"Full time" First Selectman

A campaign handout from Tom Frenaye claims that he will serve full-time. Considering that he also supports a town manager for Suffield we will have plenty of management and the corresponding expense in a Frenaye administration.

Perhaps the full-time claim means to suggest that Ed McAnaney isn’t serving full time. If so, that would be untrue as Ed is engaged 24 hours a day, seven days a week as First Selectman.

As with most taxpayers, He has other interests and commitments beyond his full time job. He is a husband, father, active church member and Knights of Columbus volunteer, for example. He also maintains a limited legal practice on behalf of his existing clients which he will return to full-time when he is no longer first Selectman.

Tom Frenaye also has significant outside interests including Chairmanship of the Suffield Democratic Town Committee. He is also on the Board of Directors of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) in Newington, Ct. as well as the president of the ARRL foundation. (The ARRL is the national association for amateur radio with over 160,000 members.) Both of these positions with the ARRL have substantial administrative duties which require a significant commitment of time as well as occasional travel. For example, his position as a Director of the ARRL includes substantial administrative responsibilities for the New England region which includes the supervision of a staff of 17 people,[i] 8 of whom report directly to Tom.

So let’s recognize that we all have interests that compete for our time. Neither McAnaney nor Frenaye will, nor should we expect them to devote 24 hours a day to the job.

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