UPDATED Oct 3, 2019 – Recently, there has been much debate as to whether an independent citizen’s committee – or an independent environmental expert – should be leading the investigation into, and testing and remediation of, potentially contaminated sites in Fairfield. Through the FOIA process Fairfield First has learned that since (at least) August 12th of this year an expert has been brought on to coordinate the efforts of First Selectman’s Office. You might think it is:
- An Independent Environmental Management Expert?
- An Environmental Attorney well versed in State and Federal Environmental Statues?
- An Auditor or Management Consultant from recognized firm like McKinsey or Accenture?
You might think that – but you’d be wrong.
Instead First Selectman Tetreau has engaged a —- Public Relations Expert. That’s right – the efforts and communications from the First Selecman’s office weren’t being coordinated by an Environmental Expert – who could help to rapidly identify unsafe parks and school fields – but instead by a ‘Reputation Advisor’ who was hired to shape the public’s view of the sordid events that have led to Fairfield’s dumping scandal. Here is an example of our PR expert, taking time away from our department heads’ efforts to identify sites that may need remediation, to seek their input and “spin” the story:
Apparently, this PR firm has been engaged since (at least) August 12th, 2019 – less than a week after local police and State DEEP officials descended upon Gould Manor Park.
Is the aforementioned “Issue Management Plan” the driving force behind how this environmentally safety issue is being handled? Is the First Selecman’s “reputation” the driving factor behind all decisions being made?
And who is paying for this consultant? The taxpayers? Mr. Tetreau? Mr. Tetreau’s campaign? The Fairfield Democratic Town Committee? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Since August, First Selectman Tetreau has repeatedly indicated that he is putting public safety first with written public statements such as:
Based on who First Selectman Tetreau has hired to guide his team’s efforts, can we really believe these statements are anything more than empty platitudes?
A disturbing side note is that within FIVE DAYs of the Fairfield Police, Fairfield Health Department and the CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) testing the site at Gould Manor – a document was in front of First Selectman Tetreau that suggests using “surrogates” to disparage those who brought this issue to the forefront and paint a whistle blower as irresponsibly raising public fears. With this evidence, can anyone reasonably believe that finding all the other sites where hazardous materials were dumped was the First Selectman’s top priority?
**UPDATED Information** – Since yesterday’s publication of this information Fairfield First has learned that the Reputation Advisor hired by First Selectman Tetreau is being paid by the Town of Fairfield (h/t to Fairfield Fights Toxic Waste FaceBook page). Back on August 26th, 2019 the Fairfield Board of Finance called a special meeting to better understand the potential financial impact of the Fill Pile situation including testing and remediation. It was during this meeting that a summary of actual and estimated costs was presented by the First Selectman’s Office to the Board of Finance. The information presented included a fee of $3,000 for ‘Christopher R. Gidez, Consultant‘ under the category Environmental Consulting Services.
Of course we now know that Mr. Gidez is actually a Public Relations consultant and not an Environmental Consultant. Curiously, there were contracts and statements of work from the other two consultants that were referenced in this report. You can see the detailed information for both Tighe & Bond (an Environmental Engineering Firm) and PKF O’Connor Davies (an Accounting Firm) via the full report here.
So, why is it the Town Administration would purposefully list a ‘Reputation Advisor’ as an Environmental Consultant? Why is it that the PR Contract signed with the Town of Fairfield does not list Mr. Gidez’s firm, an LLC, as the contracted party? Why instead, did First Selectman Tetreau contract with Mr. Gidez individually?
Additionally, why were contracts for all the other consultants made available to the members of our Board of Finance and not the contract for Mr. Gidez? Perhaps it wasn’t available because it wasn’t signed after August 26th? Nope. It turns out the PR contract was dated August 1, 2019 – just THREE DAYs after news reports surfaced that Fairfield Police had indicated Town Officials had taken bribes and FIVE DAYs PRIOR to the arrests related to the toxic dumping scheme.
It’s time to recognize that First Selectman Tetreau’s individual goals and incentives are not aligned with the best interests of Fairfield. It’s time to put Fairfield First.