The state-ordered consolidation of Connecticut’s regional planning is generally viewed as a lemon by officials of the towns involved. But looking to make lemonade, First Selectman Rudy Marconi has a proposal for the area’s new larger regional planning agency: an office in the Georgetown area.
“That’s become part of the conversation,” Mr. Marconi said this week.
The state has approved merger plans in which Ridgefield will be part of an agglomeration of 18 municipalities running from Greenwich to New Milford.
For decades Ridgefield has been in the 10-town Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials, with Redding, Newtown, Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, Bridgewater, and Sherman.
A new Western Connecticut Council of Governments is being formed by a voluntary merger of the Housatonic Council with the neighboring Southwestern Regional Planning Agency, including Weston, Wilton, Westport, Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich, and Stamford.
But the state is pushing for a possible further merger — with the Bridgeport region, or at least some of its towns. The Greater Bridgeport Regional Council is made up of Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, and Trumbull.
The state Office of Policy and Management has re-designated the South Western and Housatonic Valley agencies as the Western Connecticut Council of Governments. But it’s got other ideas, too.
In a Dec. 6 letter, Benjamin Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, approved the merger, but expressed misgivings. “This office believes that the optimal region serving Western Connecticut should also include the current Greater Bridgeport planning region as well,” Mr. Barnes said.
He cited “strong ties … in matters affecting transportation, the environment, housing patterns, commuting patterns, and the local perceptions of social and historical and cultural ties.”
The merger came about because of a new state statute requiring the consolidation of Connecticut’s 13 regional planning agencies into no more than eight by 2014. If regions don’t merge into larger “councils of governments,” they risk losing funding for things like economic development and regional transportation initiatives.
A provision of the law pushing the consolidation allows regional organizations that merge by mutual agreement by the end of 2013 to be exempt from restructuring, as long as the state formally re-designates the new region.
In his Dec. 6 letter, Mr. Barnes appears to have done that, formally acknowledging the new Western Connecticut Council of Governments.
However, Mr. Barnes also stated his hope that the new Western Connecticut group “would consider a further voluntary merger with all of the towns currently located in the Greater Bridgeport region.”
That doesn’t seem something the Western Connecticut Council towns are eager to do. The Greater Bridgeport Regional Council had proposed it merge with the Southwestern group before the consolidation of the Southwest and Housatonic regions was completed. Both opted to merge only with each other — and not Bridgeport.
The new regions are not set in stone. The new Western Connecticut Council isn’t volunteering, but it doesn’t mean a merger won’t happen — at least with some of the Greater Bridgeport area towns.
When the state completes its analysis of logical planning regions, any municipality may appeal the proposed re-designation. The state must meet with the petitioning town, and then has 60 days to make a final determination on the proposed re-designation.
If Bridgeport area towns petitioned to join the Western Connecticut Council, it is unclear whether the state could unilaterally decide to add them to the Western region.
The towns already merging may still have to go through various processes in order to officially become part of the Western Connecticut Council.
And officials of the towns and the two regional agency offices are still trying to work out the logistics.
Mr. Marconi is pushing his idea for a new office in the “Georgetown area” — which includes the Branchville area of Ridgefield and parts of Redding, Weston and Wilton.
Currently, the Housatonic Council’s office is in Brookfield, and the Southwestern agency is in Stamford.
“The state has said you can organize it any way you want. We could conceivably remain two offices,” Mr. Marconi said. “Personally, I don’t see any savings with keeping two separate facilities. If you did that, in all likelihood there wouldn’t be a staff reduction.
“But in order to realize the economies of a consolidation, logic will tell you a reduction of personnel would be where you would save your money.”
Georgetown is where the southernmost Housatonic towns, Ridgefield and Redding, meet with the northernmost towns of the Southwestern area, Wilton and Weston.
Those most affected by a move would be the two agencies’ staffs. The Housatonic group has three full-time and two part-time employees. The Southwestern group has more.
“That’s going to be something we’re going to have to work out. It may mean some more difficult commutes,” Mr. Marconi said. “We’re just getting now to get into the personnel policy, handbooks, vacations, insurance.”
The new Western Connecticut Council is trying to complete its merger process by the end of the fiscal year — June 30, 2014. The state’s re-designation of regions is to be completed by Jan. 1, 2015.