New Greenwich BET panel debuts capital projects overhaul plan

Other Committee · Meeting of January 7, 2026

Greenwich's BET launches new panel to overhaul capital project estimates and debt planning. Chair Elliot Alchek introduced the committee, including Joe Pelgro, Steven Selps and former municipal banker Sally, alongside Town Administrator Kate Bush and Chief Financial Officer Joan Lynch. Budget Director Agnes reported fiscal 2026 capital requests of $43.8 million combined for the town and schools, with $17.5 million, or 38.7 percent, funded through the capital tax levy and $27.7 million financed through borrowing.

RTM Finance Committee member Brooks Harris urged extending the planning horizon beyond 10 years, comparing the current approach to "valuing an LBO using a PE multiple as opposed to using a discounted cash flow model." Alchek said projects like the Dorothy Hamill Rink, long budgeted at zero, will now carry real estimates. No votes were taken.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of January 7, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

The Full Article

GREENWICH — January 7, 2026 — A newly formed Board of Estimate and Taxation committee held its first public meeting Wednesday, laying out a plan to bring more realistic cost estimates and greater public transparency to how Greenwich plans, funds and tracks its capital projects.

The committee, chaired by BET member Elliot Alchek, heard from Budget Director Agnes that the town's current-year capital plan carries combined town and school project requests of about $43.8 million, with $17.5 million, or 38.7 percent, funded through the capital tax levy and roughly $27.7 million financed through borrowing. No formal votes were taken; the session was organizational, introducing the committee's members, mission and financial modeling tools.

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Alchek opened the meeting by crediting former Democratic Town Committee chair Leslie Morardi with helping push the town toward the effort over several years. He introduced the committee's other members: Sally, a former municipal banker at Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo; Joe Pelgro, chair of the Republican Town Committee and a former BET member; and Steven Selps, a New York law firm partner who co-heads its restructuring practice and who Alchek said is the only practicing lawyer currently on the full BET. Also present were Town Administrator Kate Bush, Chief Financial Officer Joan Lynch, Budget Director Agnes, who Alchek said had been reappointed to the post that morning, and Ben Bran, chief financial and administrative officer for Greenwich Public Schools.

Alchek said the committee's mission includes ensuring identified capital projects are carried in planning models at realistic estimates rather than at zero, evaluating capital projects that have been appropriated but not yet bonded, and recommending revisions to keep the capital plan compliant with BET and Connecticut debt-policy guidelines. He said the committee will also recommend the BET adopt a capital projects planning policy, informally dubbed "CP3," that would define a project's life cycle from initial identification through closeout. Alchek stressed the committee will not approve or reject individual projects; that authority remains with the full BET.

Budget Director Agnes walked the committee through the town's 10-year funding schedule model, saying the fiscal 2026 plan includes 59 town projects totaling $25.2 million and 21 school projects totaling $18.6 million. She said the town's debt policy requires financing at least 10 percent of capital costs through the tax levy each year, a threshold the town is exceeding at 38.7 percent, and caps debt service at no more than 11 percent of total town expenses. Chief Financial Officer Joan Lynch added that credit rating agencies weigh debt-related ratios heavily in their scorecards, 30 percent for Moody's and 20 percent for S&P, and said the town works with financial advisor Bill Lindseay to monitor those metrics as it seeks to protect its AAA rating.

Brooks Harris, a member of the RTM Finance Committee who worked on an earlier debt policy review, urged the committee to extend its planning horizon beyond 10 years and to treat its guidelines as multi-year rather than strictly annual, given a shift toward larger, more aggressive investment in schools and infrastructure.

"It would be like valuing an LBO using a PE multiple as opposed to using a discounted cash flow model. It just wouldn't work." — Brooks Harris, RTM Finance Committee

Pelgro responded that the committee intends to remain open-minded about tools available to deliver projects "on a timely basis at the lowest all-in cost to the taxpayer." Alchek said the committee will also weigh the "duration of the asset" against the "duration of the liability" when recommending financing terms, noting long-lived assets may warrant longer-term debt while shorter-lived ones, such as certain HVAC equipment, may not.

"We had identified that as a project we thought was going to get done at a certain point, but we carried it at zero, and we felt that was not realistic. It may be five million too low, maybe five million too high, but we know it's not zero." — Elliot Alchek, committee chair, on past budgeting for the Dorothy Hamill Rink

Why It Matters

The committee's work could reshape how Greenwich budgets for major, long-deferred projects such as the Dorothy Hamill Rink and a Greenwich High School pool project discussed in passing at more than $40 million, both previously carried in planning documents at zero cost. More realistic estimates affect the mill rate and the town's borrowing needs, and officials said protecting Greenwich's AAA credit rating remains a driving goal. The next concrete milestones are the first selectman's fiscal 2027 capital budget presentation, expected January 27, and updated property grand list figures due by the end of January, both of which will feed into the committee's model before its next meeting, expected February 18.

Key Motions & Votes

No formal votes taken at this meeting.

Source

Greenwich Community Television: Board of Estimate and Taxation Capital Projects and Debt Policy Committee meeting, January 7, 2026