Rubber Meets The Road

Bethel First Selectman Dan Carter joined the Municipal Voice

It takes someone wired for public service to win an election on a Tuesday and hit the ground running on Wednesday.

That was the experience for Dan Carter, who in February won a special election to take the First Selectman position in Bethel. He joined us on the Municipal Voice, a co-production of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and WNHH 103.5FM, to talk about what it takes to dedicate yourself to public service and the budget season.

A military veteran, former State Representative, and most recently a member of Bethel’s Board of Finance, says he never understood the why of public service, but he knows that it matters to him and his community.

“So when I say public service is important, I would say that all of us should participate in our community,” he noted. The First Selectman position that he has recently taken on is evidence in his dedication to participation in local governance.

First Selectman is where the “rubber meets the road” in town government – from police, fire, schools, economic development. And nowhere is that more evident than in the budgeting season.

He argues that one of the things he loves about local governance is that it’s less political than his time at the Capitol, “the higher up you go, the more political it becomes.”

“We’re fine with paying taxes,” he says, “we’re fine with having good schools. People just want to know that their money is going to something important.”

So it becomes imperative that every dollar is spent wisely. That priorities like roads and schools are kept top of mind.

“Obviously, there’s the moral responsibility of a town, as a community, we owe it to our kids to give them a good education and a good foundation to launch them off into the world.”

But it’s also important that the state government help where they can, as Bethel and all towns in Connecticut don’t get the funding they were promised for Special Education.

This is an area where Carter takes great pride, and gave examples of success stories of special needs students who had made great strides, but noted that shorting funding for these programs can greatly affect local budgets.

“From the community’s perspective, someone has to take care of these kids,” he said, and although it is expensive, it is that moral responsibility to give kids a proper education.

And that relies on the cooperation and participation of his co-workers in all departments and, you guessed it, the community. But again, that is why Carter ran for First Selectman in the first place.

“What rewards me about this is this certain sense of accomplishment that I get because you’re going out and doing something in the community, he said, “And having a chance to impact somebody and you’ve done something to make their life better.”