Mayoral candidate wants to 'get at issues'

Date: 4/28/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- At-Large City Councilor Shane Brooks will kick-off his campaign for mayor on April 29, but he said his two recent criticisms of actions taken by Mayor Michael Bissonnette have nothing to do with his candidacy.

Brooks will officially begin his campaign with a rally at the Castle of Knights on Memorial Drive from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

His recent actions have questioned whether or not the acting Human Resources Director, Scott Szczebak, should be removed from office. Brooks also filed an order, which passed by the City Council on April 22, that called for Bissonnette to "clarify recent public comments made regarding buildable acres located at the proposed Chapin Conservation Area."

Brooks insisted to Reminder Publications that neither of these issues is campaign-related but instead he is "getting at issues that affect the city in general."

Brooks said he has opposed the appointment of Szczebak in the position of human resource director from the beginning of what was supposed to be a 60-day period.

"This is yet another example of the mayor doing whatever he wants whenever he wants," Brooks said. "He moved his former aide into a professional position for which he had no experience and no qualifications and paid him at the maximum salary amount. On day one, he pays him the same rate the city was paying its former director, who had 15 years experience."

Brooks said the appointment should have ended on April 9.

He also criticized Bissonnette for not filling several vacancies in the Community Development Office and for not reappointing most of the attorneys in the Law Department.

"If the mayor put the same amount of effort into finding qualified candidates for important city positions as he did trying to make sure his former aide would remain in a position he is clearly not qualified for, then the city and its taxpayers would be better served," Brooks said.

The controversy over the proposed Chapin Conservation area revolves around just how much the land is worth. Bissonnette and State Rep. Joseph Wagner have had a public argument over the results of an appraisal of the property.

Bissonnette has applied for a state grant to purchase the property and the city would be responsible for 30 percent of the asking price. Under the appraisal used by the city, the price for the property across the Chicopee River from the Uniroyal plant is $450,000. The city would have to pay $135,000.

The property had once been the proposed site for a sub-division and the issue about its worth is how many houses could have been built there.

"There has been a lot of discussion regarding this land and what stands out to me is that no one has been able to reconcile how many buildable acres or how many housing lots are feasible in that area. I think it is important to know those figures before we make a decision. Without a professional, independent evaluation of wetlands and conservation restrictions, we are potentially overpaying for that land," he said.

Brooks explained the City Council could hold up the project by not approving the expenditure of the city funds for the purchase.

"The concern, in at least my opinion, is that we are bailing out a real estate developer who would otherwise not be able to develop on this land to the extent the application indicates, and there means we might be overpaying. All we need is the answer to the question of developable acres and housing lots, and then we, as a council, will be able to make an informed decision on behalf of our city taxpayers."