RTM Approves Greenwich’s FY26 Budget; But Cuts 2 Items in “An interesting alignment”

On Monday the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting voted to approve the town’s budget in a vote of 196-6-7.

While the RTM cannot add funds to the budget and can only delete, there were two key amendments.

In her WGCH 1490 radio debrief, RTM moderator pro tem Kate LoBalbo said Tuesday morning referred to “an interesting alignment” and a “unified meeting.”

She described the budgets coming from the Board of Estimate and Taxation in recent years as “very lean.”

LoBalbo said the theme of the night was what was not before the body.

She said the reports from three committees – the Budget Overview Committee, Finance Committee and Education Committee – reflected a “a little bit of disappointment in the management of funds and prioritization of funds from our BET.”

BET chair Harry Fisher addressed the Representative Town meeting on May 12, 2025

BET chair Harry Fisher addressed the RTM at the outset.

He said the budget for FY 26 was proposed to be $521 million versus $501 million in the current fiscal year 25 – reflecting a 3.93% increase.

“I note a reduction in capital expenditures to $49.7 million versus a total of $143 million in fiscal year 25. The increase in total department operating budgets, including schools is 3.93% versus 4.7 % in FY25.”

Fisher said the mill rate increase would be kept at 2.81%, or about the same as FY 25, despite a challenging increase in health care costs of about 11%.

“We kept the capital tax levy at a planned level of $61 million,” he said. “The BET anticipates that three or four years out, the financing of projects approved prior to the FY 26 budget before you tonight will challenge the town budget and the tax rate.”

Fisher said some BET members had wanted to tax residents “today” for that future obligation with a higher mill rate.

“That has been consistently rejected,” he said.

Mr. Fisher said a new committee had been formed, to include himself, Finance committee chair Greg Zorthian, Budget Overview Committee chair James Waters, and the town comptroller, with a goal of better planning both operating and capital budgets.

Commenting on the town-owned nursing home, Fisher said The Nathaniel Witherell’s revenue shortfalls over the previous 10 years added up to enough to have built a new school.

“They set a condition on the FY 25 budget that required the Witherell to plan to meet a break-even budget before capital and debt expenses,” he said. “While it presented a plan, it will not be able to meet that objective in the foreseeable future.”

Fisher said it would be his priority to work with the board of the Witherell, the Board of Selectman, and RTM to achieve a better business model for the nursing home.

As for the Greenwich Public Schools budget, Mr. Fisher said the BET had reduced the rate of growth by about $4 million, but, he said, “It still grows by about 3%.”

“I note that the Board of Education achieved half of the reduction at its meeting last Thursday and will meet again this coming Thursday to continue address it,” he continued.

“I believe we are achieving success in leading the BOE to address structural changes in its business model that will have lasting impact in years to come without adversely impacting student achievement.” – Harry Fisher, BET chair

While the RTM can only cut, Education Committee chair Steve Rubin said, “The majority of the delegates and alternates were disappointed about the lack of compromise to find a more workable budget for the BOE. The committee could not support a budget that ignored the strong feelings that our constituents have expressed.”

Law Department Budget Cut

During his Budget Overview Committee report to the RTM, Mr. Waters said his committee had considered a $50,000 cut to the town’s law department budget, but it had failed in a close vote – 5-5-1.

He said the BOC were concerned about extraordinary legal costs including the ongoing lawsuit between First Selectman Camillo and the Board of Education, as well as the Project Veritas investigation initiated in 2022 at the behest of Camillo that cost the town $300,000 in legal fees.

That investigation followed a Project Veritas exposé based on secret recordings of GPS administrator Jeremy Boland where he appeared to boast about discriminating against hiring certain employees for the district.

At the time Camillo ordered the town conduct an investigation though there were already multiple investigations underway including one by CT Attorney General, William Tong, that ultimately determined there was no discriminatory employment pattern or practice in Greenwich Schools.

O’Keefe was later ousted by the board of his company after allegations he used company funds for his personal benefit.

James O’Keefe spoke about the Project Veritas Boland exposé at a press conference outside Cos Cob School on Aug 31, 2022. O’Keefe was embraced by local Republicans and a crowd with posters saying “Educate – Don’t Indoctrinate” and “Clean House.” Photo: Leslie Yager

Waters said the goal of the motion to cut the legal department’s budget was to increase transparency and require a interim appropriations to account for extraordinary future legal costs.

On Monday, Mr. Rubin said the costs of the BOE lawsuit would have to be absorbed by the law department budget, depending on the magnitude.

“The estimate current expenses are $200,000 and growing,” he said.

Mr. Rubin recapped his committee’s discussion on the idea of cutting the law department’s budget.

He said that while several members had expressed displeasure that taxpayer funds were being “wasted” for the BOE lawsuit, the committee rejected the proposal to cut the law department funding in a 1-9-2 vote because members said it was not the choice of the law department to bring the action.

“During this time of budget constraints it’s frustrating to see money wasted,” he said.

Kip Burgweger from Legislative & Rules said his committee members were generally in agreement that the estimated $200,000 in legal expenses today date were “excessive and expressed frustration considering the limited or non existent ability of the RTM and BET to keep the expenses in check, or to influence the parties to resolve the issue mediation.”

Burgweger said town attorney Barbara Schellenberg said she had not considered and not figured the cost of this action when preparing the Law Dept budget and did not expected the action to take so long to resolve.

“She also noted that the law department is conflicted in this matter, so legal counsel is required to be retained for both parties,” he said. “Their counsel has not allowed the town law department to review the legal invoices, so we do not know how the expenses would be handled.”

The RTM vote to cut $500,000 for the project in FY26 passed: 154-49-5.

West Brothers Brook Drainage Project $500,000

Mr. Waters said more study was needed on the West Brother Brook Drainage Project, which he said might not be ready for several years anyway.

The BOC made a motion to delete $500,000 from the West Brothers Brook improvement project in FY26 which passed in a vote of 154-49-5.

Zach Warren argued in favor of keeping that funding.

“It’s important to know that every data point so far that the RTM has been given about the West Brothers Brook Project is based on a 100-year storm. It’s something extremely fair, and if that happens, everything floods.”

“The importance of having the project in the budget is about infrastructure and doing improvements as part of long term planning.”

Temporary equipment outside Hamilton Ave School. March 2, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager

Hamilton Avenue School HVAC

The other RTM vote to cut Monday night had an even broader majority vote.

This was a motion remove the Hamilton Avenue School HVAC capital item for $4 million.

The vote was 180 in favor of the cut, 17 against, and 9 abstaining.

Waters noted his committee voted favorably to cut the the $4 million for Ham Ave School HVAC with its BET release of funds conditioned on a fossil fueled system (rather than refurbishing the existing geothermal system.)

“It wasn’t about the merit for the item, but because the BET has an ability to put conditions releasing funds on capital items,” he said.

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Mr. Waters said, “If the funding is not deleted, the BET’s condition survives, giving the BET the ability to determine specifications for energy systems despite repeated overwhelming input from the BOE and the RTM.”

The BOC voted 9-0-2 to reduce this appropriation and encourage the BET fully fund the project without their condition.

He said the BET’s action served to delay the project, which was unfortunate because it forced the town to continue paying for the temporary HVAC that costs the town $360,000 annually.

Also he noted the BET condition would force the town to discard its significant investment in the geothermal wells at Hamilton Avenue School.

Education committee chair Steve Rubin testified at the May 12, 2025 RTM meeting on the FY26 budget.

Steve Rubin said his Education committee voted 8-1-3 to join the BOC’s motion to approve eliminating $4 million for the Hamilton Ave School HVAC system.

“A year ago the RTM rejected funding for the traditional HVAC system, pending more information using expert studies and analysis from AECOM, experts int he field. These studies were completed and the findings favored using geothermal,” Rubin said.

“This stipulation contradicts the requests, research and findings of the town’s experts and representatives. The Town’s energy management advisory committee, EMAC, recommended using the geothermal system. The GPS director of facilities offered his support for the geothermal system. The RTM passed its SOMR that followed the town’s POCD with an almost unanimous vote for the proper use of sustainable energy going forward.”

Mr. Rubin said geothermal had a substantial track record of success, and there were over 20 schools in CT using geothermal successfully and with cost savings.

“Every delegate in D3 signed a letter to the BET requesting funding approval for the geothermal heating,” he added. “The BOE requested funding for the funding of geothermal to the BET with a 7-1 bi-partisan vote.”

“A lot of time and money has been wasted and we need to act now,” he added.

Keith Damsky shared comments on the HVAC saying, “The experts are for it. The BET isn’t. We can do better than this. Let’s simply cut this arcane condition, look forward to a wiser future, and attempt an interim appropriation for a geothermal system.”

Mark Lewis said the BET was not empowered to make technology decisions, and that his idea of risk management was different from that of the BET chair, who said he preferred not to refurbish the geothermal saying, “Our job is to manage risk.”

“Regardless of how you vote on this, the town is still going to be saddled with this temporary system for some time, at a cost of $1,000 a day.”

The RTM voted to delete the $4 million passed, with 180 in favor, 17 opposed, and 9 abstaining.

After the meeting, Waters said in an email, “The RTM Budget Overview Committee dug deep on the town budget this year, conducting analysis that was not done by the BET. The targeted cuts BOC recommended were for a BET ‘pet project’ with tremendous cost but limited benefit to the community and the BET’s attempt to assert control over energy systems in our schools.”

Waters said he was pleased the RTM rallied around the amendments on an overwhelming and bipartisan basis.

“It demonstrated that the RTM can effectively wield its limited tools to serve as a check to BET overreach. It also sent an important signal: the $4.5 million in amendments approved matches the amount of cuts the BET forced onto the school system.”

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RTM Approves Greenwich’s FY26 Budget; But Cuts 2 Items in “An interesting alignment”

By: greenwichfreepress | May 13, 2025

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