BET might still probe 2017 campaign
GREENWICH — The 2019 municipal election is over, but the Board of Estimate and Taxation may still form an investigative committee to look into the 2017 campaign.
BET Chair Jill Oberlander said Tuesday she will again place the item on the agenda for the BET’s meeting on Nov. 18 and intends to nominate new members for the committee after her previous attempt to do so was defeated last month.
“I am reaching out to possible participants and hope to have the proposed composition by later this week,” Oberlander said. “I take the work of the BET seriously. A committee comprised of four experienced and highly respected members of the Greenwich community was proposed following the Sept. 23 meeting, and was rejected by the BET” in October.
The committee would investigate the actions of Oberlander and her fellow BET Democrats Leslie Moriarty, David Weisbrod, Jeff Ramer and Beth Krumeich. The five were fined $1,000 each over the summer by the State Elections Enforcement Committee for violating campaign finance laws in the 2017 election in which Democrats won control of the BET for the first time in town history.
The SEEC fined a sixth BET Democrat, Tony Turner, a total of $52,000, but the committee will not be looking into him.
Republicans — and Turner — had pushed to create the committee before this fall’s elections, but Oberlander called it an “outrageous political stunt.”
Turner was the only Democrat in 2017 to submit paperwork with the state to form a campaign committee that could raise more than $1,000. He ultimately spent $213,294.56 during the 2017 election cycle, which included a $15,000 donation from Turner and a $200,000 loan from him. The money was used to benefit all of the Democrats running for the BET.
The SEEC said that constituted a violation of state law. While Turner has insisted that the other Democrats were aware of what he was doing, they have all said they were following his guidance and thought it had been approved. The SEEC said Oberlander, Moriarty, Weisbrod, Ramer and Krumeich committed “unintentional” violations.
Turner has also insisted he was told by the SEEC that his actions were proper and that he was following its advice.
Forming a committee
The BET committee would look into the SEEC investigations that led to the fines.
Oberlander did not say whom she would nominate at next week’s meeting. But she said she was attempting to fulfill the motion to create the committee despite the rejection of her first slate of nominees.
Last month, Oberlander nominated four residents to the committee: former Republican First Selectman James Lash, who twice
served on the BET; former BET Democrat William Finger; Bruce Angiolillo, a member and former chair of the town’s Harbor Management Commission; and Representative Town Meeting member Mareta Hamre, past pastor of the First Church of Round Hill.
But all four were defeated by votes of 75 by the 12member BET. All six Republicans and Turner voted against the nominees. They said they objected to the nominees because they were not current board members, which is what they said they wanted in their original motion.
BET Republican caucus chair Michael Mason said Tuesday he “cannot support” a committee made up entirely of nonBET members.
“If (Oberlander) wants to do a mix, I’d have to think about it,” he said.
Oberlander said, “It is not for me to hypothesize the intent of the members who proposed the investigation, or who voted to reject the qualified committee members that were presented.”
Turner supports motion
In September, Turner also voted with the BET Republicans to call for the committee to be formed, saying that an investigation would allow for the facts to come out. On Tuesday, Turner called for the BET to follow the September motion and appoint a special committee.
“I don’t see this committee as having anything to do with the election,” he said. “The people deserve the truth, the facts, and they have yet to be provided even though (the other BET Democrats) have been given multiple opportunities to do so.
“The public trust has been betrayed and we need to work aggressively to immediately restore it so we can move ahead with the work of Greenwich with integrity and strong ethics,” Mason said.
He also rejected the notion that the committee was politically motivated, although he noted that the timing so close to the election made it seem political.
“I have always said from the getgo that there are vital things to be learned here by all candidates running for office, no matter what political party they’re in,” Mason said.
This all comes in the wake of big election victories for Greenwich Republicans last week. Republican Fred Camillo was elected first selectman with more than 57 percent of the vote over Oberlander, and the GOP took back the majority on the BET by a blowout margin.
The BET had two contentious meetings about forming the committee, with a visible split of the BET members. Tempers flared at the meeting in September when the committee was formed and at the October meeting, when all of Oberlander’s nominations were rejected.
The BET Democrats have opposed the committee, criticizing it as a partisan move by BET Republicans leading up to the elections. Last month, Weisbrod said it would be wrong to use the BET for a “show trial” and said the finance board was “being used in a partisan way, the effect of which is to undermine the trust and good faith the members need to have to best serve our town.”
Next week’s meeting will be Oberlander’s last as chair. Despite losing the race for first selectman, Oberlander was one of the top three votegetters and will be sworn in as a member of the Board of Selectmen on Dec. 1.
On Tuesday, she said that she expects to resign her BET post effective 11:59 p.m. Nov. 30, which would create a vacancy. Two Democrats, Laura Erickson and Miriam Kreuzer, were elected last week to replace Oberlander and Turner, who did not run for a new term. They are scheduled to take office when the new BET terms begins in January.
But Oberlander said she would add an item to the BET’s agenda for Nov. 18 so Erickson, a former chair of the Board of Education, could take office Dec. 1. Kreuzer is a current member of the RTM and cannot hold both positions until her RTM term expires at the end of December. It is unclear who will succeed Oberlander as chair for December, although Ramer currently serves as vice chair.