Selectmen Give Health District Committee a Deadline in Westbrook, Connecticut

WESTBROOK - The Board of Selectmen agreed to issue an ultimatum: the Health District Study Committee must report back by Mar. 13 or the selectmen will move ahead without them.

The Health District Study Committee, formed in November 2006 by former First Selectman John Raffa, was charged with studying whether the Town of Westbrook should join the Connecticut River Area Health District.

The district currently consists of Old Saybrook, Clinton, and Deep River.

The ultimatum, in which First Selectman Noel Bishop, Selectman Marie Farrell, and Selectman Jim Crawford voted in favor of, was issued at the Board of Selectmen's Feb. 22 meeting.

Bishop initially opposed an ultimatum and said that he felt that simply asking the committee to report to the Board "as soon as possible" would be adequate enough.

However, Farrell said the Board had expected the committee to come back to them with updated information on their progress for the past two Board of Selectmen meetings.

"Apparently minor information has been taken to a new level," said former selectman Tony Palermo, inferring that the committee had decided to go beyond the instructions previously issued by the selectmen.

According to Jan. 17 Board of Selectmen minutes, Farrell and Crawford agreed to send a letter to the Health District Study Committee stating that the Board was satisfied with the original report.

While Bishop dissented, the motion was passed by 2-1.

The original report, issued in April 2007, had stated that the board on a 4-2 vote was in favor of the town joining the Connecticut River Area Health District.

Dr. Jeff Bernstein, Chairman of the committee, requested to Selectmen that the board allow his committee to update statistical information.

In the April 2007 report, Bernstein indicated that he felt the town should not join the regional health district.

Bernstein could not be reached for comment at press time.

Farrell and Crawford agreed but stated that the committee could only update the statistical information and not further analyze work they have already completed.

At that time, the selectmen asked the committee to come back to the Board no later than March 1 with the original report and updated statistical information.

"Bernstein insisted they make an update," Farrell said, adding that she felt the update was not necessary and that the committee had completed their work.

Further complicating the issue is an anonymous survey that was reportedly mailed to users of the regional health district to solicit their opinions.

Connecticut River Area Health District officials wrote a letter with a Freedom of Information request for all minutes, tapes, correspondence, e-mails, reports, and the mailing list used to mail the anonymous survey.

"The survey falls outside the protocols of professional fact finding," the letter states.

Bishop said that Health District Study Committee members are in the process of assembling materials to meet that request.

Agreeing with Farrell and Crawford, Bishop said the survey falls outside the parameters that selectmen gave the committee and he does not understand why it was created and mailed out.

At this point, Crawford indicated that information already complied by the committee should be presented to residents at a public hearing in the near future allowing the town to make a formal decision on whether to join the health district by April.