Saying he was uncomfortable with the negativity, outbursts and lawsuit threats from a petitioning candidate for first selectman, the New Canaan resident and CPA who has served as treasurer for the campaign resigned from that role Monday.
Roy Abramowitz said that he initially had offered his assistance to petitioning candidate Michael Nowacki “to help the guy out.”
“I’ve done and said things in the past to bring things to light and make the town better, not to sue people,” Abramowitz told NewCanaanite.com. “I don’t operate that way. It’s just not my way of carrying on. I like positive energy. With him, it’s like every day is negativity, negativity, negativity.”
Michael Nowacki of New Canaan. Contributed
Reached by NewCanaanite.com, Nowacki said that he had already missed one filing deadline last month, through his own fault, and had been fined $100 by Town Clerk Claudia Weber. With another deadline approaching, Nowacki said that he was forced this week to delay getting his paper work to Abramowitz by one day (because he—Nowacki—is making arrangements for his own Nov. 1 wedding), and that Abramowitz declined to make himself available after Monday to sign off on the documents as campaign treasurer.
“If he is not willing to do the work, I have to replace him,” Nowacki said.
“It’s like Roy wants to make this campaign about Roy,” Nowacki said. “About what he told everybody two years ago. It’s almost like he wants to run for the office, and at some point in time, I say it’s just easier to do it myself. It would have taken him five minutes to look at and put his signature on the document.”
Abramowitz said he was upset by Nowacki’s comments during a public hearing before the Town Council last Wednesday on the Saxe Middle School building project.
There, Nowacki opened his comments by saying: “I think that some kids in this room should probably not be here for a reason. This is what I am going to tell you and you are going to be surprised.” He then went on to criticize the municipal government and public schools, tried to wrangle with the chairman of the Town Council and said he would be filing a federal “honest services fraud” lawsuit.
Abramowitz said he already had been “98 percent of the way there” in terms of resigning from Nowacki’s campaign and that an outburst regarding a State Elections Enforcement Commission filing that’s due Tuesday put him over the edge.
In a letter filed Monday with Weber, Abramowitz said simply: “This is to notify you that effective immediately I resign as Treasurer for Michael Nowacki for New Canaan First Selectman.”
First Selectman Rob Mallozzi has said he does not recognize Nowacki’s campaign bid as viable, and declined to participate in a League of Women Voters debate. The league, in turn, canceled the debate itself, saying in a letter that explained the organization’s reasons that “This has not been a typical political season for New Canaan.”
“The collegial atmosphere of the past has been replaced with threats of lawsuits and legal proceedings. Although this is not the reason for the cancellation of the debate, residents have expressed their concern that the atmosphere is so negatively charged that they would not feel comfortable participating in or attending the political debate for this year.”
Abramowitz told NewCanaanite.com that he has never been a member of Nowacki’s organizations, the New Canaan Taxpayers Association LLC or the newly created “League of Voters,” launched in the wake of the canceled debate.