Chmielewski, McKenney vie for Salem first selectman

Oct. 26—SALEM — After 12 years as Salem's first selectman, Kevin Lyden is (sort of) stepping aside, allowing for either Republican Ed Chmielewski or Democrat Hugh McKenney to step into the position.

Lyden is running unopposed for a term on the Board of Selectmen in the name of continuity, he said. McKenney and Chmielewski are both currently members of the Board of Selectmen.

On Monday, The Day held a debate between McKenney and Chmielewski at its offices in New London. Both in separate interviews and during the debate, the candidates painted themselves as mostly nonpartisan with several key differences.

McKenney has lived in Salem since 1995 when his career led him to work at Millstone Power Station as a nuclear reactor engineer and later as a nuclear reactor engineer supervisor. McKenney served on the Planning and Zoning Commission before becoming a selectman four years ago. During his time as a selectman he acted as the board's liaison to the Board of Education.

He said, "Schooling is kind in my blood," noting that his late wife was a devoted educator in Salem and Waterford schools and a former school board chairwoman. He believes Salem needs to do a better job of planning for the future.

"Salem has a tendency of just getting through the fiscal year," he said. "'OK, the budget's been passed, phew,' then there's not a lot of planning."

One of these looming issues, McKenney said, is that the town needs additional revenues but has had a hard time finding that "because we're mostly a bedroom community." He advocated for adding solar panel facilities to support municipal revenues, including possibly at a parking lot on town property behind the school or at the transfer station in town, among other places.

"We could put quite a bit back there and still continue to use it," he said about the school location.

The crux of McKenney's candidacy is education. He said he has the same aversion to raising taxes as the rest of Salem, and would like to keep the tax rate the same, but that the town needs to be more aggressive in looking for additional revenues to bolster its school budget.

"For about the last seven years the mill rate has been flat, and that's a good thing for taxpayers. On the same accord, we've done that by not fully appropriating the funds that the school has asked for," McKenney said. "We've been able to do that by offering early retirement incentives to teachers who are seniors. The last three years we've lost between six and eight teachers using that process. Younger teachers come in with lower salaries, but that's eroding over time. Every year teachers' salaries kick in not to mention the normal bumps that are tied to years in service. That money that we didn't have to dish out, that savings is being eroded every year, and it's not sustainable to live in that type of scenario."

Chmielewski has lived in Salem for more than 20 years. He has spent eight years on the Board of Selectmen as well as serving eight years on the Board of Education and is a retired New London police sergeant and U.S. Army National Guard major.

Chmielewski said his top priority is to make sure Salem has the stability it's had over the past five years.

"We've had no tax increases because of fiscal conservatism," he said. "That doesn't mean there won't be tax increases in the future, but we've been very creative to think outside the box to try and save money. We've done a very good job over the last several years with Republicans pretty much in a leadership role."

Chmielewski sought to distinguish himself from McKenney by painting his opponent as "someone with a lot of ideas" but not results-oriented.

"The difference is that I have a proven track record of success in military leadership, law enforcement leadership, leadership in the judicial branch and various boards and commissions and volunteer organizations in town," he said. "In all of those capacities, I've got a product to show for it."

The two candidates sparred over solar energy during the debate, though both agreed alternative energy sources are important. Chmielewski recognized McKenney's passion for the issue, "But as the first selectman we have to run the town and govern the town." He said there are a wide array of other issues to be concerned about, noting that the first selectman is also the de facto police chief, for example. He also pushed back on McKenney's wish to put solar panels on the roof of the school.

Chmielewski said Monday that he doesn't think the town should dip into its unassigned fund balance to support the school budget, while McKenney said he would be in favor of doing that. Chmielewski said doing so would be fiscally irresponsible and would detract from the town's bond rating.

Chmielewski said one of his strong points is his involvement with many different organizations in addition to his involvement in local politics. He said he's good at bringing disparate groups together and that's what he did to sign a new agreement with Gardner Lake Fire Company. He said his relationships that he's built as the Board of Selectmen's liaison to emergency management allowed him to bring the chiefs and deputy chiefs and the appropriate town bodies together for discussion.

McKenney also called the new agreement a positive step but said the town now needs to look at its overall emergency response contract because of disagreements between the town and the firehouses about how the agreement has been implemented.

"We need to be looking at that agreement again with a new administration," he said.

The Gardner Lake Volunteer Fire Company last April filed suit against the town seeking to recover funds, currently calculated at $40,940, that the organization says it needs to run the ambulance service when paid personnel are not on duty. The funding issue is connected to the dispute over Lyden's decision last year to bar its two paid firefighters from also serving as volunteers.

Both candidates praised Lyden for his time in office, but McKenney sought to draw a distinction on the question of Lyden's tenure, saying he would go in a different direction than Lyden on some past policies, whereas Chmielewski's thinking is mostly in line with Lyden's.

"I would be looking at some of the decisions that were made, and there would be some I would change," McKenney said. "There was a bridge that was erected on our town property, which in my mind may have not properly gone through the regulatory and approval processes. I would be looking at implementing new ideas."

Both candidates said they would like to consult townspeople and local stakeholders in deciding how to distribute the more than $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding coming to the town.

Both candidates said the town needs to do a better job of communicating with residents. McKenney floated the idea of starting a newsletter, "Salem Today," to update people on events, programs and meetings in town. Chmielewski said his ties to a bevy of town organizations, such as Salem Seniors, the Boy Scouts, the Economic Development Commission, the PTO, etc., would help this cause.

Monday's debate became heated when McKenney said he disagreed with Chmielewski's answer on this subject.

"He mentioned he's embedded in all these different things," McKenney said of Chmilewski. "That's half the problem, he's got so many pokers in the fire that he's not able to follow through on his commitments."

Chmielewski said, "Unfortunately my opponent just went negative," before discussing his efforts organizing the Memorial Day Parade and other roles, adding, "That's really a first for me to hear that you're involved in too much."

McKenney expressed frustration with Chmielewski repeatedly going beyond the debate time limit for his answers. He then accused his opponent of being self-serving.

"Let's talk about the economic development commission booklet you just put out. Prominently in the booklet is a picture of Mr. Chmielewski with the Salem Seniors. It's listed as he's the president of the Salem Seniors. What does that have to do with economic development?" McKenney said. "Mr. Chmielewski, you use your positions to promote yourself all the time. Speaking about the Memorial Day parade, your introductory speeches to those two fire chiefs, were each twice as long as what the fire chiefs had to say. You have always been a self promoter, and regarding your time on the Board of Education, I know from the chairman of the Board of Education that you didn't attend all the meetings, in fact you attended maybe half of the meetings."

"I'm almost speechless," Chmielewski said in reply. "In politics what you do is you promote yourself and you knock down your opponent. You really haven't done an awful lot, but you're throwing stones at me based on what I've done. I think it's very disrespectful and shows the difference between the two of us."

Chmielewski agreed with McKenney that the town needs more affordable housing, adding, "We want to maintain the rural character of Salem."

McKenney highlighted the town's next Plan of Conservation and Development as a priority, saying that he shepherded the current plan through the approval processes in 2012.

Both candidates said they would be in favor of increased regionalization of services, specifically with emergency management and fire response.

s.spinella@theday.com