Candidate Submitted Bio

David has served as a portfolio consultant to major U.S. pension funds, endowments, and charitable foundations for the past 13 years. In 2021 he was named one of Chief Investment Officer‘s top 20 “Knowledge Brokers” in the U.S. David graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with an MBA in Finance, after graduating from Dartmouth College with an AB in computer science. He has lived in Wilton since 2014, where both of his children attend Cider Mill school. David believes that the Board of Finance must minimize the financial burden to the town, while at the same time assuring that the Wilton schools and other public services receive the funding and investment they require to remain the best in our state.

Video Interview

Candidate Submitted Op-Ed

When my wife and I began looking for our first home in 2014, our top priority was to find a town with a great community and great schools to raise our daughter. Thankfully our broker quickly suggested Wilton! Our early experience with our kids at Miller-Driscoll confirmed that we had made the right decision. Later however, when I started attending town meetings, and became more aware of how funding decisions were being made for our schools and for other town services, it really was an eye opening, and sadly, a rather frustrating experience for both my wife and I. 

Maintaining the quality of our schools, and as well as the other services of our town, is not something that any of us should take for granted, nor should we expect these great assets to be maintained and improved without continual investment. We were fortunate to have lived in a low-inflation environment over the past 20-plus years, when Wilton was able to get by with minimal year-to-year budget funding increases. A confluence of global factors has now led to much higher inflation, and an increased need for certain services such as mental health programs for both in our schools and for the greater community. While the need to diligently scrutinize costs, and exhaust every potential avenue of funding remains, the only way we will continue to have the best schools  and best services for our town is to trust that we must invest in them when appropriate.

Fiscal responsibility is a term used often by politicians and administrators at all levels of government. Sadly some use the term as a justification to starve the public sector. Underfunding public programs may feel good in the short term, but they represent a myopic, counterproductive approach in the long term. Necessary fixes are passed up, and the ability to adapt to the needs of a changing world is not developed. Eventually this short-term focus leads to far greater problems that need to be addressed, and ultimately higher costs down the road. In my view, fiscal responsibility means protecting the precious assets we have built in our town by performing a long-term cost-benefit analysis of funding requests each year relative to trade-offs that inevitably come should we fall short of those asks.

The cuts made to the proposed Board of Education budget in 2023 were troubling to me, and to many others in Wilton who spoke in public forums and submitted editorials. I believe that some members of the current Board of Finance went beyond their oversight roles to instead make specific judgements of line-items. It seemed that no matter how great the effort, or logical the justification of the Board of Education, a contingent of the Board of Finance was searching for a way to not fully fund its budget. I considered that an overstep in the Board of Finance’s role. The cut to the school budget was passed off as not all that significant, but what appears as a modest cut in an individual year becomes much more significant when compounded year-by-year over time. The desire of certain members of the current Board of Finance to cut short term costs regardless of the consequences exposes us to the risk that our schools, infrastructure, and other public services fall behind in the future, requiring even greater tax increases later on. That is not true fiscal responsibility.

As a taxpayer I recognize the significant financial sacrifice we make to live in this community, especially at a time when the costs of many of our regular purchases keep increasing. I view my duty on the Board of Finance as one of providing maximum oversight to budgets proposed by other town boards. My professional background in due diligence puts me in a position to “trust but verify,” and ask tough questions. I hold an MBA from the University of Chicago, and my work often involves determining long term portfolio construction for state government pensions, a career that gives me familiarity with many of the challenges that public entities face.

I believe that Wilton can strike the right balance between controlling the financial burden on our neighbors, while prudently investing in a long-term vision for what our town can become. I would be honored if you would support me in my candidacy to join the Board of Finance on Nov. 7.

Video Clips

What is motivating you to run for the Board of Finance?

What’s your background, in relation to finance? And you talked about your interest predominantly being about the school district and what happens in terms of the budget for the schools… why not start out running for the Board of Ed and crafting it that way? Why run for the Board of Finance then?

A lot of people view the BOF as a reactive body with, its prime role at the beginning and middle of spring and responding to the budgets that the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen. How do you see it be more of an active role? Specifically, what are you going to do in terms of having an impact and shaping the overall financial approach of the town?

You felt there should have been more increases to the budget. Where’s the money supposed to come from us? Hearing that commercial properties and the tax base is decreasing, where is the money supposed to come from?

Other candidates and town officials feel that the town residents have communicated they are not willing to take on more of that budget-increase burden. Then when you bring up the coming revaluation, it looks like residents are going to take on even more burden and they want to be more conservative. Here you are talking about being less conservative. How are you going to balance that out? What are you going to tell voters?

Talk about public perception of the BOF. You spoke at the annual town meeting. Town officials, other town residents and candidates all have a different point of view about what happened at that May meeting. What do you think about what happened? And what do you think about public perception of the board of finance and what needs to change? Do you think that the majority of people in town who are people without kids in the schools are in favor of more money going into the Board of Ed?

Towards that end, do you feel that more money also needs to be put into the town side? Do you feel like that that budget needs to be raised as well?

Are there any areas where you think need more examination for savings? If it’s not in the instructional coaching, are there better to look for savings, whether that’s on the school side or the town side?

At the town meeting, the presentation by the Chair of the Board of Education has been criticized that her presentation lit some fire under people who were upset with the BOF. Some of the BOF members talked about how they didn’t feel safe after that meeting, they didn’t feel safe casting their votes that day. What do you think about that?

After a few years of not giving guidance, this year the BOF will be giving guidance. What are your thoughts about where guidance should be?

With all of this wanting to invest in education, invest in facilities, upkeep of town buildings and operations, where will that revenue come from? Any ideas about doing things differently? And so is the vision being crafted by planning and zoning, with the Master Plan? and development and amenities?

What is your message to voters about why you should be their choice?