Town Hall Discord: BOF Chair says 1st Sel. Boucher Hamstrung His Board’s Communications to the Public On Town Website

First Selectman Toni Boucher is no longer allowing the Board of Finance to distribute communications to residents through the town’s “E-Alert” email system in tandem with her office’s mailing list, and BOF Chair Matthew Raimondi is not happy about it.

GOOD Morning Wilton obtained an email that Raimondi sent last week to all five Board of Selectmen members (including Boucher) in which he described the standoff and Boucher’s refusal to send the BOF newsletter via the Town’s website.

Raimondi’s email asked the selectmen to add an item on the agenda at tonight’s BOS meeting (Monday, Dec. 2) to discuss implementing a formal policy in which the BOF can continue using the e-alert system with full access to residents’ email addresses.

For more than two years the BOF has distributed surveys and, more recently, regular newsletters to the public through Wilton’s website as part of the “Town News and Announcements” e-alert email subscription. That subscription grouped together communications from both the First Selectman (as BOS Chair) and the Board of Finance under the heading “First Selectman’s Update & BOF Newsletter.”

According to Raimondi, however, Boucher recently refused to use the e-alert system to distribute a BOF update to town residents about the latest BOF meeting on Nov. 12, which included discussions of budget guidance for FY 2026.

In addition, Raimondi recently discovered that the Town’s website was redesigned and “BOF Newsletter” was removed from the Town News & Announcements e-alert subscription option.

Now, anyone who wants to receive communication from the Board of Finance must subscribe to a new, separate “Board of Finance” list to begin receiving its communications.

In his email to the BOS, Raimondi said “Boucher directed [Town] staff” to make the changes to the website, and that neither he nor the public were notified.

“The Board of Finance is deeply disappointed by Ms. Boucher’s decision to unilaterally censor our communications,” Raimondi told GMW. “This decision is arbitrary and unprecedented.”

“These communications have always had full BOF support,” Raimondi said. “Under the previous First Selectwoman (Lynne Vanderslice), these efforts were encouraged as part of government transparency. While we kept her in the loop out of courtesy, [her] formal approval was never required to send them out.”

“I have not been given any rationale for the current restriction, though during our conversation, Ms. Boucher mentioned her dissatisfaction with the BOF’s recent unanimous vote on budget guidance,” Raimondi said.

Last month, the BOF gave its annual budget guidance suggestion to both Boucher and Wilton Public Schools Superintendent Kevin Smith, asking that Boucher keep the Board of Selectmen budget proposal at or below a 3% increase and that the Board of Education keep its budget increase under 4%.

According to his email to the BOS, Raimondi said this isn’t the first time the First Selectman tried to block the BOF from sending townwide communication.

Raimondi wrote that Boucher denied a similar request to share a previous BOF newsletter in early November, but that when he informed her he would seek “formal authorization from the BOS,” Boucher then relented on the condition that she could approval the email’s content before it was sent.

Raimondi wrote that despite his “concerns about the appropriateness of her involvement in BOF communications,” he agreed to her review of the material “in the interest of maintaining harmony” between town boards.

Raimondi said that Boucher initially denied his first request “citing her intention to limit another elected board’s use of townwide emails as the rationale.” Raimondi noted Boucher referenced her intention to prohibit communications from the Planning and Zoning Commission as well going forward.

In fact, Boucher and P&Z Chair Rick Tomasetti did have a similar disagreement over sending communications on the town’s e-alert system. In July, wanting to address what he said were inaccurate public statements made by Boucher regarding zoning issues, Tomasetti asked to send a letter to town residents via the town’s email system.

“When I was asked to post it and distribute it in its entirety by him,” Boucher wrote to GMW at the time, “I gave him the same courtesy as I have for the Board of Finance newsletters. (I) posted it and distributed it.”

Tomasetti said, however, that Boucher initially wanted changes to his letter before approving it to be sent, which led to what Tomasetti called a number of “exchanges” between them about the content. The letter, however, was ultimately distributed as originally written on July 16.

Asked to comment on Raimondi’s current similar concerns, Tomasetti did not respond.

Boucher did not respond to a fresh question about what happened with Tomasetti in July, nor did she confirm whether or not she routinely reviews public communications of other town officials in any capacity — newsletters or emails.

Legal Counsel Weighs In

Boucher also did not say specifically what prompted her to make this policy change now, but shared an email forwarding the opinion of Wilton Town Counsel Ira Bloom advising her on how to respond to the question of Raimondi’s request to have the issue added to the BOS agenda.

“I do not think this is a proper item for BOS discussion,” Bloom advised. “More importantly, I do not think that the chair of any board should be sending direct communications out in this manner on a regular basis.”

“There is no authority for the chair — or any member of the BOF — to communicate individually outside of the BOF meeting,” he wrote.

“Regular newsletters, emails, or similar communications are not authorized … The risks of the chair writing newsletters, emails, or other communication pieces seem obvious. The chair may not be reflecting the consensus of the majority of the BOF,” he wrote.

“Admittedly, by custom there are limited occasions when the BOF chair speaks on behalf of the entire BOF after a vote has been taken,” Bloom wrote. “An example of this would be the Annual Town Meeting in May, when the BOF chair customarily summarizes the final BOF-endorsed budget.”

“The First Selectman, on the other hand … has broader powers to manage the town’s affairs … It is quite common for the First Selectman in Wilton and other towns to communicate with the residents through newsletters, articles in the media, emails and the like. In my experience, it is not customary for chairs of boards and commissions to do that.”

“I recommend that the BOS decline Mr. Raimondi’s request to discuss this further,” Bloom wrote.

According to Raimondi, the e-alert mail system began in early 2019, but for the past five years there was never a separate subscription option for the BOF.

“This change was made without prior notice to the BOF or the public and without any explanation,” he said, noting that there are likely no subscribers at this time who would even see a BOF newsletter if it were to be distributed through this link.

“Over the last 5+ years, the Town News section has amassed thousands of subscribers, many of whom signed up to receive both the First Selectman’s updates and the BOF newsletter,” he said. “The BOF helped build this town-wide mailing list as we regularly spoke about the newsletters and surveys, and how residents could access them.”

“This alteration feels like a backdoor form of censorship, as it effectively limits the BOF’s ability to reach a broad audience of residents,” Raimondi said.

“Why should the First Select[man] have veto power over the communications of an independently elected board?” he said.

Raimondi doesn’t expect the item to be added to the agenda, so he plans to attend the meeting and, during public comment, make a request that it be added by a majority vote of the five BOS members.

“I’ll also take the opportunity to address the concerning precedent set by Toni’s actions in censoring an elected independent board and gatekeeping information from Wilton’s Residents,” he said.

“I’m hopeful that common sense will prevail, and that the BOS will correct this,” he said. “If not, I’ll continue advocating for the people of Wilton and their right to receive information from their elected officials.”