Sheluck On Sheluck––

GOP Challenger Defends His Business Record And Asserts His Case For Leadership

By Jan Howard

Newtown voters used to the familiar cast of characters that populates Newtown’s political stage have been presented with a less familiar name at the top of the Republican ticket in this year’s local elections. Bill Sheluck, Jr, enjoyed some prominence two years ago as chairman of the Charter Revision Commission, but this year his challenge is to let the voters of Newtown know who he is and what he stands for before they go to the polls on November 4. He hopes those voters will help him unseat Democratic incumbent First Selectman Herb Rosenthal.

The 62-year-old Greenleaf Farms Road resident is a retired banker who currently serves on the board of directors of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (He was a high school friend of Barnes & Noble’s legendary founder, CEO, and Chairman Leonard Riggio when they both attended Brooklyn Technical High School in the 1950s.)

Mr Sheluck left his position as president and CEO of the New York-based bank services company Nationar in 1993 when the firm was dealing with losses associated with the acquisition of a unit of Chase Manhattan Bank and the conversion to new technology. Reports at the time in The American Banker and Faulkner & Gray U.S. Banker cited an unnamed source “close to the company” as saying Mr Sheluck had been forced to resign as president and CEO as a result of the “botched” acquisition and the technology changeover.

In an interview this week, Mr Sheluck addressed that chapter in his career, acknowledging that a disagreement with the firm’s board of directors led to his departure from Nationar.

He said he had some “pretty good years” at Nationar. The privately held data processing firm, which was owned by a group of New York-based thrift institutions, did not do business with the public. Founded in 1933 as a private commercial bank, Nationar provided investment and other services for corporations and financial institutions, such as processing bills, clearing checks, managing money, and doing other technical work, a cost-effective alternative to those institutions doing the work themselves.

“It was kind of a sleepy organization,” he said, which was not very innovative. He said when he took over as president and CEO in 1971, the bank was trying to survive in a very competitive environment. “Banks were getting larger,” he noted, and with technological improvements, smaller institutions could do their own processing.

“We did very well,” Mr Sheluck said, noting he revamped the organization, made acquisitions, developed new products, and changed the perception of the company. “There were record earnings in 1989–90,” he said.

The business was still very competitive, he said. “We had to do things more efficiently. We had to do things another way.”

In 1992 the company went through what Mr Sheluck termed a “rocky period” following its acquisition of a Chase Manhattan Bank unit that processed share drafts and other electronic fund transfers for credit unions.

According to Mr Sheluck, “It was a major undertaking.” The company had problems implementing the business, he noted, which led, he said, to bringing in “outside people to rectify the problems.”

The disagreement came about, Mr Sheluck said, because of the board’s decision to make changes in technology.

“I was a very cost conservative manager,” he said. Any new acquisition, he said, had to save money or create more income. “We didn’t have the luxury of going out and buying new technology. I didn’t agree with the decision, and the board disagreed.”

Mr Sheluck said he had been considering retiring, and in 1993, he left the company.

He took issue with the published reports that suggested the Chase merger was “botched.” He said the problems had been resolved. “When I left things were running smoothly.” He said he also offered his services as a consultant but was never called upon.

On February 6, 1995, Nationar was taken over by the New York State Banking Department when it ran into severe liquidity problems. Later that month, The American Banker reported that seven of the thrift institutions that owned Nationar threatened to sue the institution’s officers and directors for negligence, gross negligence, corporate waste, and breach of fiduciary responsibility unless a settlement was reached. Mr Sheluck was named as a defendant in the suit along with several of the firm’s current and former officials. The lawsuit never materialized.

“When they originally filed suit, I wasn’t part of it,” Mr Sheluck said. “I don’t think it was directed at me.” He said there were things that happened after he left that precipitated the problems in the company.

The State of New York’s Banking Department eventually liquidated Nationar in 1998, paying creditors 100 cents on the dollar.

Mr Sheluck said he was not the cause of the breakup of Nationar and has no relevance to his current quest for the position of first selectman.

“I have a strong background in management and investment,” Mr Sheluck said. “I have a very good understanding of running a business, involving people, and planning. I bring a broad array of experience.”

A Town In Need Of Leadership

Mr Sheluck sees a need in Newtown for leadership. “I can bring my experience to the town,” he said.

Newtown, he said, is a town that is not really managed. “Things kind of happen, and we react to things that happen. Decisions that haven’t been made have cost the town money.”

One of them is the open space issue that has existed for years, he said. “We have land, and that attracts developers. We have never had a policy to purchase open space.” He noted that the state has been giving money to the towns for the past several years to purchase open space, but the town only collected its first check last year.

The lack of a policy friendly to business has meant the loss of major taxpayers, such as Kendro, he said. He said businesses have been saying it has been hard to do business in town.

“We need to sell Newtown for people to come here,” Mr Sheluck said. He noted the town should look at its zoning laws to make it less cumbersome for businesses to locate here. While there might not be an opportunity to save millions of dollars right away, Mr Sheluck said the town should look at industries that are growing and target them. To attract them to Newtown, the town may have to offer incentives. The town also needs to encourage companies to stay in Newtown over the long term, he said.

Mr Sheluck said, “There is no single solution to rising taxes, it’s a question of how we spend the taxpayers’ dollars.” He said people do no’t want to see taxes go up so the town has to manage spending. He said as first selectman he would go in with a fresh eye to “make sure decisions were being made in the most efficient manner.”

Mr Sheluck said he is an advocate of a strong school system. Though as first selectman he would not have any control over the school system, he would work more closely with the school administration to see if there could be some combined approach to spending, such as in maintenance facilities. “We need to work together to use tax dollars more efficiently,” he said.

In regard to union contracts, Mr Sheluck said the town should “try to get the best agreement you can with unions and employees. I don’t know how hard we negotiate.”

In regard to Fairfield Hills, Mr Sheluck said he is concerned about what is included in the agreement with the state. “I would like to be sure we are protected on the environmental side.”

He said he was surprised the town went ahead so aggressively on the master plan before it owned the property. “There may be surprises there for us,” he said. “We don’t know what those things are. We don’t have money to spend on Fairfield Hills right now. The process didn’t have to be rushed.”

Mr Sheluck said, if elected, he would look at elements of the contract with the state.

Mr Sheluck has lived in Newtown for seven years. He and his wife, Amy, are the parents of three daughters. He was born in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn. He earned a bachelor’s of science in economics at Columbia University and completed course requirements at New York University Graduate School of Business but never finished his thesis to earn his master’s. He is a chartered financial analyst.

He has been a member of the Barnes & Noble board since 1993 and is chairman of its audit committee and member of its compensation and nominating committees.

A relative newcomer to politics, he served as chairman of the Newtown Charter Revision Commission in 2000–01. His role, he said was to lead 11 people who came from many directions. “Politics didn’t play in the process. We built a consensus, and I kept the process moving.”

In regard to the budget process and establishment of a Board of Finance, he said, “A number of us felt there was no opportunity for people to massage the numbers. We tried to stretch that time out so issues could be vented.” He said the Board of Finance is a positive element in the budget process.

Mr Sheluck said he thought long and hard about running for public office and talked to his wife and children about changes that would occur in their lives as a result of it. He said he also told them that sometimes it is “important to do something to benefit other people” even though it might be offset by inconveniences in your own lives.

Mr Sheluck said, “When I decide to do something, I give it everything I have.”

He has a separate campaign committee from the Republican Town Committee. According to Connecticut’s finance law, through the town committee he is limited to $1,000 in personal contribution to his campaign. With his own committee, he said, “I can use as much as I need to get the message out. It gives me more financial leverage.”

He said he believes voters will have a clear choice in November. “It’s very important for the first selectman to be out in front of things and drive a process forward.”