The disconnect between wanting to get things done quickly and wanting to abide by the formal processes required, continues to plague the Board of Selectmen and add to a rift between members.
With several big issues ablaze at Town Hall — among them the clouded departure of Wilton’s CFO Dawn Norton and ongoing questions related to the Finance Department — on Monday night, Aug. 4, the BOS saw disagreement over the mission statement for the newly appointed Process Review Committee.
The PRC, a joint venture of the BOS and the Board of Finance, was appointed last month to help locate an independent outside consultant that would be tasked with examining processes and functioning within some Town Hall departments, and also make recommendations to the town on how matters can be improved.
Throughout the past year a range of issues, including the issuance of tax credits without proper BOS authorization, along with other finance-related matters, have raised alarms among some elected officials, who want to see operations improved.
The PRC was born directly into controversy last month when Selectwoman Kim Healy, who has been instrumental in throwing light on a range of issues over the past several months, was omitted by Boucher from serving on the committee. Instead, Boucher fueled the fire of controversy by naming herself as one of its appointees, raising significant questions of whether her participation presented a conflict of interest for a committee aiming to ultimately investigate the internal workings of Town Hall under her watch.
The PRC is composed of Boucher, Selectman Ross Tartell, BOF Chair Matt Raimondi, and BOF member Sandy Arkell, who is chairing the PRC.
On Monday, Boucher asked the BOS to codify the PRC’s mission statement, which along with defining the scope of the review and drafting a Request for Proposal to hire a consultant, also currently includes making a formal recommendation to the BOF and BOS on which consultant should be hired to do the work.
Healy, however, in tandem with Selectman Josh Cole, argued that this did not represent the mission that was originally approved by the BOS last month. In particular, Healy noted that when they approved the formation of the PRC — and Boucher’s inclusion — they believed that the committee was going to be bringing a list of consultant candidates forward for consideration, not choosing one.
“They will evaluate and bring us only one consultant to approve,” Healy said. “That’s what this says. You will present a formal recommendation of a qualified consultant. You will only be bringing us one, whereas when we discussed it, it was said that you would bring all the responses to us and present all the responses to us.”
Healy was the only Nay in a 4-1 vote that included former Selectman Bas Nabulsi. Both Cole and Nabulsi were initially reticent about approving the committee formation with Boucher as a member, but she assured them that the PRC would focus on the RFP and scope, as well as funding, but not be directly choosing a consultant.
“The committee should not be involved in any decision making,” Healy said, stating that the BOS could approve the mission statement anyway, but it wasn’t what was agreed to and she would not be voting for it.
Cole, who was the first to point out the disconnect between what the BOS approved and what was subsequently approved by the BOF regarding the PRC, suggested changing the wording of the mission statement in order to allow both boards the power of the decision.
“I think the process would be then that the committee would present all of the candidates so that the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance, have an opportunity to hear from all of the consultants and they can make a recommendation,” Cole said.
While Boucher said she thought that would be a good resolution to getting the statement approved, Tartell objected, stating it would slow them down.
“We want to get this done reasonably fast and if we start making these changes, I can see us putting together the RFP that Sandy has assembled and gotten feedback on rolling sometime around March of next year,” Tartell said.
“The people are saying, ‘Can’t you guys get your act together on how a process works?'” he said, citing comments heard earlier in the meeting in which at least two residents expressed their frustration with the BOS. “And we’re gonna get a consultant who’s gonna just do the simple math that needs to be focused on the financial processes, and maybe they’ll do some of the other stuff, but we need to move ahead.”
Boucher said she agreed “100 percent,” noting that it was Arkell and Raimondi who asked to have the BOS formally adopt the mission statement.
Healy continued to point out the disconnect.
“At this point, this committee and the Board of Finance are in agreement on what they voted on. We are not in agreement,” Healy said.
“I think the whole process is flawed from the beginning, but you guys can choose,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to change it. I’ve had a conversation with Mr. Raimondi and he said they will not be changing the Process Review goals.”
“We are not in agreement on what we voted on … I would just recommend asking Sandy and Matt what they wanted to do,” Healy said.
Cole suggested that they confer with Raimondi, which Boucher said she would do.
“I think they’re entitled to make a recommendation, but we should have the ability to see all of the candidates,” Cole said.
The PRC was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at which time Arkell said she would be sharing a draft of an RFP for consideration by Boucher, Raimondi and Tartell, but that meeting was cancelled on Tuesday.