Submitted by Aakash Patel
“Do not accept mandate from RTM”. This was the six word stance taken by Harry Fisher, chairman of the Town’s 12-person Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET), during this year’s budget cycle.
Mr. Fisher and his Republican colleagues voted on party-lines to explicitly withhold funds related to a recent law passed by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), the Town’s non-partisan legislature consisting of 230 Greenwich residents.
The BET’s role would normally be to determine how to best finance legislation passed by the RTM. If a select few members of the BET feel their personal preferences outweigh those of the most representative body in Town, and unilaterally decide to nullify ordinances passed by the RTM, then we have no system of checks and balances.
Unfortunately, our First Selectman Fred Camillo joined in this concerning trend last month by explicitly ignoring another resolution passed by the RTM regarding our Town’s long-term capital planning process.
The RTM has two budget-focused committees: Budget Overview Committee and Finance Committee. Each of these committees consist of 12 non-partisan members of the RTM spread across all districts of Greenwich, and primarily consist of financial executives with backgrounds ranging from private equity, banking, tax, accounting, and hedge funds. These committees meet at least eight times a year to discuss in detail the financial ramifications of every action before the RTM, and then communicate those discussions back to the larger body. These committees consist of volunteers who love our Town and have deep experience in creating and financing a budget.
After months of work, both committees came to the conclusion that the Town has no serious capital planning process. Meaning, there is no up-to-date list of upcoming major projects, what they cost, and when they need to be done. Hamill Rink? Right now that’s budgeted at $0, even though we’re actively working towards rebuilding it.
The capital planning process is one that existed under prior administrations, but has since gone by the wayside under Mr. Camillo’s tenure. Hoping to restore some sense of forward planning, the RTM passed a resolution by a resounding vote of 107-32-11 in June, asking Mr. Camillo and Mr. Fisher to present a revamped capital planning process to the RTM in September.
To Mr. Camillo’s credit, a small working group was formed consisting of representatives from the Office of the First Selectman, BET, and RTM. However, the committee only convened three times and the RTM liaisons ultimately felt there was little progress being made at the leadership level, despite best efforts by our civil servants. I attended one of those meetings as a member of the BOC.
Seeing as the September deadline had passed, last week the BOC Chairman asked Mr. Camillo and Mr. Fisher for an update. While I won’t paraphrase their responses, the lack of progress was so evident that the BOC, unanimously and on a bi-partisan basis, passed the following statement (12-0-0):
“The Budget Overview Committee is alarmed at the lack of action to get the Town capital plan back on track despite repeated efforts by the RTM and significant known and unknown capital projects in the queue. Despite commitments in June by the First Selectman that a more transparent plan would be mapped out, based on recent communications it appears nothing has been done to that effect…”
This is a pressing issue for our Town, and if not taken as such risks the low property taxes we all enjoy, and our ability to effectively finance projects that maintain our property values. I’m disappointed that Mr. Camillo and Mr. Fisher do not seem to share this sense of urgency. They instead continue to undermine our town legislature and offer false promises of future progress.
Aakash Patel is a member of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) for District 1, and secretary of the RTM Budget Overview Committee.
Note: The deadline to submit a letter about a candidate in the Nov 4, 2025 municipal election for consideration is Tuesday, Oct 28, 2026 at 12:00 n00n.