Pace says he didn't cause bad blood in Old Saybrook

Old Saybrook - Twelve years, 12 budget surpluses.

That's the financial legacy Michael A. Pace said he leaves behind as he prepares to step down as first selectman Nov. 18. At what may have been his final Board of Selectmen meeting Thursday, Pace announced that the town had ended the 2010-11 fiscal year with a surplus of $297,024.

But while Pace's financial savvy is a hallmark of his administration, so is the ire his management style has raised in a contingent of residents over the years. The differences in opinion have led to frequent heated exchanges between Pace and audience members at selectmen's meetings.

To be sure, the issue of the day drives the level of contention at meetings in any town. And while meetings in Old Saybrook could for stretches of time be civil and predictable, with Pace's exit comes the possible end to meetings often peppered with rancor and snide remarks.

Both candidates for first selectman, current Democratic Selectman Carol A. Manning and current Republican Board of Finance Chairman Carl P. Fortuna, have touted civility as their way of doing business.

Pace said Thursday night he wasn't the source of whatever bad blood there may be.

"My interaction with the public has been positive except for people like (politically active residents) Mary (Hansen) and (Dick) Goduti and those people like that," Pace said. "If you go back to people before me, it's been the same thing. ... It's more about their personality, if you will, rather than my management style.

"The thing that's different with me is that I will stick up for what I think is right. They don't like that."

On Thursday, Pace and Hansen hashed out their differences once again, this time in the middle of the meeting.

Pace was discussing the state Elections Enforcement Commission's recent dismissal of a complaint Hansen had filed last year when Hansen noted that she is appealing the EEC decision on Grant Westerson's and Michael Evangelisti's dual roles on two boards while both were on the town's payroll.

Hansen frequently files complaints but never wins, Pace said. Hansen begged to differ, alluding to a Freedom of Information request she filed in 2008 that spurred a state investigation into a private fund that then-Police Chief Edmund H. Mosca had held for years out of public sight.

Hansen went on to call Pace "ethically challenged."

Pace retorted: "You ever heard the word pathetic?"

"Yeah, I'm looking at it," Hansen shot back.

Hansen did not return a call Thurday night.

j.cho@theday.com