher support, and continuous review and refinement of curriculum,

2. To more proactively, efficiently and effectively address student discipline, and

3. To better define and align high school administrative positions, duties and responsibilities.

The new structure provides for five House Administrator positions responsible for administration of each of the Houses as well as curriculum program oversight and/or teacher evaluation/professional learning responsibilities. The House Administrator positions replace the Housemaster positions and three of the Program Administrator positions. A new administrative position has been created – Dean of Students – to focus on working proactively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students. The Dean will be responsible for student discipline and other administrative duties as outlined in the attached documents. This structure is more efficient in its assignment of administrative duties and results in a reduction of two administrator positions.

The new organizational structure also creates five part-time (0.4 FTE) Assistant Dean positions, one assigned to each House. These positions will be filled by certified teachers (GEA) and will be focused on student discipline – supervised by their House Administrator and working with the Dean of Students to proactively engage students in positive behaviors and activities as well as addressing any infractions.

This reorganization enables instructional leaders to focus on instruction and separates out responsibility for student behavior and discipline – allowing house administrators to concentrate their efforts on improving general classroom practices and focusing on course content as well as addressing the administrative duties of each House. Also, providing a different, improved and proactive structure for managing student behavior should reduce infractions and increase overall satisfaction and performance.

The new House Administrator and Dean of Students administrator positions will be posted internally this week, with the objective of finalizing the new assignments by mid-March.

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Once again this year, the Red and White Ball held at the Arch Street Teen Center, was marred by an incident. This year, the dance, held last weekend, was so unruly as to be shut down by the Greenwich Police Department for public safety reasons.

Approximately 450 GHS students attended the dance, held on February 5. GPD was dispatched to the Teen Center, located at 100 Arch St. on a report of an unconscious female. When police arrived they discovered numerous heavily intoxicated youths, six of whom had to be transported to the Greenwich Hospital Emergency Room and one of whom was arrested.

Determining that the event was out of control, the police shut down the event, and escorted all of the over 400 teens to the Island Beach parking lot and stayed with the youths until each of them was picked up by a parent or guardian.

Isn’t it time the Teen Center adopted the same system used at Greenwich High School dances — a breathalyzer test before entering the dance?

The next Teen Center dance is scheduled for this coming Saturday, February 12, according to the Arch Street website.

Click these two links for application to GPD Spring Citizen’s Academy:

CPA_Spring 2011_BackCPA_Spring 2011_Front