Darien town officials need to counter state interference in local taxing, zoning and housing decisions with strategies that show state lawmakers that Town Hall is addressing problems better than the state can, says Spencer McIlmurray, one of four GOP candidates for selectman.
Spencer J. McIlmurray, Republican candidate for Darien Board of Selectmen
Registered Republicans will meet 7 p.m. Monday at a town caucus to select a nominee from four candidates. McIlmurray and Kip Koons are the two candidates endorsed by the Republican Town Committee. Koons, however, has said he’s running on a “ticket” with First Selectman Jayme Stevenson (who is unopposed within the Republican Party) and incumbent Selectman Susan Marks, who was not endorsed. Joe Warren is also a candidate for one of the two spots.
McIlmurray says he’s concerned about the state laws that have interfered with how Darien handles affordable housing, and about state proposals that could take over zoning of business districts near train stations.
“I think we need to be more proactive in some areas that we tend to be reactive on,” he said.
The state’s 8-30g affordable housing regulations demand a certain amount of affordable housing exist in a municipality, although hardly any municipalities meet the goal, he said. For those communities, land-use applications containing a certain level of new affordable housing can bypass local land-use boards.
Darien, with very little affordable housing has a particular problem — 98 percent of town land is already developed, so it’s very hard for the town to find land to locate new affordable housing.
Proposals that would overburden a local street with difficult traffic, sewer, water runoff problems could be approved by a judge or state authority over the heads of Darien land-use boards that have a better knowledge of the town, he said.
“I believe this town should be more aggressive, not less, in avoiding this situation.” If Darien could come up with reasonable regulations for new housing that incorporate a formula involving sewer loads, water runoff, traffic and the like, it might then join with other towns and pressure the state to allow the regulations to help decide how much affordable housing the town can be reasonably expected to add to the housing stock, he said.
Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed Transit Oriented Development Commission, which would have been able not only to overrule local land-use boards anywhere within 1.5 miles of a train station, would have given state control over land use in much of Darien’s commercial zones, he said. The commission also would have had eminent domain powers to take land for development projects. The proposal, widely criticized, was withdrawn, but McIlmurray worries that it will return.
Town officials need to build coalitions with state legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, in order to fight some of these proposals, he said. McIlmurray said his experience as a consultant — helping various groups within companies to work together to make changes — could be of use with that.
“We [Darien officials] need to be more involved in trying to set that [state] agenda in a way that serves us all,” he said.
Career
McIlmurray’s personal history comes straight out of a Horatio Alger tale: He grew up in straitened circumstances near New Bedford, Mass., but he did well on an entrance exam for a regional Catholic high school and was accepted.
Paying tuition — even the $250 then being charged — was beyond his mother’s means, however, so he got up at 5:15 a.m., hitchhiked to a bus stop (if he didn’t make it there by 6:55 a.m., he had to hitchhike some more), got to school and, after school and sports team practice, worked as a janitor in the school.
Then he hitchhiked home.
McIlmurray did so well in school that he was accepted at a number of U.S. military academies. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Two years later, his mother was so ill that he needed to be near her, so he transferred to Boston College, where he also secured a scholarship. Six months later, his mother passed away.
He received his M.B.A. at Cornell, then worked for IBM in Chicago, providing information technology services to clients. Five years later, he was working for an accounting firm, again as a consultant for businesses, combining “basic precepts of corporate strategic planning and overlaying them into the world of I.T.,” he said.
His years as a consultant for that kind of advice eventually led to many trips to Europe, where banks and governments were preparing for uniform regulations under the European Union. This led him to consult with prime ministers and presidents as well as corporate boards and technical staff in corporate data centers.
He also worked as “global head of systems planning and architecture” for Kraft, a Fortune 30 company that combined with General Foods during his tenure. He was later approached by Gartner Group and worked for that company. He and his wife, who he met while at IBM (and who still works for the company), moved to Darien in 1989.
McMurray has since worked as chief information officer, head of human resources, finance and operations for various companies. He also conducted a series of lectures in China on the benefits of joining the World Trade Organization and eventually worked as a consultant and counselor for chief information officers and boards of directors for various companies.
Along the way, he picked up a doctorate in education from Columbia University, and he’s taught classes on contract negotiations, leadership, management and policymaking.
Some of his experience has been in government — he worked in the Massachusetts Statehouse as a student at Boston College, worked with municipalities and with the federal government. He is currently a member of the Darien Representative Town Meeting and served on Darien’s Board of Assessment Appeals for two years. He’s also a former member of the Republican Town Committee.