Leaving Chesprocott...a truly stunning disregard for the will of the voters.

This first-hand account of the Chesprocott 'controversy' during the 2023 local election is the first of a multipart series on the Cheshire-Prospect-Wolcott Health District.

For anyone watching the Town Council meeting on Tuesday, April 8th you may have noticed, during public comment, there was mention of some emails between myself and Chesprocott (CHD) staff over the past year and a half. Ultimately, it’s just another attack on the people that have been trying to improve our health district and have been working to ensure the will of the voters is respected.

After the previous Republican-led Town Council’s attempt to abruptly leave Chesprocott in late 2023 (a move that would’ve effectively dissolved Chesprocott), Cheshire voters made it clear they wanted to remain in Chesprocott. I took voter sentiment to heart and going forward I made a point of having a better understanding of Chesprocott operations, improving communication and transparency between Chesprocott and the Council and working to support improvements at Chesprocott. In December 2023 I voted to stay with CHD mainly because it’s a great value for Cheshire taxpayers and I thought then (and still think now), it’s better to fix what we have rather than hope for greener pastures elsewhere. I also thought then (and still do) we have a good opportunity to expand Chesprocott (or merge with another health district) and lower our costs much more significantly, than we can by being a minority partner in a small health district essentially subject to the whims of the Southington Town Council. [In fact, there was just such a merger opportunity in Nov/Dec 2024 but more on this in a subsequent post.]

In December 2023, the month following the election, I began regularly attending Chesprocott Board meetings. My presence was welcomed by Chesprocott (CHD) staff and most of the Board. From December 2023 to August 2024, I attended CHD Board meetings in an unofficial capacity (as a liaison for the Council) and since September 2024 as a full Board member; as one of Cheshire’s three appointed board members. Over this entire time, I received a number of emails from Chesprocott staff and Board members.

It would seem political opponents are itching to make an issue of a handful of emails between myself and CHD staff. First of all, the mention of ‘emails’ is nothing more than an election year effort to smear my name and to drag Chesprocott through the mud again. Given that I’m standing in the way of ongoing efforts to undermine Chesprocott, their tactics are not unexpected, unfortunately. Second, their ‘emails’ slander is a clumsy attempt to try and make me (and others) the scapegoat for the failures of the CHD Board Chairperson’s leadership over the past eighteen months. But given that election season has apparently come early this year, now would be a good time to recap what happened re: Chesprocott in the run-up to the 2023 local election.

On September 19, 2023, the Council met to discuss leaving Chesprocott. This was the first time we met as a Council on the subject. At the time I was mildly aware of some non-specific grumbling from other Council members about former Director of Health Maura Esposito. I was also aware of some concerns about Chesprocott’s idea to possibly have their own building constructed. Additionally, at the meeting on September 19th, it was revealed that a number of staff had left Chesprocott over the previous year or so. But at the time there weren’t details provided as to exactly why. Since then, I’ve come to learn there were a number of different reasons for the turnover (and blaming everything on the Director of Health was disingenuous at best.) Could one of the reasons several CHD staff left for Southington’s health district be because they had been told (or it was suggested to them) -well in advance of the Cheshire public- that Cheshire would be leaving Chesprocott and joining Southington’s health district? We’ll never know. Nevertheless, the subsequent reasons given by Council leadership for the move to Southington were mainly about cost savings and nebulous fiscal and operations issues at CHD. [Ironically, over the past year since the former Director of Health has left, there have been actual fiscal and operations issues emanating from Board leadership. But more on this later in this series.]

About a week after the Council met on September 19th, in executive session, an article appeared in the local paper (on September 27th) saying that Cheshire was leaving Chesprocott. This came as quite a shock to me as we had only days before discussed the issue for the first time as a Council and we hadn’t even scheduled a public hearing, never mind had a public hearing. It was also peculiar since we had yet to meet with Chesprocott or South Central (i.e. Southington) to ask questions and begin our due diligence. These days the idea of foregoing due process is apparently more in vogue in some circles but ‘way back’ in 2023 it was unusual to say the least.

On October 4, 2023, the Council met briefly via Zoom to call for public hearings to leave Chesprocott and join South Central. The Council majority’s intention to leave Chesprocott appeared to be clear then. Despite my personal concerns that we were moving too fast and that there was still a lot to consider, we had a responsibility as a Council, to bring the public into the conversation and to let them hear the case. So, I reluctantly voted in favor of holding the public hearing. As a reminder, as of October 4^th, we still had not met with Chesprocott or South Central. It had been eleven days since we first talked about leaving Chesprocott and we still hadn’t met to hear South Central’s pitch.

The letters from concerned Cheshire citizens started flooding in. In my six years on the Council, I’ve never received so many unsolicited texts, emails and calls as I did about Chesprocott. Since I’ve been on the Council (including a year and half on the School Modernization Committee) no other issue has elicited such a strong response from this community. As a Council, we received dozens of communications about Chesprocott, and these were almost entirely in favor of staying with CHD. These communications didn’t just come from the Medical Reserve Corps members, as some on the Council seemed to want to believe. These emails, calls and texts supportive of CHD came from people throughout our community…Democrats, unaffiliated and Republicans alike. I also heard from at least two business owners in town. I took to heart what they shared, and I was disappointed to hear of their experience. In response I asked for measures that would improve communication and understanding between CHD and the business community. An effort that has been resisted by political opponents. Nevertheless, the vast majority of what I heard from Cheshire residents is that they wanted to stay with Chesprocott. I took their concerns to heart as well.

On October 10, 2023, the Council held the public hearings about leaving Chesprocott and joining South Central. At this point it had been 14 business days since the Council first discussed joining South Central and yet, as a Council, we still hadn’t met with Chesprocott or South Central. The Oct 10^th Council meeting was very well attended. You can click here to watch the anger and passionate testimony provided that night. In my six years I have yet to see so many people at Council. To date the number of views of the October 10^th Council meeting on YouTube is over 700, one of the most ever. Public comment went on for several hours that night. It was clear from the extensive and passionate testimony in support of Chesprocott, we could not and should not have a vote to proceed to leaving Chesprocott and joining South Central. At least, that’s what I thought.

In the day or two following the Oct 10^th public hearing there was finally some movement on meeting with South Central, although a meeting with Chesprocott still didn’t appear to be in the works (though I knew Chesprocott’s Director was ready and willing to meet with the Council.) On October 30^th, a little over a month after the Council first met to discuss joining South Central and nearly two weeks after we held the public hearing to leave Chesprocott and join South Central, we finally had a meeting with South Central. Though I’m not sure why given that the public was clear about their desire to stay with Chesprocott.

A week later, on November 7, 2023, Cheshire voters went to the polls and spoke loud and clear. The Democrats picked up four new seats on the Council, taking the majority (6-3) for the first time in nearly fifteen years. And yet, at the next Town Council meeting, on November 14, 2023, the lame duck Republican majority voted to leave Chesprocott anyway. They voted to leave despite the overwhelming outpouring of support for CHD at the Oct 10th public hearing, despite the lopsided result of the election and really with only superficial knowledge of the South Central Health District. It was a truly stunning disregard for the will of the voters.

At the December 12, 2023 Town Council meeting, the new Democratic-led Council voted to ‘re-join’ the Chesprocott Health District. But as it turns out this wasn’t the end of the story. The remaining articles in this series will take it from there and through present day at Chesprocott (all the twists and turns), over the past sixteen months. Please subscribe!