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FAIRFIELD, Conn. ? To help our readers prepare for Election Day, The Daily Fairfield sent five questions to each of the candidates on the November ballot. The following response is from Eric Newman, a Democrat running for the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) in District 7.
Why should people vote for you?
Our community needs finance professionals to volunteer their services during this next phase of the economic recovery. Who better to serve on the RTM then a CPA with corporate and government accounting experience.
My first accounting and business law classes occurred while attending Fairfield High School. Since then I have been part of the corporate finance and accounting teams at Price Waterhouse, IBM, Royal Bank of Scotland. My government accounting experience began four years ago, representing the North Stratfield PTA and the PTA Council at the budget meetings.
Today, I provide accounting and fiscal oversight for a large municipality with business operations in public safety and homeland security, health care, water pollution and solid waste management, construction and development, education, and pension fund asset management.
What are the biggest issues facing Fairfield?
Keeping everyone working together to ensure our community recovers from the extended economic downturn. We need to think out of the box to find other revenue sources to fund investments in education, technology and infrastructure. At the same time we need to make long-term structural changes to long-term contractual obligations, and provide tax relief to the most vulnerable members of our community.
Other issues that need to be addressed include creating business redevelopment districts in the King Highway and parts of the Post Road. Legislation needs to be enacted to provide investment tax incentives to developers and small businesses that put their capital at risk and participate in transforming these sections into vibrant communities with shops, restaurants and affordable housing. This will create local jobs and improve the long term financial outlook of the town.
Is Fairfield going in the right direction -- If you are an incumbent, what were your biggest achievements? If you are a challenger, what has your opponent done wrong while in office?
Fairfield has been operating in the right direction. We have a new train station about to open, a new beach pavilion that will bring in additional revenues, and a world class education system that keeps attracting new families to our community. With many current RTM members not returning, it has created an opportunity for me to give back to my hometown as well as bring my professional financial management and governance experience to the body.
What would you do to involve your constituents in your decision-making process?
Serving on variety of community boards, coaching and attending youth sporting events, I am out in the community and listening. Elected officials need to be accessible to the public.
When a hot topic is on agenda, we need to respect the publics time. The current public comment process needs to change. I would seek to give the public the opportunity to speak their concerns on the issues at the beginning of the night. This way elected officials hear from community at 7:45 p.m., not at 11 p.m.
We also need to invite expertise in the community to give their perspectives and have a dialog at the subcommittee level. I will also advocate we require all handouts be provided to everyone who is interested in participating and observing the meetings. This would include introducing legislation to require all town body documents to be posted on the website 48 hours prior to the meeting.
Our community is very educated and active and allowing them to be a participant in the process will strengthen our community.
How can Fairfield avoid another Metro Center, i.e., a project that goes severely over budget? What will you do to prevent it? Be specific.
Budgets are projected estimates at a given point in time. Budgeting is a management tool to measure and control financial aspect of a project/organization. The town fiscal oversight bodies and committees need to be reviewing budget to actual results on a quarterly basis and then taking mitigating actions. Senior town officials and employees need to be held accountable.
The town CFO and BOE CFO need to be part of the overall financial oversight process. Both need to have a non-voting seat at the BOF meeting table, pension fund meetings and any other board meeting where the town will be providing a financial support. This will allow them both to provide their professional insight and financial leadership.
It will also change the tone at the top. Everyone will be stakeholders in the financial compliance oversight and budgetary accountability process of the town.
Find all of our candidates Q&As here.
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