Letter: Rob Fryer for Town Treasurer

Experience, accountability and commitment—this is what we will get when we elect Rob Fryer for Town Treasurer. Rob has had 45 years of experience as a CPA 34 of which was as a partner at Deloitte. Rob retired a few years ago and still provides financial advice to some major corporations. He also provides his skills to The New Canaan Community Foundation and The New Canaan Land Trust. His effort will make certain that our financial controls are strong and our records are in order.

Letter: Rob Fryer for Town Treasurer

Editor:

While I had not met Rob Fryer until this election season, it is an honor to now call him friend. Rob’s knowledge of the finance world is overwhelming and his quick study into what the job as Town Treasurer is and what it should and could be are impressive. Rob’s ability to take on what he needed to do to be a good candidate and his willingness to do it all, was greatly appreciated. But more than anything else his desire to remain civil and respectful of his opponent proved to me this is who we need to be in Town government and what we lack in all levels of our government right now. Please join me in voting Tuesday, Nov.

Letter: Rob Fryer ‘By Far the Better’ Candidate for Town Treasurer

Editor,

Rob Fryer is by far the better fit for Town Treasurer. Rob’s 45-year business career was entirely in accounting and finance. He worked for decades as a CPA for large industrial companies, which have treasury operations that involve issuing bonds and managing cash balances—just like municipalities. He was a partner for many years at Deloitte. His opponent has much less business experience, primarily in regulatory compliance, which is not relevant to a municipal treasury operation.

Letter: Rob Fryer’s Experience Makes Him Better Town Treasurer Candidate

Rob’s career at Deloitte lasted almost fifty years, including 34 years as a senior partner and this experience working with large corporations in their finance and accounting areas made him an expert in all aspects of finance and accounting. This broad expertise enables him to provide the following benefits if elected as our Treasurer:

While the responsibilities of a Town Treasurer are prescribed by state law and he will execute them seriously, he is ready to use his broad expertise to assist town government with the broader aspects of cash and debt management and the control of expenditures. He has many years of experience in internal financial controls and hopes to participate in preventing material weaknesses in the future. Rob is no longer working and will perform his duties as Treasurer at town hall during regular office hours and this will enable him to interact with town officials, from First Selectman down, when questions arise that could utilize his expertise. Rob’s opponent, Andrew Brooks, has a bachelor’s degree in economics and history and a full time job with Accenture in finance and risk management.

Op-Ed: In Fields Project’s Wake, Town Treasurer Candidate Says New Canaan Can Do Better

There is an old saying about construction projects: “good, quick, cheap – pick the two you want because you can’t have all three.” I don’t know enough about the $800,000 additional funding requirement to complete the turf fields / track project to suggest which of these criteria mattered most at the time the project was planned, nor will I repeat all that has already been written about this matter, which divided the Town Council. What I will say, as a CPA and candidate for Town Treasurer, is that town hall needs to learn from the mistakes that were made and install stronger financial controls over major capital projects, from the budgeting stage, through bidding and contracting, and during construction. In public / private partnerships such as this one, it is the town that has to make up the shortfall if additional private funds are not forthcoming. I am a director of a small gold mining company that has recently completed the development of a complex underground mine on time and on budget, for a cost of roughly ten times that of the fields project. We have undertaken other capital projects over recent years, smaller in scope, that have run over budget.