The debate surrounding the deliberations and decisions of the Council on Ethics continues, with the Wilton Democratic Town Committee placing a sponsored post on GOOD Morning Wilton last week calling for the withdrawal of two Board of Education candidates, Heather Priest and Mark Shaner.
In a paid response, the Wilton Republican Town Committee stood by the two unaffiliated candidates that are running on the GOP ballot, indicating it would not stoop to “this level of mudslinging,” despite questions still out regarding the candidacy of Democrat Farah Masani for the Board of Selectmen.
Today, Oct. 12, the Council on Ethics is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. in Room 13 at Comstock Community Center, according to Chair Thanh Tsoi, though no agenda was posted on the town website as of Wednesday night.
[Editor’s note: The agenda was posted on the town website after the story was published Thursday morning. Our original story did not differentiate between posting the agenda online or at all. On Thursday, following the story publication and the agenda posting, the first selectwoman reached out to comment that the agenda had been posted in the Town Clerk’s office as required by CT state statutes on Wednesday, so that the town and Council had met the legal requirements to notice the meeting on time.
“I suspect the reporter was thinking wasn’t yet posted on the town website. Notice on the town website is not required for an in-person meeting, but we do provide such as a service to residents and try to get it up 24 hours in advance. In this case it went up this morning because the person responsible was out yesterday afternoon,” she wrote, adding, “There is enough controversy without a new one because ‘on the town website’ was missing from a sentence.
GOOD Morning Wilton did email both the Council’s chair as well as the first selectwoman Wednesday evening to ask whether the meeting would be held, but did not hear back before press time Thursday morning regarding the meeting or the agenda.]
At its last meeting on Oct. 3, the council held over its consideration of an Advisory Opinion to be issued to Masani, who like the other candidates submitted her name for review by the council — a group appointed by the town that serves to give opinions on whether conflicts may exist per the town’s Code of Ethics.
Masani’s husband has been a police officer in Wilton for 24 years.
Priest and Shaner’s respective spouses are teachers with Wilton Public Schools.
Tsoi said the fact that the council deliberated for one meeting before issuing its respective opinions on Priest and Shaner was no reflection on it taking more time to give an opinion regarding Masani.
“Each request may have different asks,” she said, “and each situation encompasses its own set of factors to take into account. We address each one accordingly.”
In its previous decisions, the council wrote, “It is the opinion of the Council that …serving as a BOE member when a relative is employed by the Wilton Schools presents a potential Financial Conflict of Interest and/or a Potential Personal Conflict of Interest” when deliberating on any personnel-related decision.”
Asked about each BOE candidate’s decision to stay in the race, Tsoi said, “The Council on Ethics issues an advisory opinion. It is up to the candidate to determine how to proceed.”
With this fall’s renewed interest in the proceedings of the Council on Ethics, which has not been approached for similar opinions in recent years, First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice was in attendance at the Sept. 29 meeting and the start of the Oct. 3 meeting.
Vanderslice said that Tsoi had been corresponding about procedural questions with Sarah Gioffre, coordinator of community affairs, in her office, whom Vanderslice said liaisons with appointed committees.
“(Gioffre) was unable to attend their meeting to follow up on the (questions) in person prior to the start of the meeting and to address any potential new questions that might come up … Therefore I attended,” Vanderslice said.
“I stopped in before the start of the Oct 3rd meeting in case they wanted me to stay should any new questions arise, as they had asked me … procedural questions at the last meeting,” she said, leaving before the start of a meeting that amounted almost solely to a two-hour executive-session deliberation.
Asked about the procedures employed by the council regarding each candidate, Vanderslice said it would be more appropriate for her to let it finish its work before answering any questions about procedure.
Asked if the council’s findings should encourage the two BOE candidates to withdraw, Peter Wrampe, RTC chair, said, “Absolutely not.”
“It’s important to consider the individual candidates themselves and let voters decide who has the best interests of the town at heart,” he said.
“The ethics council serves an important advisory role, but in the end we don’t believe in restricting the choices of voters, especially since in Wilton we all have the opportunity to meet and get to know each and every candidate,” Wrampe said.
Noting the importance of transparency, he criticized the current school board for showing “very little,” noting that this was one reason that Priest and Shaner were running.
Tom Dubin, DTC chair, did not respond to a request for comments.
Commending the work of her council, Tsoi also noted the value of transparency.
“Transparency from candidates is crucial to ensure that the community can consider all relevant factors when casting their votes for the town’s benefit,” she said.
“It’s wonderful to witness the town’s active participation in elections,” she said.
“Noting the importance of transparency, he criticized the current school board for showing “very little,” noting that this was one reason that Priest and Shaner were running.”
Yes, when I think ‘transparency’ I definitely think of two people whose teacher spouses – somehow mentioned by the RTC as little as possible – are nursing secret grievances with the district over decisions that cost them money. Real paragons of openness they are.
Which is not to say that Ms. Masani’s potential conflicts aren’t a concern too, but we have no reason to think she’s running because of any particular issue with the Wilton Police Department; she has a lot of other interests that overlap with the BOS’ extensive portfolio, Wilton Pride being a particularly big/obvious one.
Plus, in one of the smarter moves our inconsistent charter-writing predecessors made, the whole system is designed around the assumption that pretty much anybody could have a conflict of interest with the police department, which is why we have a separate Police Commission; the BOS appoints that commission and sets the department’s budget, but as long as she recuses herself from those two tasks there’s not a whole lot else she has to do with it. (the BOF sets the BOE’s budget and I don’t believe anybody has suggested that a teacher’s spouse would be ineligible to serve on that)
Out of curiosity, would it be considered a conflict of interest if a BOE or potential BOE member has a student in the district? Couldn’t this also create a personal or financial conflict of interest? We have students and we have staff in our school system. I would think the BOE would/should be advocating for what’s best for both. It’s bad enough what is happening politically at the federal and state levels, shouldn’t we be happy there are people willing to run for local positions? Most are thankless jobs. Being so divisive at the local level doesn’t do anyone any good.
I mean by that logic it’s a conflict of interest for literally any Wilton resident to serve on the BOS, because the BOS is responsible for stuff we all use like parks and streets and firefighting. Or to serve on the BOF, because it sets everyone’s mill rates. Customers != employees.
And it’s not like there’s a shortage of other people willing to run for BOE who lack these sorts of conflicts; the RTC picked these two specifically because they’re upset at the schools for costing their spouses money and they want to pick a fight.
Hope you had a chance to read the questions asked of Dr. Priest today and the answers he provided.
Yes, but that does absolutely nothing to address the conflict of interest, and his very narrow denial of a financial relationship neatly tiptoes around all of the other conflicts he’s had with the district over the years; I was attacking him for picking fights with the administration before the stipend business came out, and I’ll continue to do so now.
While the Republican candidates for Board of Ed are clearly conflicted out by having spouses employed by the Wilton school system – the challenge by the Democrats so late in the election cycle reeks of political gamesmanship and should be addressed by the Board of Ethics.
The Council on Ethics acted first; the Democrats’ message was in response to their report. (and the DTC is, at any rate, a private political organization, not a municipal one, and so well outside of the purview of the Council on Ethics)
The agenda for tonight’s meeting WAS posted in the Town Clerk’s Office as is required by law. Therefore the meeting is being held consistent with the law for public meetings.
I suspect the reporter was thinking wasn’t yet posted on the town website. Notice on the town website is not required for an in-person meeting, but we do provide such as a service to residents and try to get it up 24 hours in advance. In this case it went up this morning because the person responsible was out yesterday afternoon.
There is enough controversy without a new one because “on the town website” was missing from a sentence.
Any parent of a Wilton student knows you get a unique perspective on what’s going on at Cider Mill, Middlebrook, and the High School from the kids who are there every day. I imagine the spouse of a teacher has an even deeper understanding of what practices are working and what initiatives are failing in our schools. Heather Priest and Mark Shaner are both parents of students and spouses of teachers, which gives them unmatched combination of perspective and understanding.
Far from having interests in conflict with those of us who value high performing schools, we have a confluence of interest. We actually need more people on the Board of Education who know what’s going on in the classroom as well as the boardroom, and who can add valuable insights in a collaborative and collegial way.
The Board of Education is not a private club, it is accountable to the citizens and efforts to restrict the choices of voters by attempting to knock good and decent people off the ballot is unbecoming of a self-governing town like Wilton.
Agreed!