My Foray in Local Politics (2 of 3)

Each of five Board of Selectmen candidates was asked what he or she hoped to accomplish if elected.

Andy Bodner, an incumbent Republican and former finance board member, said that over the years he’d been in office the town undertook a school building program to address space problems.

“We had inadequacies in our schools, our infrastructure was under attack,” he said. “A lot of money was spent, taxes went up quite a bit.”

Now, he said, the focus should be on “efficiency,” not expansion of services. “The bad economy and taxes are a concern,” he said. “Ridgefield is a special town. We don’t want to see it changed.”

He also spoke of the selectmen’s efforts to buy the 45-acre Schlumberger property and keep it from development as high density housing.

“Schlumberger is going to be a major issue,” he said.

His priorities are “improve roads, maintain education, and avoid turning Ridgefield in a large apartment housing development,” he said.

Maureen Kozlark, a Republican recently elected to fill a vacant seat on the board, added a $5-million contribution to the library’s $20-million project to her priorities.

“My goals going forward on the Board of Selectmen are maintain an appropriate level of taxes on the people,” she began. “Schlumberger … the library expansion is on the horizon and that’s going to be something we’ll be debating and hopefully supporting,” she said. “The library is one of our most used assets.

“Schools,” she added. “People move to Ridgefield for the quality of the schools…

“We want to maintain our small town feel, but be metropolitan in a way that we can enjoy the arts,” she said.

Democrat and longtime board member Barbara Manners said, “I want to see us owning the Schlumberger property.”

She spoke of “public private partnerships” that had combined taxpayer money with donor contribution to get big things done.

“Tiger Hollow is a great example, The Playhouse is a great example,” said Ms. Manners, who helped launch the creation of the playhouse.

“Now we have an opportunity to build a new library,” she said. “All those things add to the quality of life in this town.”

Incumbent Selectman Di Masters, a Democrat, said that while “Schlumberger is very important,” one of her main goals is to affect the way young people like the students in the audience looked at public service and public officials.

“The reasons I’ve been an elected official all my life is for civics,” she said. “People don’t get into public office for nefarious reasons. They do it for the good reasons.”

“I hope I can be an example to you as a public official,” she said. “That’s what I’d like to leave the town.”

Jan Rifkinson, an unaffiliated candidate for the Board of Selectmen who isn’t an officeholder, said, “I’m the outsider up here. All these people are on the Board of Selectmen. They’re incumbents, I’m trying to take one of their seats.”

Mr. Rifkinson described beginning to attend Board of Selectmen meetings three or four years ago, and trying to learn about the issues. “I started to ask a lot of questions — question after question after question. It became kind of a joke,” he said. “Sometimes they were explained to me satisfactorily, sometimes they weren’t.”

As a result his goals if elected include “greater transparency in government and more involvement of the general population,” he said.