Newtown Candidate Profile: Chris Gardner For Board Of Finance

NEWTOWN, CT — The 2019 municipal election is heating up in Newtown and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office.

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

Chris Gardner is running for Board of Finance as a Democrat. He is a communications officer at the Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. Before that he was a bureau chief and local news editor for the Waterbury Republican-American for 20 years. He has served on the Newtown Borough Board of Burgesses for six years.

Are you running for office in Newtown? Contact Rich Scinto at rich.scinto@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate's profile and submitting campaign announcements to Newtown Patch.

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

Maintaining quality public schools and services while balancing the ability of taxpayers to pay. As a new member of the Board of Finance, I will bring fresh, critical eyes to the budget process and identify efficiencies within our government. As a journalist I was recognized for identifying wasteful spending in local municipal governments. I believe my two decades of experience reporting on the budget process in areas towns gives me the ability to identify opportunities to cut without impacting services.

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

My experience. I have been involved in crafting budgets for the Borough of Newtown for six years. This fiscal year, due to shrewd budgeting and revenues generated from building projects, our board reduced the Borough tax rate by one-third without compromising services. I spent 20 years as a journalist covering similar-sized communities to Newtown and I've seen good examples of budgeting and bad examples. I will translate this knowledge to my work on the Board of Finance.

List other issues that define your campaign platform:

Advocacy for strong, well-financed public schools; environmental and open space preservation.

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

My volunteer work on the Newtown Board of Burgesses. I believe strongly in giving back to my community. I am a lifelong resident and also am "Keeper of the Flagpole" in Newtown, in charge of maintenance of the town's iconic Main Street flagpole.

The best advice ever shared with me was ...

Treat others as you would like to be treated.

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

I am invested in the community. I grew up in Newtown and with my wife decided to return and raise our family. I firmly believe in a strong school system but not at any cost. We need to balance the ability of our taxpayers to pay with the fiscal realities that come with living in a growing town.