Reprinted from The Trumbull Times © Copyright 2009
September 10, 2009

By Donald Eng

Should residents elect him first selectman in November, Timothy Herbst said one of his first acts would be to restrict his own ability to raise campaign funds.

Herbst, the Republican challenger to incumbent Raymond Baldwin, unveiled plans Tuesday to propose a ban on political contributions from individuals that have contracts with the town in excess of $5,000.

"We must foster an environment where political contributions have no bearing on the awarding of public contracts," Herbst said. "We have seen how special interests have ruined Washington, and we don't want the same thing to happen in Trumbull."

The ban on contributions from contractors was one of three policy initiatives Herbst unveiled Tuesday. He promised weekly proposals from now until the election.

"I am committed to implementing these rules, which will apply to me in the same manner," he said.

Essentially, Herbst's plan is to implement the same ban that Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Democratic-controlled Legislature have enacted at the state level. Though a federal judge overturned part of the law as being too restrictive to minor party candidates, bans on contributions from contractors have not yet been challenged in court.

"Until the courts rule otherwise, it is prudent to follow Rell's lead," he said.

In response, Baldwin said that the state law had made Herbst's proposal unnecessary.

"The same contractors that do business with the town are state contractors and can no longer make any political contributions at any level," Baldwin said.

Baldwin also said another of Herbst's proposals, enacting a financial ethics policy, was a case of much ado about a problem that has been resolved. Herbst is seeking to eliminate barter arrangements between the town and various contractors, a practice that Independent Auditor Lynn Scully criticized in her final report on the same day she resigned.

"These barter arrangements would occur when, for example, a contractor cleared gravel from a building site," Baldwin said. "Rather than charging the town for the removal, the company would then keep the gravel as payment."

Such practices benefit the town and the contractor, but Scully warned that allowing such transactions to take place unrecorded was a potential problem. Baldwin said the town has since tightened up its accounting practices.

"They can still do it, but there has to be an accounting of the transaction," he said.

Finally, Herbst pledged that, if elected, he would require civil service testing for those seeking employment with the town.

"This is developed in response to civil service testing being waived for immediate family members of town officials," he said. "While I am sure they are fine people, we need to make sure that the public has confidence in the hiring process. Everyone should be required to take a civil service examination."

Mary Ann Meier, the town's personnel manager, said the majority of town employees did in fact take a civil service exam. Those that didn't received some sort of oral or practical test before being hired.

"We recently hired a deputy director in the Public Works Department," she said. "A civil service exam for that particular position doesn't exist, so we did an oral exam where public works directors from other towns came in and asked them questions and graded their responses."

The Personnel Department hires all employees except police officers and teachers. Meier said all received some sort of testing.

"There are a number of different exceptions, like part-time workers and police officers, but we follow civil service rules for every position that we hire," she said.

Herbst said his proposals were meant to generate bi-partisan support.

"While it's true that in the past, the Democrats have benefited more from contractor contributions, elections are about the future, and I would like to see bi-partisan support," he said. "Money shouldn't influence decision making."