David Mannis wins Dem’s nod for finance board seat
STAMFORD — A former president of the city’s Board of Education is the leading candidate to take over the Board of Finance seat left vacant by David Kooris.
David Mannis, 72, was selected by the city’s Democratic City Committee to be the nominee in a Jan. 9 vote.
He garnered slightly more votes than current Board of
Representatives member Ben Lee. The final vote was 20-15, with three abstentions, according to DCC Chairman Josh Fedeli.
“I think David’s experience mattered,” Fedeli said, of why Mannis won the nomination. “I think his experience with the school system and Board of Finance in relation to school funding and the publicprivate partnership all played a factor.”
Mannis’ nomination now goes before the board’s Appointments Committee on Jan. 28. After that, the full Board of Representatives will select the winning can
didate at its Feb. 3 meeting.
The vote will take place just a few weeks after the same process played out to fill the seat left vacant by Republican Sal Gabriele.
That vote turned contentious, however, as Republicans on the board chose their preferred candidate, Frank Cerasoli, to run against a nominee, attorney Joshua Esses, favored by Gabriele and the city’s Republican Party.
Fedeli said such a scenario, in which Cerasoli won by a vote of 19-18, is unlikely to play out this time.
For starters, runner-up Lee has already said he does not wish to be nominated from the Board of Representatives floor.
“I have made it clear to leadership that I wanted to go through the DCC process,” he said, in a phone interview Thursday.
Fedeli said Lee’s role on the Board of Representatives was viewed as valuable to the DCC, which could explain his secondplace finish.
Fedeli described Lee as a
“very solid moderate voice on the board who has been able to forge compromise and has been one of the members of that board who has provided some stability and leadership.”
Mannis, former president of the Stamford Board of Education, had sought nomination onto the finance board for the 2019 election, but finished as a runner-up to the three candidates chosen, which included two incumbents. All three won seats on the board.
Now, one of those two incumbents, David Kooris, is leaving to take the position of president of the Stamford Downtown Special Services District.
Mannis said he was excited about the prospect of joining the board.
“The Board of Finance enjoys a reputation of being strong thinkers and they add prudence and value to what goes on,” he said.
He said one of his goals is to help run a more cooperative government, something he says he accomplished as the president of the Board of Education for two years.
“The board was extremely successful in terms of being cohesive,” he said of his time there.
Mannis was elected in 2015 and was appointed board president in 2017. He lost his seat to challenger Jackie Pioli in the 2018 election.
He said his experience on the school board will be beneficial to the finance board, especially since more than half of the city’s budget is made up of the school system’s budget.
“It’s the half that’s devouring everybody’s thoughts,” Mannis added.
The school board is currently grappling with building maintenance problems after mold was found in many of the school’s schools, leading to one elementary school closing down.
For Mannis, who was on the school board just as the mold issue was developing, a stint on the board of finance would signify a second chance.
“It’s a chance for me to get another shot at solving the problems that were unfolding the last six months when I was in office,” he said.