Board of Finance Candidate:  Tanja B. Moriarty

I have been actively involved public service and in politics in Haddam for nearly a decade.  I served on Haddam’s Planning and Zoning Commission (2001-2003) and then served as Selectwoman on the Board of Selectmen in (2003-2007). In 2007, I felt the major parties were not serving the towns people the way they should, and co-founded A Better Haddam Party.

For the past two years I have served as a co-chair of the local coalition Healthy Communities Healthy Kids, under the auspices of Youth and Family Services of Haddam-Killingworth, Inc. I’ve been a volunteer facilitator Encouraging Words, a writers’ group for seniors at Brainerd Library, since 2005.

I have lived and grown up in Higganum since 1968, HK Alum of the Class of 1983 and earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications in 1987 from Southern Connecticut State University.  I have followed a career path in publicity, news journalism, and non-profit development.

As a professional grant writer, I maintain over 65 grants for St. Vincent De Paul Place in Middletown, garnering over $100,000 annually.  I secured a $500,000 federal grant for Youth and Family Services of H-K in 2002.  I have investigated and written news articles for The Middletown Press and Haddam Bulletin.

My husband, Sean and I have a daughter who recently graduated from H-K and a son who is a junior in the high school. 

The role of the Board of Finance should also be one of fiscal guardian over the needs of our town, insuring checks and balances with the Board of Selectmen and the public.  The Board needs to work closely with our Board of Selectmen throughout the entire fiscal year and consider its recommendations, but should also be researching the requests of agencies and civic organizations on its own, especially when there are funding issues.  The Board of Finance needs to seek additional agency and civic organization input more frequently and create open communication with those seeking funding. 

The Board of Finance needs to work with the Board of Selectmen to scrutinize our town’s short term and long term needs.  Both need to create a “new” budget each year from the ground up examining the needs of our town and its people each budget season, not merely continuing what agencies and organizations had received in the past.

I would encourage the Board of Finance to offer matching fund challenges for agencies that provide public services to our town as well as to civic organizations. This would stimulate public giving to agencies and organizations, with a sensible amount of town dollars to serve as an incentive to raise much needed funds.  I would suggest a model that has worked well for the City of Middletown and public service agency, St. Vincent De Paul Place.  City Hall has offered a matching grant challenge for Amazing Grace Food Pantry (run by St. Vincent De Paul Place) for the past three years matching 50 cents on each dollar the agency raises, up to $25,000. 

I absolutely believe in providing greater communication in all areas of town government for our residents.  The Board of Finance could increase communication with the town’s people by posting financial concerns and budgets (even drafts) year round, but especially well before the public hearing in the spring.  This would give people a better chance to understand Haddam’s fiscal health and needs and to provide meaningful input well before the budget hearing.

People who have attended the Board of Finance meetings have complained of its cramped meeting place.  There is no room for the public as the board members sit around the very large table in Town Office Building lunchroom.  I would promote having meetings in a more convenient open, public place such as the Old Town Hall.

Having served on the “inside” for four years on the Board of Selectmen, I became very familiar with the annual budget process as we had to address each and every department, agency, and organizational request before it was submitted to the Board of Finance.  Working line-by-line, I became well-versed with our budget.  I also witnessed a disparity in fairness to the way certain agencies and town organizations were treated when they came in to defend their budget requests. Some groups have an easier time getting funded (“rubber stamped”) while others have been overly scrutinized and asked to provide excess documentation to the point of being hassled.

As a Board of Finance member, I would do my best to promote fairness when considering agency and organization requests, weighing them carefully with what the residents needed that particular year and what Haddam truly could afford. 

Tanja Moriarty for Board of Finance