Politics & Government

BOF Candidates Take the Stage

Four candidates discuss everything from their qualifications to sit on the board to expanding senior tax relief.

Four residents vying for seats on the Board of Finance participated in a debate hosted by the Thursday.

Independent candidate did not take part in the debate.  Of the five total candidates, three will be elected to six-year terms on the board.

Here’s what each candidate had to say on the following topics:

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Candidates’ Relevant Experience

  • Patrick McCabe, Democrat: McCabe said his experience with budgets and finance stems from his experience as a practicing attorney. He graduated from New York University’s School of Law in 1999; his course load focused on finance. McCabe spent two years analyzing accounting and balance sheets for a $1.6 million acquisition and was once an associate for international securities/finance corporate law firm. McCabe said that, if elected, he would bring problem-solving and negotiating skills to the board.
  • , Incumbent, Republican: Flynn is the current chairman of the Board of Finance. He is a certified public accountant and has served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for several corporations. Flynn said he has managed more than $120 million in capital projects and has raised $350 million in debt and equity financing.
  • , Incumbent, Republican: DeWitt, who currently serves on the Board of Finance as its secretary, said he has approximately 10 years of experience with budgets in excess of $100 million. DeWitt said he handles engineering operating budgets in excess of $30 million for his position as senior military aircraft operations manager at Sikorsky. “I originally ran tot show my twins that the town needs volunteers to run it,” DeWitt said. He added, “it’s our job to make decisions that will benefit the whole town.”
  • , Democrat: Gaffney currently works at People’s United Bank, where she’s been working as a retail banker for nearly 12 years. She said would bring a personal touch to the Board of Finance – “I’ve been CEO and CFO of my own household for 25 years…the town is just a larger scale of your own household.” If elected, Gaffney said she would make a commitment to balance. “We really need to strike a balance with the needs of the residents, what they can afford, and the town services we want to provide.”

Town Pension Funds: Defined Contribution Plans (They Are Currently Defined Benefit Plans)?

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  • Patrick McCabe: McCabe explained the difference between the two plans - - a defined contribution plan means the town knows what each employee is contributing to his or her pension every year; the defined benefit plan means the benefits are specified based on the employee’s history, salary, and other terms, rather than on investment returns. He said a defined contribution plan “allows the town to know from the get-go” exactly what employees’ pensions will be. The current defined benefit plan is “riskier;” he added defined contribution is the way private businesses handle their pensions.
  • Tom Flynn: “We won’t see a change to the budget for about seven years,” Flynn said, and that is unclear what the savings would be at that point. If the town were to implement defined contribution plans, there would be “short-term costs to taxpayers” at the beginning, Flynn said.
  • Christopher DeWitt: DeWitt said he did not believe there are many pros to switching the town pension funs to a defined contribution plan at this point.
  • Elaine Gaffney: Gaffney said she has come across these plans before in banking, but has not analyzed the pros and cons of either yet. She said she would make it her due diligence to research and analyze the differences between the plans if elected.

Short-Term Bonding on Annual Expenses

  • Patrick McCabe: “Bonding can be justified by the expenditures it benefits,” McCabe said. For short-term bonding, McCabe believes the debt would be justified if it’s used to fund a short-term project that most of the town can enjoy – for example, road paving.
  • Tom Flynn: “I don’t support short-term bonding for annual expenses,” Flynn said. He would support short-term bonding for non-annual, short-term projects. He also wants to see the town practice an annual capital planning summit – “it’s a very valuable planning tool.”
  • Christopher DeWitt: DeWitt said he is not in favor of using short-term bonds to fund things like school projects. He said there have been short-term projects, like paving, that the board has recently implemented plans to change from short-term bonding to the general operating budget.  He added that the town needs to implement a defined five-year bonding plan and stick to it.
  • Elaine Gaffney: Gaffney supports short-term bonding for annual capital projects. “I think debt has a bad name these days but sometimes it can be a good thing,” she said. Since interest rates are low right now, Gaffney said she would like to see costs for projects spread over a few years.

BOF’s Role in Appropriations and Formulating Fiscal Policy

  • Patrick McCabe: McCabe said the board is mainly an appropriations board, but “there’s inherently a policy aspect because there’s only so much money” in the town; the board must decided how to allocate and how to appropriate that money.
  • Tom Flynn: Flynn joked that “sometimes, you feel it’s an appropriations board,” but the board’s role has expanded. He said it provides guidance to other boards, looks at employee studies for employee benefits, shapes bond policies, and recently adopted a new purchasing policy in an effort to buy things for the town “at a good value to save taxpayers’ money.”
  • Christopher DeWitt: “There is a talented group of nine people on the Board of Finance, to not let them help shape fiscal policy would be a shame.
  • Elaine Gaffney: Gaffney said she sees the board as half and half. “I do see the Board of Finance as an appropriations body…now as it’s set up, it doesn’t really get involved with other board’s budgets,” she said, and the board must decide how to fund those budgets.

Changing Line Items

  • Patrick McCabe: “The Board of Finance should defer to the Board of Education as to what they’re doing when they’re making the budget,” McCabe said. “The final call on how the Board of Education should spend its money should stay with the Board of Education.
  • Tom Flynn: Flynn said the town’s government follows the check and balances system: “it’s appropriate to make sure the right decisions are made.” But, it would be a disservice to take that discretion away from the Board of Education members, Flynn said. “They know the inner workings of the schools, we won’t assume to know.”
  • Christopher DeWitt: DeWitt said that when he first became a member on the Board of Finance, he found it frustrating to allocate one big number to the Board of Education at one time. But, he said there’s a great body of members in the Board of Education – “it would be bad for us to go line by line through the budget.” He said he would like to go through big line items, but not for small items, “like the smart board in Stratfield”
  • Elaine Gaffney: Gaffney agreed with DeWitt’s saying it was frustrating to hand over a large sum at one time to one board, “but now I know how the practice works.” She said the Board of Education “has the expertise. If boards start stepping on other boards’ toes, it’s going to hurt.”

Increasing

  • Patrick McCabe: “It’s certainly an issue to look at…we have budget issues. We have to look at property taxes and how we raise money,” McCabe said. He added that the town must strike a balance; seniors are in the unique situation of living on fixed incomes and have contributed to the town for many years, but there needs to be balance so “someone else isn’t paying three times more taxes."
  • Tom Flynn: Flynn said he wants to increase senior tax relief. “It benefits all citizens for our seniors to stay in town…they are a vital part of our town; it benefits our children to see seniors as active members of the community.”
  • Christopher DeWitt: DeWitt also felt senior tax relief should be increased. ”Think about how long they’ve supported their children’s educations with their taxes, our infrastructure, everything we enjoy in our town.” He added that it’s getting to the point where seniors can’t afford housing – “I don’t want to see that. We can all learn a lot from the seniors in our town.”
  • Elaine Gaffney: “I will definitely consider raising property tax relief as one thing, but we should also let seniors know what’s already in place [for relief] and how they can take advantage of that now.”

 


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