GREENWICH — The town’s powerful finance board elected a new chair Monday night, but he did not have the full backing of his own party.
Harry Fisher, a Republican, was elected as chair of the Board of Estimate and Taxation by a vote of 8 to 4, with most of his party voting for another nominee.
“I look forward to working with everybody,” he said after the vote. “I hope we can have a successful time and I look for great success for the town. It’s my primary interest.”
Republican Karen Fassuliotis nominated Fisher for the position.
“He’s committed to building bipartisan consensus on our board while maintaining core fiscal values that have kept Greenwich the best place to live, raise a family, work and retire,” she said.
The 12-member board is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats and all six Democrats supported Fisher. Republicans got to nominate candidates from their party for BET chair after winning more votes than Democrats during the November election.
Incumbent Nisha Arora was also nominated for the chair and four Republicans voted for her instead of Fisher. These were Arora, who voted for herself, incumbent Leslie Tarkington and newcomers David Alfano and Lucia Jansen.
“I was extremely disappointed at the outcome, since I had majority support from my Republican caucus,” Arora wrote in an email. “Despite the outcome, I am fully committed to working tirelessly for our community with all my heart.”
Jansen, in nominating Arora, said she brings a “fresh perspective to town governance” and that she builds consensus by “bridging partisan gaps for the collective benefit of our residents.”
Fassuliotis was elected to be the vice chair of the BET and the clerk of the board. Like Fisher, she did not receive any votes of support from her fellow Republicans Alfano, Arora, Jansen or Tarkington who all abstained in the votes for vice chair and clerk.
All six Democrats supported Fassuliotis for both vice chair and clerk. She is in her fourth term on the board.
Tarkington also nominated Alfano to be clerk, but he rejected the nomination during the meeting.
Nisha Arora (left), Harry Fisher, Karen Fassuliotis, Lucia Jansen, Leslie Tarkington and David Alfano are the Republican members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation in Greenwich for next two years.
Contributed / Chichi UbinaAfter his election, Fisher briefly listed some of the committee assignments that members would take, but he noted it will take more work to finalize all the assignments for the term.
Fisher did, however, note that he would be joining the BET budget committee and he would become the new liaison to the Central Middle School Building Committee. Both of these positions were held by Arora in the past term.
Fisher ascended to the chairmanship after first serving on the BET from 1992 to 1998. He then returned to the board to fill a vacated position in 2021, but did not seek reelection in that year’s election.
In 2022 Fisher again came back to the board to fill another vacancy after vice chair Michael Basham resigned. Fisher ran for reelection in November and won his own two-year term on the BET.
Dan Ozizmir, the board’s previous chair, did not seek reelection in November after serving just one two-year term.
The BET chair is arguably the most powerful elected position in Greenwich town government, as the chair has the ability to break ties when the board splits 6-6 on votes. The town’s biggest projects, like school construction and major infrastructure work, need approvals from the BET to advance.
The BET sets the town’s budget each spring before it gets approved by the Representative Town Meeting, which can cut items from the BET budget but cannot add to it.
The BET’s Monday meeting was the first for five new members who were elected last year, including Republicans Alfano and Jansen and Democrats Elliot Alchek, Matt DesChamps and Scott Kalb.
All 12 members, including incumbent Democrats Leslie Moriarty, Stephen Selbst and David Weisbrod, were sworn in at the start of Monday’s meeting.
Additionally, the board unanimously reappointed the town’s comptroller Peter Mynarksi and assessor Lauren Elliott to new two-year terms.