A sparse audience of mostly local political leaders and family members did not dissuade any of the eight residents seeking to be elected or reelected to the Board of Finance from digging into specific and detailed questions and delivering often detailed and thoughtful answers during The Newtown Bee’s annual pre-election forum at Edmond Town Hall on October 20.

The event was moderated by Bee Editor Curtiss Clark, who said that while the newspaper’s previous local pre-election forums have focused on top-of-ticket races, the 2015 First Selectman and Board of Selectmen races this November are all uncontested.

“With four veteran finance board members — Chairman John Kortze, Vice Chairman Joseph Kearney, Michael Portnoy, and Harrison Waterbury — all retiring from service this year, we believe the Board of Finance race is a key one for taxpayers this year,” Mr Clark said.

Following a meet and greet in the theater lobby, the eight contenders — Democratic incumbent James Filan, along with newcomers Aaron Carlson, Kelley Johnson and former finance board co-chair and current selectman and Newtown Borough Warden James Gaston, Sr — took their seats beside Republican incumbent John Godin and newcomers David Ruhs, Mark Boland, and Sandy Roussas.

A full audio recording of the forum is available here. The newspaper has also created candidate profiles for all of those running for election this season, including the Board of Finance, in which several of the candidates reiterate positions and ideas they articulated at Tuesday’s forum.

Over the course of almost exactly 90 minutes, the finance board candidates responded to questions developed by the newspaper’s editorial team as well as from local residents. Following a three-minute opportunity to introduce themselves and briefly articulate their individual platforms, the candidates each responded to questions involving:

*School facilities and whether candidates believe that declining enrollment should be a driving criteria for closing or mothballing a local school.

*Their impression of how the finance board differs from other leading town boards, and whether any believe that local financial management or finance board practices should be improved, modified, or scrapped.

*Which, if any, on the ballot believe the town should maintain or try to lower the current debt cap on bonding for large capital projects.

*Whether any or all support future bonding requested in the five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the demolition of large and unusable buildings at Fairfield Hills.

Each candidate was permitted up to two minutes to respond to each question, and each responded using almost all their allotted time on the question at hand. None of the candidates used any of their time to rebut previous answers or statements made by others during the course of the forum.

The interactions and responses from all participants never evidenced significant disagreements, and for the most part, the contenders appeared to agree that the issue of closing a school rested exclusively with the Board of Education and school district leaders.

The panel was generally in agreement that the finance board is and should remain an apolitical and advisory body, although Mr Gaston pointed out that in Newtown’s somewhat unique situation with a Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, and a Legislative Council, the finance board does possess limited policymaking wherewithal.

All of the candidates were in consensus that Fairfield Hills was high value community asset, with Mr Filan making a particularly impassioned case for pursuing large-scale demolition of the large and unsalvageable buildings. Ms Johnson was the only panelist who expressed concern that such wholesale demolition could precipitate a stronger push to bring mixed-use commercial development including possible residential facilities to the town-owned campus.

All the candidates offered similar opinions on maintaining the current self-imposed debt cap on borrowing, which is ten percent by policy, with a current commitment to try and keep borrowing at closer to or at nine percent of the annual operating budget.