Personal Information: I have lived in Newtown for 14 years. My wife Maureen and I have three sons, Adam and Brian, both students at Newtown High School, and Patrick, a seventh grader at the Middle School. I went to Wesleyan University where I majored in government and the University of Connecticut School of Law. I have been in private practice in Danbury for the past 27 yeas.

I am an incumbent member of the council, serving on the Ordinance Committee. In addition, I am on the Board of Trustees and a past president of Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Association. I’m a member of St Rose Church. I belong to the Newtown Chamber of Commerce.

What personal qualities do you have that you believe will benefit the Legislative Council and the community it serves? I consider myself to be a thoughtful, caring person, with an analytical mind (a lawyer by training and profession) and a well-developed sense of humor. Being thoughtful is an important quality in a member of the council as it faces a variety of complex and simple decisions. Knowing what is important and what is not is critical to the job.

I care about the community I live and raise my family in. My roots are deeply set here (a tree my son Brian and I raised from seed is 30 feet tall). My mother-in-law was born and raised in town. I grew up in Danbury. My neighborhood in Dodgingtown is a wonderful mix of young and old and in-between.

I’m analytical. I can review and analyze facts and arguments. I serve as trial referee in the Danbury Superior Court and am used to making decisions based on facts and evidence.

Finally, the ability to laugh and find humor in many places is important.

What do you believe is the council’s biggest challenge over the next two years? Leaving aside the questions of taxes and growth, I think the biggest challenge the council will face is the reintegration into the life of the community of the Fairfield Hills property. We can’t sit idly by and let the buildings continue to deteriorate as we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (assuming we match the state) to maintain them. I believe some commercial use, especially of the smaller buildings like Newtown Hall, is warranted. We need to make decisions about which buildings to demolish sooner rather than later to save some of the expense of maintenance and insurance. Finally, we need to preserve as much of the open space as we can, whether in the form of ball fields or pasture. We may need it for other municipal purposes in the future.

Limiting tax rate growth: The first step is to understand what drives the increases. There are factors we have some control over and others we do not. I believe some of the factors are: cuts in federal support for states and towns; programs that are mandated by the federal government which are not adequately funded (“No Child Left Behind,” Special Education); cuts in state aid to cities and towns forcing increased reliance on local property taxes; the need to maintain the town’s infrastructure and physical assets including roads, town buildings, and schools; the costs of educating a growing population of school children; the shrinking percentage of property taxes paid by commercial taxpayers.

What can the Legislative Council do to limit the growth of Newtown’s tax rate? There is little the Legislative Council can do to directly impact the first three points above. The Legislative Council has authorized suit against the state when it failed to live up to its obligations. All taxpayers need to lobby their state and federal legislators.

As far as the fourth point is concerned, the council, with the help of the Board of Finance, should do a cost-benefit analysis of all major expenditures. It must ask the questions: Is a particular project necessary? Can we defer it? What is the cost of curing the problem versus treating the symptoms? We can save money.

The best way to control the cost of education is to find a way to control growth of the population of school-age children. There is a direct correlation in the number of students and the costs of educating them. More students mean more teachers and more classrooms. We can affect the population growth indirectly by limiting the amount of land available for development.

A major commitment to acquiring open space can help, not immediately, but in the future.

Pursing other incentives such as easements, sale of development rights can also help. We should encourage the Planning and Zoning Commission to be as stringent as possible with subdivision of property.

School projects have to bear the same scrutiny as other town projects.

The council should encourage the town government to continue to support economic development like Curtis Industrial Park and SCB Office Park. Projects like these will help limit the growth of the tax rate.