RTM Agenda: Controversial Re-Nominations for Board of Health Members

Monday’s RTM meeting will feature several appointments, including reappointments of two Board of Health members – Dr. Sarah Gamble who is an an internal medicine specialist who obtained her Medical Degree in Osteopathic Medicine, and Lauren O’Keefe, an APRN (advanced practice registered nurse) FNP-BC (Family Nurse Practitioner.)

Consideration will likely be in the context of their roles on the Health Board voting to vacate the town noise ordinance and push back on the gas leaf blower restrictions that have since gone into effect on May 24.

Residents are taking advantage of the all-230 member RTM email to object to the re-appointments.

“They dissolved the noise ordinance without any consultation with the Board of Selectmen, or the RTM, and without any opportunity for public comment,” wrote Carolina Palacios of the Health Board, adding, “By vacating the Noise Ordinance, the BOH stripped Greenwich residents of protections that had been in place for decades. Giving up local control on this important health and quality of life issue demonstrates profoundly poor judgment on the part of incumbent BOH members.”

Palacios referred to the resulting period of time the town had no noise ordinance as a “mess,” during which, “residents suffered as garbage trucks and construction crews started work in the dawn hours due to laxer state rules.”

How did we get here?

• Back in 2022 Quiet Yards Greenwich started talking about the impacts of gas-powered leaf blowers on health, the environment and quality of life.

They went before the Board of Health more than once proposing an ordinance that would phase in restrictions on gas leaf blowers over several years, but members of the Health Board, its chair and the director of the Health Dept were all skeptical.

• In May 2023, a Health Board public hearing on gas-powered blower restrictions was packed, with many residents urging relief from the noise and pollution of gas leaf blowers. A handful of commercial landscapers warned about shortcomings of battery operated blowers and costs of changing equipment.

• In June 2023, the Health Board voted against the proposed ordinance from Quiet Yards Greenwich.

At that meeting, Dr. Gamble, who chaired the Health Board’s subcommittee on gas powered leaf blowers, said, “They claim that the use of gas powered leaf blowers is an immediate health hazard. However, they are proposing to allow their use several months out of the year. We do not recognize a health hazard on a part-time basis.”

She said her committee recommended instead an education campaign about existing noise restrictions.

At the same meeting, Board of Health Chair Joel Muhlbaum called the vote on the subcommittee’s recommendation to reject the Quiet Yards Greenwich proposal, and to instead implement a registration program for commercial landscapers to be managed and overseen by the Dept of Health – including the education program recommended by Dr. Gamble.

• In October 2023 Quiet Yards Greenwich got on the RTM call with a first read on a change to the town’s noise ordinance restricting gas powered leaf blowers from May 1 to Sept 30. At that meeting, First Selectman Fred Camillo and Selectwoman Lauren Rabin both spoke in favor of restrictions, while Dr. Gamble said her subcommittee was still researching the issue.

• In December 2023, at a special meeting that lasted 10 minutes, the Health Board voted unanimously to repeal the town’s noise ordinance which fell under their purview. Those voting to repeal included Dr. Gamble and Ms O’Keefe.

That left the town subject to the much weaker state noise statute.

The timing of that December Health Board vote came just before the RTM’s planned second read on the Quiet Yards proposal.

With many new questions arising over the lack of a town noise ordinance, the RTM postponed the item from December to January, which was also when the new members would be seated.

New RTM Votes for Restrictions on Gas Leaf Blowers

• Then, on Jan 17, the new RTM voted overwhelmingly in favor of  restoring the town noise ordinance, edited to put noise under the purview of the selectmen, and with an amendment to include a summer ban on gas leaf blowers. As a result the

The vote was 135 in favor, 64 opposed, 6 abstain.

• But the issue flared up again in April, when town administrator Ben Branyan presented to the Selectmen a request for a 3-year variance from the leaf blower restrictions for town departments. DPW and Parks Dept are the departments mainly impacted.

• In May the Selectmen compromised and voted to approve a 1-year variance for town departments on the gas leaf blower restrictions.

• From there, six commercial landscapers got on the May 23 Selectmen agenda with requests for their own variance. They complained about the costs of changing to electric equipment.

At that meeting, Svetlana Wasserman of Quiet Yards Greenwich said, “All of these arguments have been made to the RTM and have been litigated there, and I don’t think they should be re-litigated here.”

Ms O’Keefe from the Health Board took the side of the landscapers.

She reminded the Selectmen that in 2023 the Health Board declined the Quiet Yards Greenwich proposal because, she said, “the studies were not scientific enough.”

Second, O’Keefe said, “You approved a variance for the town,” O’Keefe said. “Landscapers should get the variance as well.”

The next day, May 24, the new gas leaf blower restrictions went into effect at 6:00pm, though there are no penalties this year.

Dr. Gamble and Ms O’Keefe

As for the proposed re-appointments, both were taken up by the RTM Appointments Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee last week.

Neither Dr. Gamble, nor Ms O’Keefe, who is an RTM member and delegate to the HHS committee for district 9, fared well.

Dr. Sarah Gamble
RTM Appointments Committee: 1-8-3
RTM Health and Human Services Committee: 3-7-1

Lauren O’Keefe
RTM Appointments Committee: 1-9-2
RTM Health and Human Services Committee: 4-5-2.

With these votes in mind and in anticipation of the June 10 RTM meeting, another email to the all-230 member RTM address was from Robert Sherwin of Cos Cob, who wrote on June 5, “I am strongly against the re-appointment of Ms. Gamble and Ms. O’Keefe. As Board of Health members they ignored many community and expert testimonies about the health ill-effects of leaf blowers. Their decision to vacate the noise ordinance was a flagrant violation of their duty. They showed an overt bias against common sense while serving on the BOH, a group tasked with a very important community mission.”

In fact, in her letter, Ms Palacios took it a step further, suggesting the entire board should be replaced.

“I urge you to vote for a new Board of Health to reinstate public trust in that body,” she wrote.

The reappointment of Dr. Gamble and Ms O’Keefe to the Board of Health would be for a four-year term expiring June 30, 2028.

Following Health Board’s “Bewildering” Repeal of Noise Ordinance, RTM Postpones Gas-Power Leaf Item Dec 12, 2023

First Selectman Camillo Calls for Board of Health Chair to Step Down Over Noise Ordinance Decision Dec 11, 2023