Key Points:
- Selectmen discussed how Wilton should prepare for housing growth, more renters and changing demands on Town services.
- Officials proposed a post-election meeting involving multiple Town boards and considered forming a BOS audit committee to help implement auditors’ recommendations.
- Selectman Matt Raimondi called for reviewing the Town’s legal costs and testing the market for other municipal law firms.
Why It Matters: Decisions about housing growth, financial oversight and legal representation could shape how Wilton plans for development, manages public money and coordinates priorities across its elected boards.
Wilton’s anticipated growth, shifting needs and changing demographics, and ongoing financial and governance concerns prompted the Board of Selectmen at its Aug. 17 meeting to discuss new approaches and challenges of long-term planning for the Town as they considered what one BOS member called the “urbanization of Wilton.”
Selectman Rich McCarty brought up the term during discussions that linked Wilton’s state of finances with initiatives to put more focused supervision of municipal and school building projects in place. He pointed to an expected increase in renters and the need to consider how municipal services and planning should adapt.
“I think we need to think about this more broadly than just the … immediate projects,” McCarty said, repeating recurring suggestions from residents and elected officials alike that the Town find broader, practical and potentially new approaches to its long-term planning.
Stating that Wilton was seeing an increasing number of renters, he said new considerations were needed to meet their needs. Toward that end, McCarty said that as the Planning and Zoning Commission was already doing work related to a housing commission, perhaps a new designated housing department could come under its purview — something the BOS will examine more closely in the coming days.
Future Agenda Items
The discussion harkened back to an idea Selectman Matt Raimondi suggested while he was still the chair of the Board of Finance — namely, holding a quad-board meeting that would bring the BOS, BOF, Board of Education and P&Z Commission to one table to begin exploring long-term plans and how the different elected bodies could work in unison toward common goals.
Selectman Ross Tartell raised the idea again during selectmen’s reports on Aug. 17, suggesting that either a tri-board or quad-board meeting be scheduled after the November election. He asked First Selectman Toni Boucher to put it on a future BOS agenda.
“We’ll clear the decks with the election and then starting in possibly that second meeting in November, we will be early in the budget process and it might be a good time just to have a discussion,” Tartell said, “to shape things as we go forward.”
Asked by Boucher what he envisioned being discussed at such a meeting, Tartell said he wasn’t exactly sure but thought it important to include the P&Z Commission.
“We haven’t had one for a number of years,” Tartell said. “I added the P&Z primarily because of the housing committee and how that plays out, so we have the growth of the town, how we may partner around that. We might have to talk about the growth on, and pressure on, the town institutions as we grow as a town.”
Tartell suggested there may be objectives that the group could jointly set for each elected body, along with a look at where they could help one another address common concerns. He said he wasn’t entirely sure what the specifics might be but believed it would be a worthwhile meeting.
“I think it’s time,” he said.
Boucher concurred, noting the relevance in relation to McCarty’s comments.
“That makes sense after the election,” Boucher said, “and especially with what Rich brought up with regards to future planning around housing, about rentals.”
“We’re going to have such a substantial increase in [rentals], like 1,200 units,” she said. “It would speak to having a rental committee to adjudicate issues … as well as town growth and how it affects all of our boards.”
Boucher did not specify whether the 1,200 units represented existing, approved, proposed or anticipated rentals, or what authority a rental committee would have to adjudicate disputes.
Tartell suggested it might be worthwhile to have presentations about Wilton’s changing demographics.
“As we get a little closer, we can do that planning and see what objectives we want to achieve at that meeting,” he said.
Another Audit Committee
With the BOF announcing that it would not give any BOS members voting status on its proposed audit subcommittee, Tartell suggested that the BOS also create its own subcommittee to assist with carrying out the auditors’ recommendations.
Boucher was initially opposed to the concept but Tartell suggested that Chief Financial Officer Dawn Savo could, in essence, lead their subcommittee, with the BOS helping execute the recommendations.
“It’s how you structured the committee,” Tartell said, “so that Dawn, in a sense, runs the committee and the board is likely in a supportive role.”
Boucher said she liked that idea, as did Raimondi.
“This is just a way to show the auditors, to show Moody’s, that we’re taking it seriously,” Raimondi said, “that we’re doing our work to make sure it gets done, and translates whatever their recommendations are … in conjunction with the employees.”
Legal Costs and Town Counsel Questions
Another topic Raimondi said he wanted placed on the next BOS agenda is an informational review of the town’s rising legal costs and whether officials should consider exploring alternatives for other law firms for town counsel.
“We’ve had the same law firm for a decade,” Raimondi said of Bercham Moses, which provides legal services to several area municipalities.
Over the past year in Wilton, some of the firm’s attorneys’ opinions have been questioned by some elected officials, particularly on the Board of Finance. Most recently, BOF Chair Tim Birch strongly disagreed with an opinion from a Bercham Moses attorney that the BOS did not need BOF approval to transfer funds between departments while reconciling the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
“I wonder if we should go out and test the market,” Raimondi said.
Boucher did not favor the idea, noting that their contract is renewed every two years and that the matter could be considered in the future.
Raimondi pressed the idea, pointing to recent legal expenses have greatly exceeded the Town’s budget.
“The reason why I wanted to bring it up, I’m just trying to think of the cost of it,” he said. “Maybe it is a square deal, but I think talking to other folks out there and understanding where the market is, it’s just information.”
