While it might seem to have a simple mission, a new multi-board Bonding Committee that the Board of Selectmen has taken responsibility for organizing, is drawing some debate before it’s even started. After being discussed at Tuesday evening’s (Jan. 13) Board of Finance meeting, the new committee-in-formation has left some Wilton officials wondering about how it’s being formed and who should oversee it.
It was Timothy Birch, the new chair of the Board of Finance Chair, who came up with the idea for a Bonding Committee last month, telling his board that it would be a short-term group to create a financial model relating to the bonding process and forecasting debt service, particularly in relation to the massive facilities repair costs Wilton is facing over the next 10-15 years.
“At least then there would be something we could say to the public, ‘Listen, this is what it looks like if you do this over 12 years,'” Birch said at the Dec. 9, 2025, BOF meeting.
It would also, he later said, be a very useful tool for the Board of Selectmen each year at budget time.
“The purpose of the committee is to create a model (or revise an existing model) to allow for [the] BOS to analyze the impact of various bonding options/decisions prior to [the] BOS arriving at their recommended bonding proposals,” Birch told GOOD Morning Wilton in an email on Wednesday.
Editor’s note: The motion made to create the Bonding Committee by the Board of Selectmen was less specific than what Birch described. First Selectman Toni Boucher made a motion to “form a bonding committee to review and share information with
the CFO and Board of Finance on bond issuances….” There was nothing specific about financial modeling.
Debate Over the Bonding Committee’s Makeup
Despite the idea for a Bonding Committee originating with Birch and that its purpose is to perform a function the BOF has traditionally overseen by itself in the past, the Board of Selectmen will be the body overseeing the committee. Birch had to select who would represent the BOF and submit any names to First Selectman Toni Boucher.
At the December meeting, Birch nominated new BOF member Kari Roberts to serve on the committee, which was originally intended to also include one member each from the BOS and the Board of Education. Before the meeting ended, however, new BOF member Kim Healy, a former CPA, asked to also serve on the committee.
“You need people who understand finance,” she told Birch.
Though Birch made a sly remark that the more people that are on a committee, the less they get done, he did make a recommendation to Boucher that she form a six-person Bonding Committee and he submitted both Roberts’ and Healy’s names as the two BOF representatives.
At the most recent BOS meeting on Jan. 5, however, Boucher asked for and got approval from the BOS sanctioning only a three-person committee, with one representative from each board. The selectmen chose new member David Tatkow for the Bonding Committee, and Boucher only put forward Roberts’ name from the BOF.
“I cannot comment on why a decision was made by Toni nor anyone else,” Birch said in an email to GOOD Morning Wilton. “I did recommend at the inception a committee of six, with two from each board.”
He told the BOF that he understood that Chair Ruth DeLuca was going to propose herself and BOE member Lori Bufano as members, but DeLuca, asked for confirmation by email, denied this.
“Once the BOE receives notice of the committee’s number and charge, as voted/approved by the BOS, then appointment(s) will be made,” she said in an email to GMW on Jan. 14.
At the BOF meeting, Healy appeared surprised to find that she had been omitted from the committee, which she suggested didn’t really seem to need anyone on it from the BOE at all as its function is finance-based.
Healy asked Birch to publicly restate for the record that he had asked Boucher for a six-person committee at Tuesday’s meeting. [GMW reached out to Healy, who declined to comment about the Bonding Committee discussions.]
“There’s been a lot of conversation around the makeup of the Bonding Committee,” Birch responded, “and based on the conversations that I’ve had in the last two days, three days, that’s still something that I think is going to [be] some conversation at the next Board of Selectmen meeting.”
During the discussion at the BOS meeting on Jan. 5, the selectmen wondered whether having just a three-person committee made up of only Democrats — Roberts from the BOF, Tatkow from the BOS, and theoretically DeLuca from BOE — would be permissible or violate minority representation rules.
They discussed whether new BOS member Matt Raimondi — a Republican and the former BOF chair who actually crafted the model currently used by officials to map out short- and long-term bonding plans — might be a good fit and bring Republican representation to the Bonding Committee at the same time.
Raimondi was absent from the Jan. 5 BOS meeting and did not take part in the conversation. [GMW has reached out to Raimondi for comment and will update the story accordingly.]
Birch told GMW on Wednesday, that as he understands it, “… [the] BOE may select a Republican for the committee but it should be confirmed with BOE.”
Questions of Oversight and Authority
Makeup aside, BOF Vice Chair Rudy Escalante raised questions about whether a Bonding Committee was even necessary, or if it wouldn’t wrest some decision-making from the hands of the BOF.
“In doing this Bonding Committee, we have only one representative — we don’t have the majority, say, and we are delegating one of our core responsibilities,” Escalante said.
“I think that’s our role, or part of that is our role,” he said of examining bonding scenarios.
“I think what we should do — and maybe a committee should be formed for this — is say, ‘Here are our guidelines in terms of bonding,'” Escalante said, with the financiers using their expertise to devise the model and then to hand it over to the BOS.
“We can provide guidelines to the town and to the Board of Selectmen and say, ‘If you follow these basic guidelines, you’re going to be okay in general. If you don’t follow those, then you might have a problem with us.'” Escalante added.
During the budget process, the BOS makes the final decision on what bonding projects to bring to the Annual Town Meeting for approval. While the BOF doesn’t have say over what projects are brought forward for the vote, it is able to say whether or not it endorses each project.
Escalante also praised Raimondi for the work he did as former BOF chair in creating the current model for bonding with a forecast outlook based on different bonding scenarios.
While Birch acknowledged the value of Raimondi’s work, he said a Bonding Committee would present an opportunity to build off of Raimondi’s model “with more bells and whistles.”
Escalante also suggested that, in light of changes the town has made in recent years regarding what it has including for bonding, it might be worthwhile for the BOF to establish some guidelines on what is suitable for bonding.
“The best example of that is roads,” he said. “The decision to bond the roads was made before any of us were on the Board of Finance. I understand why we do it (but) we as a group should say that’s something that’s a good idea or a bad idea going forward.”
He also pointed to other items that have been bonded in the past — including DPW trucks, snowplows and firetrucks, suggesting the BOF may want to opine on whether it’s suitable for the town to consider them for bonding.