10/22/11 The former chairman of the Republican Town Committee says Tod Laudonia deserves credit, not attacks

To the editor:

The debate between the town's tax collector, Republican Tod Laudonia, and his opponent, Democrat Bill Grad, offered two sharply contrasting styles.

Tod Laudonia was relaxed and in control of the issues. His replies were fact based and reflected his experience in office.

His opponent, having no such experience to rely on, based many of his answers on personal attacks on the tax collector and his office. Even worse, Mr. Grad continued his misrepresentation of critical facts.

I will give Mr. Grad the benefit of the doubt and assume that prior to the debate he was unaware of these facts. (He was, for example, unaware that ongoing job-related training is available to the tax collector's staff; he should have known this before making an accusation about the lack of such training.) Now that he is aware, however, he and his supporters must stop making erroneous charges. The voters deserve better.

The facts are relatively simple. Tod's record of performance is outstanding.
He collected 99.65 percent of the tax levy in the last fiscal year, during the worst economic environment in years.

He successfully reduced his office's operating costs, while increasing its productivity.
Working collaboratively with the Board of Estimate, Tod sent out bills early, thus providing taxpayers the ability to budget and convenience to pre-pay if they wished; the result was the highest amount of prepaid taxes in the town's history. (Mr. Grad seems to think that early billing is somehow a problem -- obviously many taxpayers think otherwise.)

Other critical facts must also be noted to set the record straight.

The late billing in 2010 (only six months into Tod's term) was the third consecutive tax cycle (not the first, as Mr. Grad charges), where bills were sent out late. The software vendor, which operates under an existing town-wide contract, has acknowledged in writing its responsibility for the delay. Despite Mr. Grad's attempt to downplay this fact, businesses do not admit responsibility -- and hence potential liability -- for problems they did not cause.

Tod worked with and pressured the vendor to correct its problems. The vendor assigned one of its employees to be present physically in the tax collector's office during the next billing cycle. The bills went out on time.

There were no "lost checks." None. There were 22 checks (out of approximately 60,000) that, for whatever reason, were never received by the tax collector's office. This small percentage is common for businesses, or other tax collector offices, as the Stamford Advocate has noted, which routinely receive many checks. Tod worked with each of those taxpayers to resolve their situation.

Tod has run his office competently, efficiently and in a straightforward manner. Tod's lifetime of residing and volunteering in town has given him the knowledge of its people and neighborhoods. This enables Tod to approach his job with empathy for the public -- especially those experiencing personal troubles.

Mr. Grad has the right, of course, to offer his own different approach as tax collector (for example, selling tax liens to corporations). Mr. Grad does not have, however, license to continue misrepresenting the facts and Tod Laudonia's record of accomplishment. Now that he knows better he and his supporters must stop making false charges and personal attacks.

Unless they stop, voters will conclude that they simply have no credible positive campaign to run on.

I urge voters to re-elect Tod Laudonia as tax collector on November 8.

John Raben
Greenwich