Straiton has experience to be effective

Bethel voters will head to the polls on Feb. 7 to elect a first selectman. In my experience in holding this office for more than 13 years, I believe many voters misunderstand what a first selectman does, and what the job requires.

Many people believe, incorrectly, that the office of first selectman is primarily a political position, just a scaledback version of being the mayor of a large city. It is not. In towns such as Bethel, which do not have a staff position for a town manager or a town administrator to handle the day-to-day management of the town, the first selectman serves that management role. Management of the town easily consumes more than 90 percent of a first selectman’s time and effort.

It is too easy to underestimate what an enormous task that really is. We think of Bethel as a small town, but in terms of our municipal operations, we are really a small city. Managing and providing effective leadership for operations such as public works, highway planning, construction and maintenance, engineering, land use, property assessments and tax collections, record keeping, social services, parks and recreations operations, teen and senior center programming, requires deep and extensive public management experience. Add to the list of responsibilities our complex and highly regulated, multimillion dollar public water and sewer operations, services that are essential to public safety.

All of this requires a candidate with deep knowledge of city management and, most of all, experience.

Rich Straiton is that person. Rich has served as acting first selectman throughout my 13 years in office. He stepped in whenever it was necessary for me to be away from the office and was an integral part of all of the advancements we have achieved. Those include putting our town on the strongest level of financial security in its history, modernizing town government and improving efficiencies, reconstructing our roadways, supporting our public safety professionals and volunteers, and much, much more. As a member of our Public Utilities Commission, Rich has provided steady guidance in rescuing our water system from the brink of bankruptcy and rebuilding it.

This special election comes at a critical time, just as we begin building our town budget for the upcoming fiscal year. This is not the time to put someone new in charge. We need a seasoned professional to provide management consistency, who knows the ropes and has a strong track record of supporting our schools and town.

For the reasons listed above, I offer my strong endorsement of Rich Straiton to continue as our first selectman. He has the knowledge, the experience, and he does not have to learn the job. He already knows it.