By Sentinel Staff
On Monday, the candidates for First Selectman and Selectman answered questions offered by the League of Women Voters in their Board of Selectmen debate.
First Selectman Debate
The starkest contrast in Monday night’s League of Women Voters of Greenwich forum came not on civility, traffic, or even the schools—but on how to pay for the town’s biggest projects. Republican First Selectman Fred Camillo urged caution on borrowing to preserve Greenwich’s ultra-low mill rate, while Democratic challenger Anthony Moore argued the town should use debt far more aggressively to modernize infrastructure and avoid budget shocks.
Moore framed the issue directly. “Pay as you go is a bad way to be doing large capital projects.” He criticized the current approach of five-year bonds preceded by short-term notes, saying, “If we had done longer-term bonding for Central Middle School and for Old Greenwich School… our cash flow would be greater. We are right now facing a little bit of a cash crunch…”
Camillo reiterated his long-standing preference to limit debt and guard the tax base. “I do not want to pile debt on the next generation because we didn’t inherit that and that would be really selfish to do it to the next generation,” he said. While acknowledging that “you can amend” Greenwich’s historically conservative financing practices, he warned against abandoning them: “You don’t want to ever throw it out because then you’re no better than the rest of the state or a lot of those cities that have failed by doing that.”
The exchange encapsulated a broader governing divide: Moore pressing for a formal, public, long-horizon capital program that leans on 20- to 30-year bonds, and Camillo emphasizing incremental, pay-as-you-go or short-term approaches, supplemented by grants and public-private partnerships, to maintain affordability.
Budget Process, BOE Dispute and the “Bully Pulpit”
Moore tied his borrowing argument to a wider critique of the town’s budget process, pledging to intervene earlier between the Board of Education (BOE) and the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET). “As first selectman, I will step in way earlier and I will lead from the front,” he said. “I will work with my party in the BET, my caucus and even the other party so that we can settle these things… in a collaborative way early on.”
He also said he would avoid litigation among town bodies. “I will never sue the school board. I just won’t do that… Litigation should be a last resort, not a first resort,” he said.
Camillo rejected the suggestion that his office initiated litigation in the well-publicized BOE vacancy dispute. “They came to me… They knew that after 30 days, if they didn’t pick a chair… it would come before the Board of Selectmen,” he said, contending Democrats on the Board retained counsel first. “We did not move to sue them… but we were forced into a difficult position.” On the broader communications breakdown last budget cycle, he added, “I’m very confident [the incoming BET] are going to work in a much more civil manner and be much more open with dialogue.”
Planning vs. Pivots
Moore made capital planning—both substance and sequencing—the centerpiece of his platform. “The first thing I would prioritize is the prioritization process… It doesn’t cost money to plan and prioritize. It’s the fiscally responsible thing to do,” he said. He proposed reviving a structured rubric used under a prior administration to rank projects and keep “shovel-ready” designs on the shelf: “Right now we don’t do enough design plans… [so] we can act on them when we want to.”
Camillo said rigid multi-year lists can become stale and that Greenwich must be able to “pivot” when emergencies— like Central Middle School—demand it. “When you put together a capital project, you’ve got to be able to pivot… God forbid tomorrow something could happen and we have to pivot and reprioritize.” He added that capacity, not just dollars, constrains the timeline: “Do we have the human capital to execute?”
Still, he endorsed continued five-year planning and touted alternatives to local taxation: “We fight for grants… [and] public-private partnerships to give the taxpayers relief.” He pointed to the Cohen-funded civic center, and said significant private interest exists for the Dorothy Hamill Rink and Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, contingent on logistics and outside funding for certain relocations.
Havemeyer Building: What to Do, How to Decide
The future of the Havemeyer Building—a prime downtown asset housing BOE offices—surfaced as a test of process and priorities. Camillo argued the site should be redeveloped through a public-private approach and opened for broader public use. “Why are we housing a government entity in one of the most expensive pieces of property in the town in the middle of your commercial district?” he asked, noting task forces he convened recommended options including a hotel concept that would also restore include dinner thater and public spaces. “Something will get done there… people are going to look back and say, ‘What took them so long?’”
Moore criticized how concepts were generated and socialized. “I am not going to have a secret RFP process… and then ask a secret group of citizens to decide which thing to build,” he said. He said he favors an open design charrette to elicit community ideas first—“bring the Havemeyer building back to the people”—and only then issue a solicitation. He also opposed selling off assets “for parts,” and reiterated his financing stance: “We could have built [the civic center] earlier, much earlier… It would have cost a lot less.”
Camillo pushed back that the Havemeyer process involved bipartisan volunteers with real estate, legal and construction backgrounds, public meetings, and extensive public records. “There’s nothing secretive,” he said.
Traffic: Engineer vs. Technology
On congestion and safety, Moore called for reinstating a dedicated traffic engineering role eliminated years ago. “Fifteen years ago, we got rid of the position of traffic engineer… and we are now paying the price,” he said. The job, he argued, would coordinate the “network” and anticipate complications from projects and bridge work. “That’s what you have a… guy being paid for… and all the other neighboring communities [have it], but we don’t.”
Camillo cited operational steps taken with the state and DPW: “We reached out to [ConnDOT] and asked for the smart technology and we got it… first in the state at Exit 3… [and] they came back and said, ‘All of the Post Road is going to get the smart technology within the next 12 months’,” he said, while acknowledging DOT timelines can slip. He said he’s open to staffing ideas—“I’m always open to… a position”—but argued town engineers “are doing their job” and that millions have been invested in sidewalks, crosswalks, and safety infrastructure. “You can’t eliminate traffic… but we can mitigate the congestion.”
Digital Town Hall and Customer Service
Both pledged to modernize resident-facing services. Moore pointed to fragmented logins and paper forms: “You should not have three different passwords… Why can’t we go all electronic on our beach passes?… Don’t you hate finding a form that’s a PDF that you have to print and then drive it back to Town Hall?”
Camillo said building permits will move online in early 2026 and noted recent improvements, including online dog licensing under the Town Clerk. He tied digitization to safety: “We have 6 to 700 people coming in here every day… Lessening the foot traffic is one of my goals,” he said, citing upcoming security hardening.
Public-Private Partnerships and What Drives the Calendar
Camillo leaned into partnerships as a way to preserve the mill rate while advancing amenities. “When I got elected, one of the first calls I got was from Mrs. Steve [Alex] Cohen… ‘Build it’—that was the condition,” he said of the civic center. He said the town now has clear naming and partnership policies and is pursuing gifts for the rink and waterfront park while hunting grants for related site changes. “We’ll get these projects pushed forward,” he said.
Moore said philanthropy should complement, not drive, priorities. “We have started to outsource our planning and prioritization… It’s a little like letting your brother-in-law plan your family vacation. You’re going to end up at the Great Ball of Twine where nobody wanted to go,” he said. He reiterated that an adopted, public capital plan—funded with longe-rterm bonds—should set the sequence, with private dollars layered in afterward.
Schools, Safety and the Mill Rate
The candidates returned often to education and affordability—Moore from the vantage of predictable, plan-driven investment; Camillo from the lens of tax stability and intergovernmental coordination.
Moore said protecting schools is “fiscally responsible,” tying student outcomes to property values, and again criticizing the late-stage changes in last year’s budget. “We know it was [a shock] because 1,500 people wrote letters to the BET,” he said. He connected that experience to his financing plan: “Fiscal responsibility can do both things—it can keep our taxes low and improve our quality of life,” by smoothing cash flow with 20- to 30-year bonds.
Camillo defended Greenwich’s broader record—safety, open space, and rankings as an A+ community—while drawing a bright line on taxes. “We want people to stay here… almost a third [of residents] are in the ALICE category… A quarter of our kids are on free and reduced lunch… We’ve always been a diverse community. We want to keep it that way,” he said. “We can get projects done and keep taxes affordable.”
Closing Contrast
Moore cast his candidacy as a bid to usher in a new financing era and a more intentional planning culture. “We are at a crossroads… If we want to preserve our low mill rate and maintain our quality of life, we need to usher in a new era of fiscal responsibility and leadership,” he said. “I will listen, I will lead, and I will act.”
Camillo asked voters to weigh records over rhetoric. “As a candidate you have three things: your record, your vision, and your word… You are what your record says you are,” he said, citing grants, partnerships, technology upgrades, and a low mill rate through pandemic and floods. “We will keep pushing Greenwich forward… but we will not slip.”
Bottom line: Both candidates want better planning and faster delivery of major projects. Where they part is how to pay for it. Moore says Greenwich should borrow like most towns do—on long maturities—to stabilize cash flow and get ahead of needs. Camillo says Greenwich should be selective with debt, lean harder on partnerships and grants, and guard the mill rate for seniors and working families. The choice for voters is less about whether to build—and more about how to finance what’s next.
Second Selectman Debate
In a brisk, issues-dense exchange hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greenwich, Selectwoman Lauren Rabin and former State Rep. Rachel Khanna sketched sharply different theories of town leadership while agreeing on several priorities, including recruiting volunteers, improving pedestrian safety, and strengthening long-term capital planning.
Rabin, the Republican incumbent running for re-election as Selectwoman, opened with a blend of biography and incrementalism. “Greenwich is a community that we are all proud to call home,” she said. “Over the past six years, I have worked every day to keep our town strong, keeping taxes affordable for all and making our neighborhoods safer, supporting our schools, and preserving the qualities that make Greenwich special. I know how to get things done because I’ve been doing it, not with headlines or partisanship, but with collaboration and results that residents can see and feel.”
Khanna, the Democratic challenger and a former state lawmaker, argued for a more aggressive, outward-facing posture from Town Hall. “I want to listen. I want to hear from everybody,” she said. “As state representative, I worked across the aisle with my colleagues on legislation. I even broke with my party on some votes when it was in the best interest of constituents in the town.” She added later, “Leadership should not be a spectator sport.”
How to Fill the Board and Commission Seats
Asked how to better inform residents about openings on volunteer boards and commissions, both candidates praised the town’s deep bench of expertise and endorsed a more visible, process-driven approach.
Khanna said, “We need to ensure that appointments are based on experience and merit and not patronage. We need more transparencies. We need more opportunities for public input.” She said she would “make those positions, opening positions, known to everyone so we can make sure that we’re attracting the most talent and the best talent to serve our town.”
Rabin, who serves as the Board of Selectmen’s liaison to the Selectmen’s Nominations Advisory Committee, described current practice and stressed balance. “It’s 11 members made up of Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated residents… We have 24 boards, commissions, and committees,” she said, noting that appointees go to the 230-member RTM for final approval. “Every board is balanced that we nominate. It’s balanced between Republicans, unaffiliated, and Democrats.” She said she announces openings at every Selectmen meeting and that members “fan out in the community” to recruit. “Right now we’re looking for people on the Riverside school building committee. It is the fifth school building committee that we are assembling since Fred and I took office in 2019.”
What the Job Is — and How to Measure Success
On the Selectmen’s role, Rabin described it as collaborative and constituent-facing. “We also act as ombudsmen,” she said. “We try to be open to all the residents and understand what you are thinking about, what you care about, what you’re concerned about so that we can bring those… to our board and to the various departments.”
She emphasized statutory duties as the town’s traffic authority and as members of the Police Commission. She also highlighted her push for measurable progress: “We do have a Plan of Conservation and Development… I was excited to lead KPIs for the municipality. How do we know that we’re achieving the goals that we set out to address in our POCD?”
Khanna agreed that listening is central and said she would pair retail politics with planning. “The coffee shops in town have become like my second office,” she said of her legislative tenure. “I also want to focus on working with our first selectman on making a strategic plan for the town because I believe that that’s very important in leading our town into the future.”
Turning Down the Temperature
On political division, Khanna said civility “keeps me up at night,” calling Greenwich “a vibrant and diverse community” where “we should be able to talk to each other.” She pointed to her record: “Not all emails were favorable or respectful, but I listened and I responded respectfully because that’s what leadership is and does.”
Rabin called social media a recurring accelerant and argued for in-person conversations. “I much, much prefer to have a live conversation,” she said. “There is so much more that unites us than divides us.” She cited the town’s resident survey to illustrate differing views that nonetheless overlap: “Thirty percent said you can raise my taxes. Thirty percent said no, cut my taxes, and then the rest was in the middle.”
Energy Costs, EMAC and Who Moves First
Both candidates were asked how to help meet energy-reduction goals. Rabin pointed to the town’s Energy Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) and said its recommendations now inform building projects. “For the five building committees that we are—well, the fifth is in process—there’s an EMAC representative on the building committee,” she said, citing solar and other efficiency measures as examples. “Have we made enough strides? Probably not. Is there room for improvement? Of course.”
Khanna focused on the impact of high electric rates. “Connecticut has among the highest electric rates in the country… This affects all of us, our residents, small businesses, and town government,” she said. She praised solar at the Cohen Eastern Greenwich Civic Center (“will provide 70% of energy needs for the building and will save taxpayers money”) and argued for staffing: “I urged the BET to allocate funding for an energy director focused on energy management and cost reductions… Unfortunately, the position wasn’t funded and our town leadership has been silent and doesn’t have a plan.”
While discussing energy efficiency and local sustainability, Khanna said she would focus on “exploring renewable options and helping residents save on electricity costs.”
However, during her term in the state legislature, she took no recorded action on the largest statelevel factor contributing to high electric bills — Connecticut’s public benefits charge, a mandatory surcharge that adds roughly 20 percent to every ratepayer’s electricity bill to fund state programs.
Critics, led by State Senator Ryan Fazio, have called the charge a “hidden tax,” arguing that it drives up not only household electricity bills but also municipal costs, since public buildings and schools pay the same fee — costs that are then passed on to local taxpayers. Fazio has repeatedly proposed legislation to move the charge into the state’s general fund to reduce ratepayer expenses. Khanna, who served in the General Assembly when those proposals were introduced, neither sponsored nor supported legislation to reduce or repeal the charge and made no mention of it during the debate.
Capital Planning: Take the Long View, or Fix What’s in Front of You?
On the League of Women Voters’ 2023 recommendation for a multi-year capital plan, both said yes—while differing on the diagnosis.
Khanna argued Greenwich has “urgent infrastructure needs” and criticized what she called a “failure of leadership in identifying and prioritizing our capital projects.” She cited Grass Island Wastewater Treatment plant hardening, saying, “DPW… told the BET that they needed $60 million to harden the plant and protect it from sea level rise. The BET cut the item from the budget.” She added, “We need to make a plan. We need to be very strategic in prioritizing the needs of the town and for the future.”
Rabin said the town has used capital planning tools but needs to break down silos. “We did have a robust capital improvement project before any of us took office,” she said. “I think we can collaboratively work together… It’s administration in the school system, it’s our town departments, it’s BET having the conversations not necessarily like March, April, May, but way before.” She added a practical constraint: “It’s not just a money issue… It’s also execution. Do we have the human capital to execute?”
What’s the Biggest Challenge?
Rabin highlighted traffic and state housing mandates she worries would increase congestion. “We have about 20,000 households and 52,000 cars… If we were to add 3,000 units, let’s be conservative, 1.5 cars per unit. That would be another 4,500 cars,” she said, calling for more sidewalks, bike paths, and speed control. She noted a recent speed-limit reduction on Pork Chop Road, adding, “It’s the thing that most affects our quality of life.”
Khanna named “traffic and pedestrian safety, flood prevention and our schools.” On safety, she said, “I secured $6.5 million for the stalled Glenville corridor project” and funding for improvements at Route 1 with Byam and Pemberwick roads. On flooding, she said severe events in Glenville, central Greenwich, Cos Cob and Old Greenwich show the need to “work with our Department of Public Works to make the necessary improvements to protect our neighborhoods, people, and vital town infrastructure.” On schools, Khanna said the budget “was cut by $4 million,” arguing that “a great public school system… protects what’s our biggest investment, our homes.”
There is disagreement over the accounting for the Board of Education budget given last year’s budget cycle ended with at least $2.5 million in excess funds that were requested but not needed — a surplus.
The Board of Education’s requested increase over that budget was another $12 million. That $12 million was trimmed during the BET process by about $4 million relative to the request; town officials note the final appropriation still increased roughly 3% year-over-year and that the prior-year’s Board of Education budget $2.5 million surplus could be carried forward.
The dispute then centers on whether to evaluate the outcome against the BOE’s request or against the prior year’s baseline and how to weigh legally available carry-forwards in assessing program impacts.
Intergovernmental Work: DOT, WestCOG, and Grants
Khanna said she would leverage relationships with the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Western Connecticut Council of Governments (WestCOG) for priority projects. “I’ve built strong relationships with our state leaders… I’m going to commit to working with them,” she said.
Rabin said she already represents Greenwich as a “chief elected officer” at WestCOG and serves on the board of the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency (CIRMA). She described a town strategy of pairing public funds with private dollars and state grants. “Key to many initiatives are resident-run task forces and public-private partnerships,” she said in a later exchange about capital projects.
Debt, Taxes and the “Do We Have the People?” Test
Pressed on financing, Rabin underscored her pragmatic stance. “Yes, we can raise taxes. Yes, we can borrow money,” she said, before adding that execution capacity often dictates pacing: “Do we have the human capital to execute, too?”
Khanna did not argue for higher taxes; she emphasized strategic planning and earlier public input. “We need leaders who will be proactive in planning for the future,” she said. “I want to keep hearing from residents and making sure that they inform me of what their priorities are.”
Process and People
Across topics, Rabin repeatedly pointed to process improvements, cross-department coordination, and measurable outcomes. “We serve as liaisons to various boards, commissions and committees,” she said. “We listen way more than we speak.” She stressed balanced appointments, announced openings, and recurring public updates. “When we’re out in the community, we’re always talking.”
Khanna returned to constituent engagement and strategic direction. “I’ve remained engaged in the community through social media, a monthly email, and organizing community events,” she said. “I want to keep doing that… and making sure that [residents] inform me of what their priorities are.” She paired that with a call for a town-wide strategic plan: “We can’t keep running on autopilot.”
The Closing Frame
Khanna ended with a pitch for “fresh voices.” “We’ve seen enough of ‘plan as you go.’ It’s time to be proactive,” she said. “I’m a public servant at heart… and I humbly ask for your vote to be your Selectwoman.”
Rabin closed by situating her candidacy in a long arc of service. “I have always held myself to a high regard,” she said. “I listen… and I am accessible.” Recalling COVID, she added, “No manual, no road map, no instruction, and we had to navigate through it,” arguing that steady, practical leadership would “keep Greenwich safe, strong, and financially sound.”
