Candidates for Killington Select Board answer questions

Tuesday night, Feb. 18,the  Killington Pico Area Association (KPAA) held a forum for the four candidates vying for two seats on the Killington Select Board. One seat is for a 3-year term; the other a 1-year term. Incumbent Chris Karr will face a challenge from Patrick Cushing for the 3-year seat. Karr is the owner of the Karr Group which operates half a dozen restaurants and businesses in Killington. Cushing is a senior consultant with Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory. He works in intelligence and investigation field supporting government clients. 

Incumbent Rob Hecker will face a challenge from Ricky Bowen for the 1-year seat. This seat was vacated by Steve Finneron and Hecker was appointed by the Select Board to fill it May 13, 2024, until voters could elect a replacement this Town Meeting Day. Hecker worked over two decades with ADP in New Jersey before moving to Killington in 2021. He’s since started a small construction company called Peak Construction, LLC.Ricky Bowen was the foreman for the town of Killington highways and facilities for 36 years until May 15, 2024, when he resigned.

Each candidate was given the following eight questions in advance of the forum. The answers below were provided to the Mountain Times in advance (short form questions provided for reference).  Note: Bowen was not able to complete the Q&A before deadline so requested to be included in the next edition.

1) Why are you running for the Killington Select Board and what do you think makes you most qualified to represent the citizens of Killington?

2) Are there specific problems or concerns that are motivating you to run in this election?

3) The municipal budget on the Town Meeting Day ballot is $7,912,875 which is an increase of 12.5% over last year’s budget. Do you support this budget, why or why not??

4) How do you feel about the Town’s initiative “Killington Forward?” Please touch upon the follow areas:  The reconstruction of Killington Road, the creation of a new municipal water system, building workforce housing, support of the Killington Village? 

5) Conflict of interest has been a topic locally as well as statewide most recently. The Town has created a new Code of Ethics and Enforcement ordinance. Do you have any current conflicts of interest with matters relative to the town? If so, what are they? How will you handle those, or others that may arise, if elected to the board?

6) The last article on Killington’s ballot (Article 6) asks voters if the Select Board should grow to five members instead of its current three. Do you support this measure? Why or why not?

7) The Town’s Recreation Dept and Library are two important assets for this community. As Selectman how will you support and help these departments grow, continue to serve the community?

8) What are the biggest obstacles and/or opportunities you see facing Killington’s progress that you plan to address in this next first term?

Q&A with Patrick Cushing, for 3-year term

Why are you running ?

Last Year Steve Finneron stepped down from the Select Board after a long term where he made an incredible impact. However, his leaving created an imbalance of viewpoints. The current Select Board are businessmen, which is important to running the town, but the representation of the non-businessman resident is underrepresented. I want to offer the town’s people the choice to fill this void.

Do you have specific concerns motivating your run in this election?

Increased tax rate on residents with fixed income is one concern to me as it’s an existential threat to the town by means of losing the community of Killington. Having the most beautiful and full-service town, means very little when there is no community to hold it together. We are bigger than just a ski town.

Do you support the $7,912,875 budget?

This year the budget is in a hard place. About a third of this increase is due to overspending in 2024, $375,000. So, if the budget was an 8% increase, this would be easier to swallow as we are in a growing phase, though closer to inflation is more ideal. This overspend is generally related to the restructuring of the fire department and staffing increase in the department of public works. With the planned Grand List increases this may be curbed in future years, but there appears to be no short-term relief. I would be interested in looking at what a short-term reinstatement of 1% options tax on sales would look like, until such time as the village is developed and Grand List increases.

Do you support “Killington Forward?” 

I feel like we are too far in to second guess at this point. The town has voted to pass the TIF and go to a hybrid fire department. If we go back now the tax payers are going to eat costs which in future years are planned to be covered by the increase in the Grand List.

The reconstruction of Killington Road: I look at this as a bonus as it’s a project which would have to happen in the next decade anyway. So, if it’s rolled into the TIF great.

The creation of a new municipal water system: I also support this as there are water issues on the access road with PFAS and this will also increase the availability of vertical development of the access road which hopefully will include workforce housing.

Building workforce housing: This is necessary for the town to survive in the form we know. Community is an item I touched on prior. The workforce has always been the heart of the community, there is definitely a second home community, too, but years ago when Killington had very little summer activity, the summer community events (4th of July, Trike Race, Building of Kids Kingdom, etc.) was held up by the workforce (service industry and carpenters). We don’t want Killington to be a commuter town, where community happens in the border towns and Killington is just a revenue machine.

Support of the Killington Village: The village is a business decision by Killington Mountain, Great Gulf, and local investors. It can be a bonus to the town with increasing the Grand List but needs the balance of retaining community. Like stated above this means keeping options available for the workforce to also live in town. Possible avenues to achieve this are things like S.100 or if that fails a more aggressive Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance.

Conflicts of Interest: Do you have any? How will you handle them?

I recently wrote a letter published in The Mountain Times on this issue. First, I think the ethics ordinance is a good start, however, it is missing some of the spirit of the Act 171 changes. It is important to have a documented standard operating procedure (SOP) on how to handle ethics investigation, but we also need to identify an ethics liaison who is separate from the investigations process (maybe a town librarian, I trust librarians). The ls only. This is explained by Christina Sivret, executive director of Vermont Ethics Commission in interview she did with Pat McDonald on her “Vote for Vermont” show. Sivret explains that these tasks are intended to be separate, so that local findings are separate from reporting to the independent third party Commission. If the local investigations are in line with recommendation of the State Ethics Commission great! but if the buck stops at the local level, having this wonderful independent sounding board becomes moot. 

My conflicts in town are the property, which my mom owns (where I live), and that I sometime cover shifts at Mountain Meadows. So, anything having to do with those two properties is a no-go for me. I have no other vested interests in town, and have experience turning down gifts, or perceived gifts, as I used to work as a police officer and needed to be vigilant on public perception (gifts such as tickets to the World Cup and/or comped meals). If it isn’t a town function or duty of the position, I will respectfully decline anything that is not offered to the average town resident. Perception is paramount to trust.

Should Select Board grow to five?

I think if the town wants to continue to grow it needs to increase the Select Board size to capture more diversified viewpoints. This may minimally slow down process or make meetings longer, but it goes hand in hand (in my opinion) with the Killington Forward initiative.

Recreation Dept and Library: how to help grow and continue to serve the community?

Community, this is community. I will support these by listening to their respective boards. They know better than me what their capabilities are and where they can better support the community. I grew up going to the pool, reading at the library, going to Camp Loads of Fun. My son now goes to story time at the library in the room, which my mom painted the mural on the wall. I previously stated I trust librarians and would love for one of them to be the towns ethics liaison. I also trust that they know best for their area of expertise.

Obstacles/opportunities?

Biggest issue is instilling trust from our community to act in their best interest. All of them, the voting public, the second homeowners, the business, workforce, etc. The job of selectman is to make big decisions after listening to experts in their related fields for all these people/entities. Not everyone will be happy all the time, but being transparent and empathetic to each group’s plight goes a long way in maintaining trust and having community support. I am looking to occupy this Select Board seat only if the town’s people feel I can best represent these views, and not my own.

Q&A with Chris Karr, for 3-year term

Why are you running ?

To continue the progress we’ve been able to make on the board these past three years. The reason I’m running is I want to give back to the community. This community has given me so much since I first came here in the early ‘80s. I’ve worked on a number of different boards within the town over the years. I was a member of the volunteer fire department for years, I was served on the planning commission, I’ve served on the fire district, and now the Select Board, so I have a good understanding of the processes, how we need to operate and have great respect for all the different departments.

Do you have specific concerns motivating your run in this election?

I know that the budget has been a lightning rod and I understand it. I don’t want to see our taxes go up, but  costs keep rising. 

The community has also grown a lot since Covid and so the services in the town have seen incredible pressure. If you look at the number of calls received by the police department or the fire department, it’s all grown. And so those costs have gone up… We need to provide the services to protect residential and infrastructure assets for our town and its residents.

Do you support the $7,912,875 budget?

We put a lot of pressure this year on the budget. We made cuts in certain places, but we also realized we could see some more income and pushed in that direction as well. I do support the budget that we put through, but it’s something we present to the voters that they get to vote on and ultimately approve. 

We’re putting more money into paving, because we know there’s a lot of roads that are going to need repair. West Hill Road, for example, is in tough shape. We need to make sure the funding is there so that we take care of the assets that we have.

We’re doing the very best we can to manage our funding within the town, having cost controls, but still allowing for us to stock money away for future items like recreation and the replacement of the pool, so that we don’t have to go out and borrow a ton of money to finish up projects.

Do you support “Killington Forward?” 

Yes. It’s going to allow us to build out something that was started back in the ‘70s. And we desperately need a lot of things that this village will afford us. While other ski areas have developed and moved forward, we’ve stayed pretty stagnant for a number of years. So I’m supportive of the initiative for us to move forward. I think it’ll allow us to continue to build a roadway that will have biking and walking paths that we desperately need more of. Outdoor recreation is growing. Look at the number of biking trails we’re building now. We need to connect the dots.

It’s a shame about the [federal pause on the] $25 million RAISE grant, but I don’t think it’s dead. We’ve been told just to wait. I’m hopeful that we can get that back, but until we have a green light, I do believe we need to hit the pause button on actually rebuilding the road.

The water system is desperately needed in this town. I personally was affected by it at one of my properties, and I think that a lot of properties right now are struggling with water. First is the quantity issue, we have a major hotel right now that trucks water on a daily basis because they have zero water, not a little bit of water:  zero. We also have the quality issue with [contaminants including] PFOAs. And there’s another big one, that no one’s really touched on and that’s fire protection. It would be great for the fire department to be able to connect to more hydrants, and also more buildings could become sprinklered — especially hotels, it’s a life saving matter there.

Conflicts of Interest: Do you have any? How will you handle them?

I think everything we do, we have to operate ethically. We’re voted in with the support of the voters to operate in an ethical manner. We take an oath for that. I believe that we need to continue in that direction and follow the state’s statutes. Anything that we might have that would be a conflict of interest, we immediately need to recuse ourselves. Having a five person Select Board gives us the ability to allow people to recuse themselves when there is a conflict of interest.

Should Select Board grow to five?

I support a five person board, if that is the wish to the voters. There’s parts of it that make life a lot easier. Currently, every time we need get together to work on stuff with Great Gulf, we have to warn a meeting, and then go into executive session. With a five member board, two Select Board members can get together and have a working session on something, we wouldn’t need to warn it. We can’t make a decision with just two, but we can make a lot of progress, so I think it becomes a lot easier in that regard.

There’s also such a large workload right now, it would be really nice to disperse it a bit. The time commitment is far greater right now for Selectmen than it ever has been. We’re trying to figure out this water system, the roadway… we’re meeting constantly because there are big municipal infrastructure projects in the works. I love the idea of working with more people that are driven to see the town becoming a better place.

Recreation Dept and Library: how to help grow and continue to serve the community?

Ultimately, what I’m trying to achieve here, personally, is that we build a town and a community where our children want to come back and raise their kids. So I really push to see those programs grow. And I think there are people that come here in the summertime because of the accessibility of our recreation and what the department offers, including the camps. I think that they [summer camps] desperately need shelter, and so when the opportunity came up for us to purchase the post office building, I immediately thought to make the old town offices our youth and Senior Center. What’s better than to bring our seniors and our youth together under one roof, and work together bettering our community.

The library is also an incredibly strong asset for us. They’re a very well run organization. Whether it’s the concert series down there or the different events that they host — they’re certainly helping to build a well-rounded community that our kids will return to.

Obstacles/opportunities?

 This current board is moving forward, and we’re addressing the needs of the town — current needs as well as preparing for the future — I want to see this continue. Right now, our the relationship between the town and the resort is the best it’s ever been. We’re building partnerships with them, like the workforce housing property that we acquired. I think things are really looking up for this community as a whole and I just want to see it continue. 

Q&A with Robert Hecker, for 1-year term

Why are you running ?

I thought I would use this time to tell everyone a little bit about myself since I continue to be the newer guy in town. My family and I made the official move to Killington in late 2021. My wife of 23 years Tiffany and our 4 children. Tiffany works at WES [Woodstock Elementary School] as the school admin and is also active in town on the recreation board. My oldest two children Jake and Brooke are off at college now. Luke is my 16-year-old and is a sophomore at Woodstock. Quinn is my 12-year-old and is in 6th grade at KES [Killington Elementary School]. As for me personally when we moved up to Killington I left my 26 year corporate career behind and started a local construction company. I now continue to operate that company on the side as I have very recently have been recruited to re-enter corporate life. One more thing about me is that I do have an MBA. I put myself through school for 10 years at night. I received my associates degree, a bachelors in finance and ultimately my MBA over that 10 year period.

Initially I got involved in public service in order to fire up my brain again. I had gone from a dynamic, collaborative corporate setting to working on my own most of the time and missed the mental stimulation. I joined the planning commission in late 2023 and subsequently put my hat in the ring for the Select Board role upon Steve’s departure. It was intended to scratch the itch of getting some mental activity going. As I have done more of it I have grown to enjoy it. I’ve also learned so much in my first year I’m excited to put that learning into action going forward. As far as my qualification goes I consider myself complementary to the current board members. We have great knowledge of industry and the inner workings of the town on the board today. As well as a wealth of knowledge around the history. I do not have that [historical] background, yet I am the only one that comes to the table with an extended and successful corporate leadership background and that I have found to add significant value over my time on the board. So…. complementary.

Do you have specific concerns motivating your run in this election?

After a year on the board there are a couple areas I know I can chip in to help drive improvement. The first is regarding the Town Manager. Of course, the selection process is critically important, which we are currently close to finalizing. Equally, if not more important, is a solid mentoring/coaching/support focused model in which we ensure that individual is successful. We do not want to be in a selection process for a town manager again anytime soon so we need to ensure we invest in that area appropriately. The second item on my mind is the budgeting process. I’ve shared this with Chris and Jim that I really did not like the process and would be very interested in separating strategy/planning from budgeting. Today they are the same so at the same time you sit down to talk budget is the first time you are hearing what the department heads want to do the next year. We need to move that portion up in the cycle so we can formalize a plan prior to budget time so the budgeting sessions are really just a check to make sure the budget aligns to the plan.

Do you support the $7,912,875 budget?

As a current board member I think I have to say yes to this one…especially since I was involved in creating it. Last year we carried a $375K deficit forward which is ~40% of the YoY [year over year] expense increase. Abbie [Sherman, director of public works] did a really nice job laying out a systematic plan to help us stay on top of our current infrastructure maintenance which was an additional $300K. TIF administrative needs, right sizing the town manager salary to meet current market expectations, insurance costs and some expenses associated with the new town hall that gets us all the way to the expense increase. All necessary elements that help us move the town forward.  

$375K carry over

$300K roads and maintenance

$280K town manager, TIF admin, insurance and new town hall

Makes up the entire increase.

Do you support “Killington Forward?” 

I like how well the first phase of the bottom portion of the road project was completed. I know they [the contractors] have some open items to finalize in the spring, but I really like the fact that the primary elements were completed prior to the winter and are generally on track.

We all know the need for municipal water is a high priority and a dependency for both the village and the workforce housing. I’m sure our current residents are excited to receive it as well. Once again I feel good about the progress there.

Workforce housing planning is also on the right track. It is a lot of work to coordinate the purchase of land for this intention as well as broker an agreement between Great Gulf and the mountain [resort] in order to chip in for the mutual benefit of all. We are primed for this to take greater shape in the upcoming year.

I’m in full support of the Village project. Not much more to say about that.  

Conflicts of Interest: Do you have any? How will you handle them?

Since there was so much detail around the investment in the mountain connected to ethics this feels like a direct question so I will treat it as such. Yes, I am an investor in the mountain. I do not see it as a conflict, but I am more than happy to recuse myself from matters affecting the mountain if that is desired. If there are ever any questions of me regarding anything that has a perception of conflict, please simply let me know. E-mail, call…anytime. I will talk through any questions the public may have.

Should Select Board grow to five?

I fully support it. It would be great for the board to have additional perspectives as it looks to make future decisions. It would also be great to be able to talk shop with another board member outside of the meetings. Today we cannot, as two members is a quorum. The only other comment I would make here is to the women in town. Hopefully we can get some interest for some of them to raise their hands should this Article pass. That would be a welcome addition to the board.

Recreation Dept and Library: how to help grow and continue to serve the community?

I will start with the Recreation Dept. First of all, my wife Tiffany is on the recreation board and is very active in her support of all things rec. I know that is not me directly but I should get a little credit for that! When it comes to the Library I outsource that help to my youngest daughter who uses the facility after almost every school day and chips in to assist. 

Strictly from a board perspective both groups showed up very well in their budgeting sessions and we were all extremely supportive of them financially.  

Obstacles/opportunities?

I’ll recap:

Town manager selection and retention plan.

Planning sessions for all departments to streamline budgeting season.

There are other planning opportunities that could use some focus – Golf Course is one example.