In a memo to the Board of Selectmen on Nov. 17, First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice informed the board about a possible appointment to Wilton’s Council on Ethics, Warren Serenbetz.
The memo outlined her intent to add the discussion to the agenda for the Nov. 20 Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting — and also revealed a distinct shift in the qualifications previously sought for Council appointments.
Vanderslice provided the following context in the memo:
“The Ethics [Council] currently has a vacancy due to the resignation of the one Republican member. The ordinance limits the number of members from one party to 3. There are currently 3 Democrats and one unaffiliate. Due to the types of questions the Ethics Council will now be addressing and because none of the current members have working knowledge of the role of elected officials on the three major boards, I believed it would be very beneficial for a former elected member of one of the three major boards to fill the vacancy. Warren Serenbetz, who formerly served as an elected member and chair of the Board of Finance and a BOS-appointed member of the Board of Assessment Appeals has volunteered to serve.”
[Editor’s note: After this story was first published, GMW learned that the Ethics Council is composed of two registered Democrats (not three) and two unaffiliated members. However, one unaffiliated member was nominated by the Democratic Town Committee, and therefore is counted as a representative of the Democratic party under the rules of minority party representation.]
More Context
The Council on Ethics, which is structured to have up to five members who serve three-year terms, handles ethics complaints and provides advisory opinions for Town employees and members of municipal boards/commissions related to the Code of Ethics.
The Council’s work came to the forefront in the most recent municipal election campaigns, when ethics concerns were raised about potential conflicts of interest for three candidates for the Board of Education (BOE) and one for the Board of Selectmen.
GOOD Morning Wilton reached out to Vanderslice with questions about her Nov. 17 memo, to which she responded in a series of emails.
While Vanderslice would not explicitly comment on whether she disagreed with the Council’s opinions on the conflict of interest cases, she did confirm she felt the council members “demonstrated a lack of working knowledge” of elected officials’ roles. As evidence, she shared a question she received from the Council’s chair, Thanh Tsoi:
“The Council on Ethics is reaching out to you to inquire whether the BOS discusses individual line items (e.g., Police Commission, Police Department) in the budget or overall budget as a whole? Are individual line items discussed by the BOF rather than BOS?”
While Vanderslice noted she was unaware whether the Council had submitted similar or other questions to the BOE, she told GMW, “I believe the question I received demonstrated a lack of working knowledge of the role of the members of the BOS and BOF in the development of the BOS budget.”
GMW reached out to Tsoi for further explanation of the question she had posed to Vanderslice.
“The Council submitted this inquiry to confirm our understanding before finalizing the advisory opinion response. Her response validated our draft response,” Tsoi said.
Vanderslice emphasized her concerns about the Council during the Nov. 20 meeting.
“They [current members] just don’t have the familiarity with how these things work and I think it’s important that we appoint someone with that familiarity,” Vanderslice said.
RTC Puts Serenbetz Forward
Based on her conclusions about the Council and in light of the vacant position on it, Vanderslice contacted the Republican Town Committee (RTC) — consistent with usual procedures — for a possible appointment with the party’s endorsement. She suggested the RTC nominate a candidate with experience on an elected board.
The RTC recommended Warren Serenbetz. Vanderslice said she was “very happy” with the choice, noting his significant experience as BOF vice chair and chair, among other service. Vanderslice served on the BOF at the same time and spoke highly of him.
“He was very engaged and is extremely knowledgable about the boards’ functioning,” Vanderslice said.
Selectmen Push Back
Vanderslice came to the Nov. 20 meeting prepared to bring the matter of Serenbetz’s appointment to a vote, but she immediately received some pushback from Selectman Ross Tartell.
“We have to discuss this,” Tartell said, preempting a motion to vote on the matter. “This is about the BOE conflict of interest.”
Tartell raised a concern that during the election, Serenbetz wrote a Letter to the Editor, published by GMW, endorsing all of the Republican candidates for the BOE, including unaffiliated candidate Heather Priest. In that letter, Serenbetz referred to Priest having a spouse employed in the district as a highlighted attribute.
“My concern is not about Warren’s judgment or anything, my concern is around legal risk to the Town… on the toughest issue that might face the Council, that Warren would not be able to advise on that,” Tartell said.
Vanderslice may not have anticipated Tartell’s comments, but she agreed that Town counsel should be consulted before making the appointment. She drew a hypothetical analogy with potential legal issues if someone on the WPCA or Planning and Zoning Commission made public statements about a potential project before receiving an application.
In a worst-case scenario, Vanderslice saw greater difficulty in finding a candidate with the experience she hopes to find.
“That takes out anyone who endorsed any candidates from ever being on the Ethics [Council],” she noted. “How do we get that knowledge on the [Council]?”
Selectman Bas Nabulsi agreed that the topic Tartell raised was worthy of more discussion.
“The issue Ross has brought up is one we should think about and talk about,” Nabulsi said. “We [BOS] have a shared interest in making sure the Council of Ethics [is] going to be serving the best interests of the Town. Warren is an outstanding citizen but it’s about the trickiness of the Council on Ethics right now.”
Selectwoman Kim Healy did not hide her frustration with the discussion.
“I’m super baffled at this hesitation. Just because Warren supported Heather running as a candidate for the BOE, you’re saying you do not believe he could make an unbiased opinion if a conflict potentially — potentially — comes before the Council on Ethics?”
“And the fact that he’s the one Republican, with three Democrats and one unaffiliated… I don’t see how that could potentially put the Town at risk for anything,” Healy continued. “You’re also making the assumption that he would do something potentially unethical as he sits on board of ethics.”
Tartell insisted the discussion was not specifically about Serenbetz.
“It doesn’t look that way, Ross. It really doesn’t look that way,” Healy said.
Vanderslice steered the discussion back to the fundamental question.
“The question is if there’s any legal risk to the Town, and that’s a question that needs to be answered… I think it’s a valid question,” she said.
Vanderslice indicated she would take the matter of Serenbetz’s possible appointment to Town counsel for guidance and would provide the board with more information.
“Pandora’s Box”
Vanderslice acknowledged her move to seek a previous BOS, BOF or BOE official represents a change in member qualifications traditionally sought for the Council, but said she believes the recent conflict of interest cases are a game-changer.
“Over the last eight years when appointing Council members we didn’t consider the possibility of this year’s candidate requests,” Vanderslice wrote in an email to GMW.
“Previous to this year’s election, the Council dealt with fairly straightforward ethics questions that didn’t generally require specific knowledge of the operations of the Town or school departments nor the [BOS and BOE] functioning. The members were chosen because they either have law degrees or their professional employment includes compliance responsibility within a corporate environment. That knowledge was appropriate for the matters that have generally come before the Council. To my knowledge this is the first time [candidates] have run for the Board which employs their spouse.”
“Now that Pandora’s box has been opened, the Council, the BOS and the residents would benefit from having one or more members with working knowledge of elected boards,” Vanderslice continued. “This is why I asked the [Republican] Town Committee to recommend an individual who had previously served on the BOS, BOE or BOF.”
She reiterated that point during the BOS meeting.
“When we appointed that Council, we had said we wanted lawyers and we were really just focused on the type of things that had historically come to the Ethics Council. I don’t think it was on anybody’s mind that someone whose spouse works for the board they’re sitting on — that this circumstance would happen,” she said.
Council chair Tsoi told GMW she did not have specific information about Serenbetz, but would welcome a new appointment.
“The position has been vacant for some time and I am glad that [Vanderslice] took initiative to get the position filled while still in her role as First Selectwoman,” she said. “Most of these positions are volunteer based, and I am thankful for all members that dedicate their time to our community… I trust the BOS will make solid appointments.”
Since “former board members” are a pretty small pool, and nearly all of them strong supporters of one party or the other, I don’t think board experience is a particularly necessary or even desirable quality here – “asking questions about things you don’t understand” is actually an admirable quality, and certainly not one to criticize a COE member over. And even if they do insist on sticking to former board members, there are others who did not endorse Ms. Priest, or, for that matter, make any public comments at all about BOE conflicts of interest.
Also, given the acrimonious relationship between the BOE and the BOF – acrimony which Mr. Serenbetz certainly bears some of the responsibility for – putting a former BOF chair in a position to advocate for or against a particular BOE member’s participation in a vote seems like it could seriously compromise the BOE’s independence.
If nothing else, appointing Mr. Serenbetz is going to give a great deal of ammunition to people like me in pushing back against any future Council on Ethics rulings in Ms. Priest’s favor that we disagree with.
Warren Serenbetz is a gentleman of extreme integrity. He has always been approachable and respected.
So, to be clear, the Ethics Council, consisting of three Democrats and no Republicans, found the two Republican-backed candidates married to Town employees had conflicts but the Democrat-backed candidate married to a Town employee did not have a conflict. Sounds legit.