Greenwich finance board candidates clash on multiple topics at debate

“I have to say, this is the first time I’ve been called a populist,” he said to some laughter in the room. “I spent 38 years at (JPMorgan Chase), that highly populist place. I was vice chairman of JPMorgan, involved and responsible for risk management.”

Weisbrod went on to note that Alchek previously ran the municipal bond desk at Goldman Sachs and that DesChamps had decades of experience in finance, including leadership positions at asset management firms.

“The notion that we don’t ask questions, I mean, you don’t think we’ve done budgets among ourselves? That this is the first time we’ve seen a budget?” Weisbrod said. “I mean, really. Give us a break, this is ridiculous.”

The BET is arguably the most powerful board in Greenwich and the party that controls it gets to set agendas and break ties on contentious votes.

There are 12 seats on the BET, six for Democrats and six for Republicans, so everyone nominated will win a spot on the board.

The election matters because the party that wins more votes in the election gets to pick the chair of the board, a position that gets to break ties when the board splits 6-6.

Republicans have dominated the BET for the past century, except for one term when the Democrats took control in 2017. The tie breaking vote has been used continually this year, including dozens of times when the board set the budget in April.

Arora said Republicans have had to resort to the tiebreaker because Democrats won’t work with them.

“It’s because of the inability of my colleagues on my right, and your left, to really compromise,” she said.

DesChamps said he was a Republican for 30 years before switching parties and that he wanted to run because he saw the tie breaker being used too often.

“(Excessive tie breaking) is not consistent with the way this town has operated or the way this BET has operated historically,” he said. “With all due respect to what was just said, it’s difficult to compromise with individuals who put out numbers that are inaccurate.”

Schools and funding for school renovations were debated vigorously on Wednesday, primarily with regard to the Central Middle School and Old Greenwich School projects.

Both schools are in need of major repairs, but the BET has yet to allocate full construction funds. 

Republicans voted against construction funds for OGS on Monday, saying the committee needs to finalize design work. CMS achieved municipal improvement status on Tuesday so the BET is working to schedule a special meeting to consider funding in the near future.

“It’s just disingenuous to say that anybody on the current BET doesn’t support these projects,” Fisher said. “We’ve all expressed that we do support the school projects and will continue to support the school projects, but we’ll fund them when we have hard numbers.”

Democrats said these projects, and others, are ready and should be funded more quickly.

“Each year we delay in purchasing infrastructure, like CMS or fire trucks, the price goes up,” Alchek said. “(Republicans) simply have failed to keep our costs as low as they could be and should be.”

Another major point of discussion was how Greenwich borrows money. The Republicans said the existing 5-year repayment system (“modified pay-as-you go”) the town uses now is sufficient.

“It’s worked for decades very, very well,” Fisher said.

Democrats said the town should consider using other financing tools, such as 20-year or 30-year bonding terms, to access more with minimal impact to the tax rate in town.

“It’s a tool that’s in the toolbox,” Selbst said. “I think the difference, and I want to emphasize this point, (is that) we believe that we should find a way to find the funding for the needs of the community.”

Democrats said that longer bonding terms are common in local government and the town could easily use these financial tools without losing the town’s AAA bond rating.

The League of Women Voters already held debates for the board of education and the board of selectmen and first selectman candidates, but those were tame compared to the BET debate.

The moderator, Kay Maxwell, had to ask the audience to remain quiet. There was laughter and snide comments from the audience and even a prop.

“Our opponents want an unlimited credit card and propose expanding town services and expenditures and a huge spending spree,” Fassuliotis said as she hoisted a large blue credit card into the air. “Their policy of taking on millions upon millions of long term debt with high interest rates will result in future higher taxes and bring us in line with our Westchester neighbors.”

The election is on Nov. 7.