Every Tuesday leading up to the election on Nov. 7, GOOD Morning Wilton publishes endorsements of candidates made by public officials, civic organizations, interest groups or recognizable individuals. This information has been compiled from press releases sent by the campaigns or endorsement letters sent to GMW. These are not endorsements from GOODMorningWilton.com; GMW does not make any candidate endorsements. Learn more about our election coverage guidelines and policies.
Board of Finance Chair Endorses Rudy Escalante
To the Editor:
I have known Rudy Escalante for almost 30 years and can tell you the same thing that every person who knows Rudy will tell you: Rudy will make a great addition to the Board of Finance. Rudy is not partisan or political. He is fair and reasonable, and knows a lot about finance and giving back to the community. The proof of this is that Rudy was asked to run for the Board of Finance by both Democrats and Republicans following the contentious Board of Finance meeting in May. Rudy will have a calming influence on the Board of Finance. He is not running for the Board of Finance to advance the interests of one group in town over another or with preconceived notions of how he should vote on specific issues. He is running to represent all of us. His only commitment is to listen and learn, and then make the best decisions that he can based upon the information available, which is all we should ask of anyone running for the Board of Finance. Please join me and many other Democrats and Republicans in supporting Rudy Escalante.
Michael Kaelin
Chair, Board of Finance
Connecticut Attorney General Encourages Wilton Voters to Support Tim Birch for Board of Finance
To the Editor:
I strongly encourage all Wilton voters to support Tim Birch for the Board of Finance. I have known Tim personally and professionally for almost 20 years, and practiced law with him at a major regional law firm in corporate finance, transactions, litigation, and risk management. During that time, I have seen first-hand his ability to manage significant transactions, including very large mergers and acquisitions, often with very complex financial structures and a number of clients and counterparties. He approaches all of his work with the same gracious and welcoming approach that brings everyone to the table and reflects the generous spirit and values for which Wilton is known. In my personal life, and in my role as Attorney General, I often turn to Tim for his counsel and advice, and I trust him implicitly. I know the people of Wilton will come to feel the same way.
Please vote Tim Birch for the Board of Finance this November.
William Tong
Connecticut Attorney General
Board of Finance Member Supports Democratic Slate for BOF
To the Editor:
I strongly support Tim Birch, Slava Servello and David Tatkow for Board of Finance. This strong slate of Democratic candidates understands Wilton’s fiscal challenges, the need to responsibly make the most of our tax dollars and attract new businesses to our community in order to ease the current burden on our residential taxpayers.
All three have financial expertise and proven career experiences managing and analyzing strategic plans, budgets and financial statements. Tim has worked as a corporate executive officer, business lawyer and board member for both profit and not for profit entities. Tim currently serves as Attorney General William Tong’s designee on Connecticut’s Opioid Advisory Committee. Slava earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at NYU and is the financial controller of North Sails, LLC where she is responsible for strategic prioritization and the budgeting and accounting processes. She also serves as the treasurer of the Miller-Driscoll PTA. David is an MBA and award-winning expert in the investment consulting business. His expertise extends to managing asset allocations for pension plans at both the state and private levels.
I’ve personally met with Tim, Slava and David and I’m inspired by their passion to continue to make Wilton a wonderful place to raise and educate our kids. All three bring a collaborative, collegial spirit to move beyond the political divide and bring Wilton forward in a positive direction.
Please join me on Tuesday, Nov. 7 and cast your vote for David Tatkow, Slava Servello and Tim Birch for Board of Finance.
Sandy Arkell
Board of Finance Member
Former Republican Town Committee chair Michael Kaelin was one of the 4 BOF members to vote for last year’s massive, unjustified, arbitrary school budget cuts, so his endorsement only serves as further confirmation that the Republican BOF nominees would carry forward that policy, however friendly a spin he may try to put on it.
Ms. Arkell, on the other hand, was one of the 2 members to vote against them, so her endorsement suggests that the opposite applies to the Democratic nominees.
While agreeing with Michael on Rudy’s credentials as a BOF candidate, still trying to figure out if Mike is a Republican, Democrat, Independent ,Green Party, etc….also….Who is in charge of monitoring the impacts of the reduction?
There’s a “financial update” on the agenda for tomorrow’s BOE meeting so I assume there’ll be some more information in that situation then. The brief memo on BoardDocs makes no mention of it; the two big issues at the moment are $98k for CM/MB flooding repairs (the tip of a very large iceberg, I fear) and special ed tuition running over budget.
(it occurs to me that an interesting small-scale reform to the BOF/BOE budget process would be to break out special ed – which tends to have a lot of large unpredictable swings, and which I hope even conservatives would agree we absolutely positively should not be cutting/short-changing – separately from the rest of the budget, and not expect its budget to change according to any sort of regular formula)