Madison Candidate Profile: Seth Klaskin for Board of Finance

MADISON, CT —Madison’s election season is heating up.

Madison Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Seth Klaskin, 51, is a Democrat running for election to the Board of Finance.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you'd be representing.

No.

Education:

Juris Doctorate, 1996, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center at Touro College, NY (Moot Court Board of Advocates Honors, Student Service Award)
BA History, 1990, University of Pittsburgh (Outstanding Campus Leadership Award)

Occupation:

Software Sales Executive, PCC Technology Inc., a GCR Company (July 2016 – Present)
Director, Business Services Division, Office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut (2008-2016)

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office:

• Madison Board of Education 2007 – Present (12 years) Served twice as Secretary of the Board and Policy Committee Chair, served in several other capacities including current Chair of the Facilities Committee
• Madison Zoning Board of Appeals 2003 – 2007 Elected Alternate
• Madison Democratic Town Committee 2002 – Present Various roles
• Connecticut Data Analysis Technology Advisory Board (DATA Board) July 2018 – Present, Appointed Member - Advise state government on data policy, participated in drafting the CT State Data Plan adopted by the state Chief Data Officer in December 2018 and ratified by the General Assembly in 2019 Session

The single most pressing issue facing our town/district is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing our town is a severe backlog of school facilities maintenance, and this is what I intend to do about it:

In my 12 years serving on the Board of Education, I bore witness to the many years when town leadership kicked the can down the road on school facilities maintenance. Sometimes it was inevitable due to austere times. On other occasions it was the result of a conscious effort to artificially suppress mill rates for the sake of politics. Whether through poor planning or poor leadership, we now face a $100M maintenance backlog over the next ten years. The current plan is to spend that money over the next decade, whereupon we will be left with the same buildings that are 10 years older, still. OR, we can act on bipartisan efforts to find a more appealing alternative.
As Chair of the BOE Facilities Committee, I have worked alongside colleagues of both major parties empaneled into the Tri-Board Working Group to study this problem, gather a tremendous amount of public input, and produce a plan to move our town forward with a bold Facilities Renewal vision. This vision closes our two oldest schools, builds a new elementary school, repurposes Brown into an elementary school for families in North Madison, invests in security and air quality-focused Polson renovations and rebuilds our Town Meeting hall, the Polson Auditorium, into a modern performing arts and community meeting space. It is a phased plan with a smooth fiscal impact that drives value rather than throwing good money after bad.

As a Board of Finance member, I will work hard to give effect to the bipartisan vision of school facilities renewal. A vocal minority of folks will utilize fear tactics and disseminate wild exaggerations to dissuade the majority of voters from supporting the plan at referendum. It will need support getting to referendum, it will need support during referendum, and it will most definitely need continued support and fiscal discipline once it passes referendum. As a BOF member I will advocate for sensible planning and reasonable spending to meet the expressed priorities of the community. The School Facilities Renewal plan is a worthy plan that will save us money over time, ensure smooth, manageable, and predictable mill rates, drive value while maintaining property values, and most importantly, provide secure, healthy, educationally appropriate modern facilities for our children. I commit to supporting it now and to honoring the will of the town after it passes referendum.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

One critical difference between me and some of the candidates seeking this post is that I have served our town for a long time and have a track record. One can research my positions and see that I have employed reasonable approaches and worked with my colleagues across the aisle to do what is right.

One of my opponents has served the town for as long as I have. He has a record that we can consult, as well. I respect Fillmore McPherson for his commitment to service and I find him to be a classic gentleman. But there are some critical differences between us. When it was his turn to lead, Fillmore implemented a management approach that cut corners on important town priorities. Fillmore boasts of his record as First Selectman and as a past Chair of the Board of Finance, yet it was his shortsighted leadership that contributed to the school facilities falling into such a state of need that we now face a $100,000,000 maintenance problem.

The past is predictive, and Fillmore served on the Daniel Hand High School Building Committee that produced our deficient high school, which has a gym that will not support a varsity basketball game because the bleachers open halfway into the court, no varsity locker rooms, a cafetorium with awful acoustics and metal bleachers for seating, and other corners cut.

I honor and respect Fillmore McPherson and his service to Madison. I wish he were seeking appointment to the Beaches & Rec Commission or the Police Commission, which I would wholeheartedly support. But placing him on the BOF again will set the town back.

What sets me apart is that I will practice true, holistic fiscal planning when I am on the Board of Finance. It takes time, effort, and long-range planning to promote progress on community priorities while maintaining our Aaa bond rating and reasonable tax rates. My goal will be to avoid the reflexive “NO” and instead to listen, take public input, and work transparently and collaboratively with other boards to get to “YES” on community priorities.

List other issues that define your campaign platform:

I will insist on transparency and inter-board collaboration when I serve on the BOF. Also, after fighting town hall for a couple years, the majority of town residents seem to favor converting Academy School into a community center. I will work to make sure that the Academy School community center project gets a fair referendum. If it passes, I will work to ensure the project is appropriately funded.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

As a former state manager with divisional budgetary management responsibility and a longtime local BOE volunteer, I have strong public finance credentials. As Director of the Business Services Division for the Secretary of the State, I reduced my annual divisional budget basis by millions of dollars per year. As a lawyer, past two-time Chair of the BOE Policy Committee, current member of a legislative policy advisory committee, and a contributing drafter of several state statutes (including the new CT LLC Act), I also have very strong policy credentials. The Board of Finance is a fiscal planning body, to be sure. But it is also a policy arm in town government, and I have cultivated unmatched policy experience that will help me to hit the ground running on this important board.

The best advice ever shared with me was …

“Don’t take any wooden nickels.” This funny phrase has timeless meaning. It counsels that one needs to guard against being swindled and hoodwinked. When a BOF candidate tells us they want to keep things the way they are, we need to understand what they are really saying and consider whether that is the right approach for our town. As a member of the BOF, I will be a prudent fiscal steward. I will avoid the trap of “less is better” and recognize that sometimes less is just less. Sometimes we need to spend that nickel to save a dime (like with school facilities renewal). Sometimes we need to provide services or quality of life improvements that taxpayers are willing to bear (like the Surf Club, the Senior Center, the Library project and the Academy School community center project).

It costs money to run a town, to provide services, and to meet the expectations of the community. Those candidates who promise austere budgets ignore the realities of increasing costs of doing business, and their promises amount to the proverbial wooden nickel. Our votes in November need to register in favor of practical, reality-based budgeting. I will work hard to contribute to fair fiscal policy that preserves our quality of life, maintains our property values, and reclaims our educational excellence through smart facilities renewal that has broad bipartisan support. Our town demands a new direction and I am prepared to sharpen my pencil and find creative but responsible ways to meet the challenges.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

No response

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