Looks like we may see some internecine warfare within the GGG PAC. For you non-Grotonites, that’s the Groton Good Government Pac. Don’t be fooled by the name. Their objective is to destroy good government, especially the schools. They are against government spending in all its forms, but have normally been fairly quiet about spending that benefits the folks at Groton Long Point, where most of them live.
Apparently that’s not the case anymore. Ed Johnson, a member of the PAC (but not a resident of Groton Long Point), has written to Mayor Harry Watson suggesting that just possibly we might look at the largesse the town has thrown toward Groton Long Point in the form of subsidies of its police force:
At the risk of offending some of my friends in the Groton Long Point area, I feel it also necessary to make the following comments and recommendations.
1) I believe there are line items where, if I am correct, the Town of Groton contributes approximately $400,000 annually to GLP for purposes of (a) road maintenance ($200,000) and (b) GLP police protection ($200,000). This means that a portion of my taxes are actually being directed towards expenses for an area of town that benefits a certain group of citizens but in no way benefits the rest of us either directly or indirectly…unless we want to go sightseeing.
2) I therefore suggest that the contribution for GLP Road maintenance be substantially reduced for next year. Fill the potholes. GLP has a 25 MPH speed limit anyway and slightly lumpy roads won’t affect the situation very much. Additionally, there won’t be any need for speed bumps or humps, as we (unfortunately) have in Noank.
3) The citizens of GLP have also chosen for years to have their own (private?) police force. By observation, and as confirmed by a recent DAY newspaper article, the citizens of GLP are apparently delighted they have these services…such as checking on houses while owners are away in Florida…and very much want them to continue. This, by itself, is fine…just as long as the costs for same are to be paid by GLP residents and not the rest of the Citizens of Groton.
4) I therefore request that the approximately $200,000 annually that is paid to GLP by the TOG be withdrawn completely, which will leave the GLP citizens two choices:
a) pay 100% of their costs for having their own Police Force, or
b) eliminate the GLP force, replace it with a private security force to provide key service, etc., (again, at their own cost) and simply add the GLP territory to the existing Town police patrol that already covers Noank and Mumford Cove.
The Town is required to pay a share of the roads budget for GLP, but it’s not required to pay a cent toward the cops.
When I was on the RTM I represented (in theory, I guess) the folks at Groton Long Point. Nonetheless, I proposed deleting the GLP police appropriation. I got a second to my motion, but only for purposes of discussion. I couldn’t garner a single vote.
When I was on the council I tried to do the same thing, or at least cut the appropriation. Some of my fellow councilors actually expressed support, until the time came to vote, when their resolution failed. A few year ago, if memory serves, the GLP police got a double digit increase when everyone else was restricted to about 3%. I have yet to hear anyone give a principled explanation (or for that matter, an un-principled one) for this ridiculous subsidy. The usual reason for spending the money is that “we’ve always done it”. Take that back, some of them insist that subsidizing the private cops is a cost effective alternative to providing town police services, but that bogus argument was put to rest by a study the town police chief did at our request when I was on the council, and I strongly suspect that his estimates for the costs of patrolling GLP were on the extremely high side. (They were still lower than the subsidy).
So, I’m happy to see that Mr. Johnson sees the light, at least on this one subject. It will be very interesting to see if his fellow PAC members agree with him or whether they prefer to concentrate on cutting school budgets. After all, many of them no doubt take vacations.
Footnote: I won’t identify the person who sent Mr. Johnson’s email to me. I think I’m within my rights to reproduce it here, and to identify him by name, because it was sent to, among others, Harry Watson, other members of the Town Council, and RTM members in their official capacities. It is therefore a public document.
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