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Madison Boards Elect New Chairpersons, Committee Members

Following the recent municipal elections, the major town boards have added new members and elected new chairpersons. As some of the boards now have a new party majority or a split majority, both the Board of Education (BOE) and the Board of Finance (BOF) appointed a chair and a vice chair from opposing parties.

For the Board of Selectmen (BOS), First Selectman Tom Banisch remains the leader of the board, but following the departure of former selectman Bob Hale, the board appointed Selectman Bruce Wilson acting first selectman. Wilson is now tasked with filling in for Banisch if or when Banisch is not present. Additionally, the board re-appointed Wilson and Selectman Scott Murphy to the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) committee.

The annual capital needs of the town—which includes spending on things like fire and police vehicles or major building, field, or road maintenance—are compiled in the CIP and voted on in the budget referendum each year. The CIP program is designed to create one comprehensive planning document for all of the town and public school’s capital needs for the next five years and evaluate possible funding options. The CIP Committee is a subcommittee of the BOF and is comprised of two voting members from the BOE, BOF, and BOS.

For the BOE, Democrat Alison Keating was named chair and Republican Jessica Bowler was named vice chair. Both women are seasoned members of the BOE and Keating took in the most votes out of all of the BOE candidates in the recent election.

Prior to Keating being named chair, BOE member Katie Stein (D) made a comment about fellow board member Seth Klaskin’s desire to be chair.

“Ordinarily the board would take this opportunity to recognize the most senior member of the majority party to nominate as chair,” she said. “On our board that is Seth Klaskin…Seth has long been interested in leading our board and now that time has come. Unfortunately the timing of such an opportunity is not optimal for Seth due to his work commitments and, true to type, Seth has chosen to forgo the nomination of chair to put the needs of the town above his personal aspirations.”

The board appointed Keating and board member Galen Cawley to the CIP, a committee that is likely to be of great importance to the BOE as all school renovation items will now have to flow through the CIP following the defeat of the September schools realignment referendum.

For the BOF, newly elected member and BOE veteran Jean Fitzgerald (R) was named chair and incumbent member Bennett Pudlin (D) was named vice chair. With three Democrats and three Republicans now on the board, member Mark Casparino (R) said the balance of power presents great opportunities for continued bipartisanship.

“It is nice to see new faces on the board and it is also nice to have three Democrats and three Republicans here,” he said. “We have a split board, but what is nice about this town is I know we are going to have a nice bipartisan approach this year because that is what we do. We are all neighbors at the end of the day and we all look to do what is best for the town.”

For the CIP, Fitzgerald nominated and the board approved re-appointing Casparino and Pudlin to the committee. The two appointments mean that Fitzgerald, who previously served as chair of the CIP, will no longer be on the committee.

“Because Mark and Bennett had been on CIP already for the BOF and since I was new to the BOF, I thought that they should be able to continue their roles,” she said.

The CIP will elect a new chair at their next meeting.

All appointments were approved unanimously.