The Westport Board of Finance, after earlier voting to reduce the education budget by $1.2 million, tonight voted to restore $300,000 of the cut, half of what the Board of Education asked for.
The vote was 5-1 with Republican Gavin Anderson opposed. An earlier attempt to restore $400,000 was defeated.
The board voted after its chair, Steven Ezzes, repudiated comments made Monday night by Board of Education member and former chair—Steven Halstead. Both are Democrats.
The education panel member was highly critical of the way the Board of Finance decided to make its earlier cut, calling the process “distasteful, disrespectful, and bordering on abusive.”
“I was initially personally and professionally offended by his comments,” said Ezzes, who noted Halstead was not present to hear his remarks. “But after thinking about it, I gave up being offended. I just accepted it a basic naivet on his part.”
Ezzes went on to tell Board of Education Chair Mary Parmelee, who was standing at the podium ready to make her remarks, that Halstead must have missed a civics class in his youth that taught about the system of checks and balances in government.
“Apparently he (Halstead) does not believe in that,” Ezzes said. “Unfortunately, those are the rules and maybe he should go back and take a look at what that means.”
When Ezzes asked if any other finance members wanted to comment, Shelly Kassen said she merely wanted to praise Parmelee’s last appearance before the finance board. She called it perhaps the “most civil and in-depth discussion we had.”
Parmelee, responding to Ezzes’ criticism of Halstead’s remarks, said she did not take issue publicly with what Halstead said on Monday for two reasons “I had such a fundamental disagreement with them that I didn’t think that any conversation on it would prove fruitful, and second, I did not want to do anything which would lengthen or highlight those comments, although that apparently was not necessary based on today’s paper.”
She added, “I honestly doubt whether those sentiments are shared by other members of the board, certainly nobody chimed in and agreed.”
Parmelee said the fact that the Board of Finance had switched around its agenda tonight in order to accommodate her late arrival so she could attend her daughter’s sporting event was taken as a sign of respect that the finance board “has shown to our board throughout this entire process.”
The restoration brought the Board of Finance recommended education expenditure to $78,623,190, slightly more than a 5 percent increase over last year.
The total town budget of $143,330,043 will be considered May 2 and 3 by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).
The RTM, by a two-thirds vote, can restore the balance of the amount cut by the Board of Finance. It was not immediately known if the Board of Education would seek such restoration.
(Editor’s note: the editor of WestportNow is also Moderator of the RTM.)
