The entirely remade Board of Selectmen that will take office after the Nov. 7 election are “inheriting an untenable situation” with respect to affordable housing, one of the two women seeking the town government’s top job said Monday night.
“We did not have to be in this position, but we are,” Democrat Amy Murphy Carroll said during the League of Women Voters of New Canaan debate (full video here), held at Town Hall. “And so what we need to do is we need to stop deflecting. Stop thinking if we don’t pay attention it’ll go away. We need a plan. It’s very easy to blame somebody else, to blame a developer, to blame the situation. But we are where we are and our requirement is to get an affordable housing plan in place.”
She addressed a standing-room-only crowd packed into the Town Hall Meeting Room for the approximately 40-minute first selectman debate, moderated by Laura Smits and with questions posed by New Canaan High School Debate Team members Ankita Kuttichirayil, Thomas Crehan and Drew Bench.
Responding to the same question about what her approach would be to managing affordable housing in New Canaan as first selectman, Republican Dionna Carlson said that her solution is “three-tiered.”
“First, we need to get our moratorium,” Carlson said. “I understand why our first selectman wasn’t going forward in this high interest rate environment. It’s unlikely we’re going to get a big development, a new development. But to give residents comfort that they have security that we won’t be getting more development, we should go for that. I also said we need to have more interaction with Hartford. We need to get 8-30g changed. And finally, we need to develop and control affordable housing locally. If we develop it and control it, it’s 100% affordable in perpetuity. If a predatory developer develops it, it’s only for 40 years and only 30% affordable.”
Carlson added that the town needs to get its Affordable Housing Committee “constituted and working for the benefit of this entire community.”
“I also want to mention that I have relationships across the state,” she said. “I have close relationships with first selectmen in other communities and I think it’s important. This is an initiative that’s going to need both local and statewide priorities.”
In addition to affordable housing, the candidates debated local issues such as senior housing, cell coverage, town appointments, municipal spending and Charter revision. While Carlson and Murphy Carroll agreed in some areas—and while both candidates are running on platforms of transparency, civility and teamwork, signaling a change from the administration of current First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, who lost badly at the Republican Caucus in July—they also used the debate to draw out some differences in their approaches.
In responding to Carlson’s position on affordable housing, Murphy Carroll said that on her first day in office she’ll put up a whiteboard listing the town’s priorities and that affordable housing will be at the top of the list. She noted that the town has been susceptible to affordable housing developments under the 8-30g statute since July of 2021 when the most recent “moratorium” granting four years of relief from the law expired.
“Our moratorium hasn’t been in place and we are exposed,” Murphy Carroll said. “Yes, interest rates are high, but any developer could come in and put another 8-30g [application] in place. That is not planning our future. So we need to take control.”
Carlson is a town resident of more than 27 years who served for eight years on the Board of Education, including three years as its chair. She worked in finance at GE Capital and as an assistant portfolio manager and securities analyst at an investment firm in New York City, and currently serves as senior deacon at New Canaan Congregational Church and vice regent for the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter.
“I’m hoping to continue my service to New Canaan as your next First Selectman, because I want to continue to give back to this community, and I have the right experience at the right time to serve the residents of this amazing community,” Carlson said during her opening remarks.
Murphy Carroll also has lived in New Canaan for 27 years, and she has served for 10 years on the Board of Finance. She has 30 years of Wall Street experience in municipal finance, and has sat on multiple successful building committees, including for the Saxe Middle School and New Canaan Police Department renovations and expansions.
“I will have an unwavering fiscal discipline as we preserve all we do well and address the challenges ahead of us together as one New Canaan,” Murphy Carroll said during opening remarks.
The candidates also responded differently to a question about whether New Canaan’s rapidly growing block of unaffiliated voters should have more unaffiliated constituents represented on the town’s appointed boards and commissions.
Carlson said, “I believe we should just search for the most talented individuals to serve on our boards and commissions. Currently, the Republican party is the largest voting block in New Canaan, followed by the unaffiliated voters. So I think that it would make sense to look to have some more unaffiliated voters on our boards and commissions to really represent the community.”
Murphy Carroll said she felt very strongly that “our government should represent what the makeup of our community is.”
“This isn’t 1960,” she said. “We have 37 percent plus or minus Republicans, 37 percent unaffiliated, and 27 percent plus or minus Democrats. To me, not working aggressively to include everybody in government is leaving a tremendous amount of talent on the side… I think it makes people feel less connected and less included in their community. I don’t think there’s a community in this country that has more skills, resources, expertise and smarts than we have in this town. And I think it’s ridiculous that we don’t get them more involved.”
Carlson during rebuttal said that openings on the appointed bodies should be publicized more broadly, and that those who are not positioned to receive nominations from the two major party committees can approach the first selectman directly.
Murphy Carroll said she agreed and noted that “we have had things not move forward because one party felt that they should have control.”
She continued, “The [appointment of the] Affordable Housing Committee is held up because people could not agree that it had to be dominated by one party or another. It doesn’t have to be dominated by any party. It just has to be done.”
Responding to a question about what types of senior housing are needed and what steps would be needed to provide it, Murphy Carroll said the town should “look at the demographic trends and decide what the consumer is demanding.”
“Are they looking for an institutional approach or approach within their home?” she said. “And I know Waveny is developing many home care options and people need to age in place. But aging in place gets difficult and you do need other health resources. So, I think it’s certainly something to work with Waveny moving forward.”
Carlson said that, according to a recent survey, people in New Canaan “really don’t know if we need more senior housing.”
“So, I think we really need to dig in,” she said. “When I was at The Inn last week, introducing myself to the residents, the residents feel like they need more affordable housing. But we need the community to also come along on that conversation. So, I think we need to do some education in this community about what it is and get a better idea of what we need in this community. If it is assisted living, we have multiple CCRCs in our surrounding communities. So do we need to build it here or do we have enough? We should look at what the capacity is in the other developments around in our other communities. And if, if they’re oversubscribed, then maybe we need to look at it. But if there’s lots of capacity in Wilton and Ridgefield and Stamford and Norwalk and Greenwich, we may not need to build it here.”
Here’s some of what the candidates said on other topics:
Budget
Murphy Carroll: “In terms of areas where we need to reduce spending, our capital is a very important part. We have a lot of buildings. I was involved in a large nonpartisan building study. We have to look very clearly about how we do our capital spend. We do have things we need to do, but we have to focus on first requirements/wants versus ‘nice to haves,’ and we need to have a process in place that we are cognizant of what we are committing to.”
Carlson: “I would look at capital spending as an area that we could look to decrease. We have some big projects behind us now. We have the police station, we have the new library, which was $10 million from the town, plus another $7 million letter of credit. We have The Playhouse, which is over budget, and so I think those are behind us. I think with interest rates rising, we’re going to need to really look at controlling our capital spend from here on out. And I think the residents are going to look for a little breather with all the construction that’s been going on in town.”
Cell service
Carlson: “As first selectman, I would plan to work with the newly formed Utilities Commission in order to identify locations that we can have new cell towers or cell—it doesn’t even have to be towers, it could be DAS or satellite, there’s many options and technology is improving. I would say to start off that I do not support any future development of cell towers near schools.”
Murphy Carroll: “It’s incredibly important to this town, and we do need to improve it. The people and residents near West School have made it abundantly clear that an option for large towers there just does not work. I am very excited that we have reconstituted the Utilities Commission with such an incredibly deep resource of people. And I feel confident that with their leadership, we will get to the definition of the problem. The initial proposal put forward was defining a solution before we actually defined what the problem was.”
Town Charter revision
Murphy Carroll: “I think there’s a number of things that we should consider. One thing that people have considered is this structure of the government, wich we currently have a Board of Selectman. I know people have considered whether we should go to a city manager structure. That’s complicated. It’s a big change, but it’s certainly worth looking at. And then within the selectmen, does it make sense that we have three Selectmen as opposed to a broader group? Just because of the FOIA regulations and people being able to talk among themselves. There are some other issues that people have considered whether certain boards should possibly be elected versus appointed. I am a fan of the ones that are appointed staying appointed.”
Carlson: “I think one of the amazing things about this town is that we have a really strong Charter and it has served this community really well. I actually think some of the changes that were made in the last Charter revision actually have created some of the divisiveness that we have seen creep into this community, and so I’m not sure that the changes that were made were actually beneficial for this community. So I would approach a Charter revision very carefully. And I would disagree on expanding the Board of Selectmen. As a Republican and somebody who likes to minimize government, I want fewer people and I think you get things done more easily when there are three people that are working together.”
In her closing remarks, Carlson said that if elected her priorities are “first, fiscal responsibility, finding affordable housing solutions that work for New Canaan, and community engagement and collaboration.”
“Tonight, you’ve heard two different voices for the future of New Canaan,” she said. “I have proven, by being elected twice to the Board of Education and elected unanimously by both Democrats and Republicans three times as Board of Education Chair, that I have the ability and temperament to bring people together to solve problems and create solutions for all of New Canaan. If you like my message and my priorities, my leadership and financial services experience along with my collaborative approach, I ask for your vote on Tuesday, November 7th, so that together we can forge an even brighter future for New Canaan.”
Murphy Carroll said that the job of first selectman requires “experience, leadership, management, and prioritization.”
“I’m the most qualified across the board,” she said. “I have the most financial experience. I have the most bipartisan experience. I have the most how things really get done in town government experience, and I have the most leadership experience. I want to tap all of New Canaan’s collective knowledge and experience to build solutions to the problems we face for our town. We’ll get the plans in place, we’ll execute them and we’ll not kick issues down the road. We have a huge group of unaffiliated voters. I think they’re unaffiliated because they can’t find a home in the two existing parties. I want them to have a home in New Canaan, I want them to be involved, and I want everyone to be involved. Because we really are one New Canaan.”
Additional resources:
- Republican Dionna Carlson—candidate website, GOP Caucus debate coverage (affordable housing and cell coverage—July 2023), Q&A (May 2023), podcast interview (October 2023),
- Democrat Amy Murphy Carroll—candidate website, Q&A (July 2023), campaign kickoff coverage (September 2023), podcast interview (October 2023)