Last Thursday the Board of Health voted unanimously to repeal the town’s noise ordinance. (Greenwich Board of Health Surrenders Local Control to Hartford December 7, 2023).
On Monday First Selectman Fred Camillo issued a statement as follows:
“The decision last week by the Greenwich Board of Health to cede local control over our noise ordinance to Hartford is beyond disappointing. It is outrageous and it happened because of the Board of Health’s inability to address in a timely and thoughtful manner the proposal from Quiet Yards Greenwich to limit gas powered leaf blowers to the summer months.
This decision by the Board of Health to hand off local control to Hartford shows a total lack of leadership on an issue that the Board has had more than sufficient time to understand and address in a constructive manner and yet chose not to.
Can one imagine if every Town board did this when a tough issue came along? The Town is fighting and I am fighting every day to maintain and protect local control from Hartford over zoning and housing and on other issues important to our citizens.
Now we have a Town board giving up authority to the State on a quality-of-life issue without first consulting anyone else, especially my office and the Board of Selectmen. Citizens should be outraged by this.
The First Selectman does not oversee the Department of Health or the Town of Greenwich’s Health Director. However, the Board of Selectmen does interview and nominate the candidates for the Board of Health.
To that end, to say I am disappointed in the leadership of the Board of Health and its Chair would be an understatement.
If someone cannot find the courage to deal with an issue on a board that they serve on, then I would expect that person to resign from that position. In this particular case, I believe the Chairman of the Board of Health should step down and the Board should be reconstituted with an understanding of its members’ role in keeping Greenwich independent from Hartford in matters important to our citizens.”