By PAMELA DEY VOSSLER | photo by: BAMBI RIEGEL | riegelpictureworks.com
From left: Mike Burke, Monica McNally, Sarah Neumann, Jon Zagrodzky and Marcy Minnick
Great things don’t just happen. Not, at least, without great leadership. We know this, but often, the “who” and “how” of them get lost behind the end result—the wizardry (and near endless hours of mostly volunteer work) needed to make them happen, hidden from sight.
In our town government, it is no different but it is important to understand the gift that is our current leadership, with gratitude for all they do for us as they proactively manage our interests day-to-day and respond to crises when they occur.
It is especially important now, with the big moves before us …big moves such as Great Island, The Corbin District, Darien Commons, our growing Mental Health Task Force, the building at our elementary schools, flood mitigation and the greenery returning to Little Brook Road and the Noroton Heights Train Station after the Eversource clear cut—to name just a few.
The “who” starts with the team at the top, our Board of Selectmen: Michael Burke, Monica McNally, Marcy Minnick, Sarah Neumann and our new First Selectman, Jon Zagrodzky. Elected this past November 7th for a second two-year term, they ran unopposed though Monica chose not to run for re-election as First Selectman, opting instead to remain on the board to lead the Great Island Committee and support Jon.
They do their work for us with a bipartisan collegiality that bigger government bodies would do well to note. (And did I mention? Almost entirely as volunteers? Only the First Selectman receives a salary.) They have an ethical openness to opposing points of view aimed at making decisions that are best for the town rather than any sort of personal advancement.
“You have two Democrats, three Republicans who work extremely well together. I think very highly of both Sarah and Mike,” said Jon, a Republican, of his Democrat associates on the Board. “They have challenged us on some things in a way that was in the best interest of the town. And I very much appreciate having their perspectives,” he continued.
Jon served on the Board of Finance from 2008 to 2021, six years as chair, before winning his seat on the Board of Selectmen in 2021. He also served on the Darien Town and Police Pension Boards from 2009-2017, and was president of the Museum of Darien from 2011-2015, all while commuting to NYC five days a week during his years at McKinsey & Company and, more recently, in private equity. (He will retire at the end of this year to focus on his First Selectman duties.) To find him in his off hours, look up. He is a passionate aviator and keeps a Piper Seneca at Sikorsky Field in Bridgeport.
Jon in flight | Photos courtesy board members
“(The Board) is very collegial and respectful,” explained Mike, with warmth and good humor that belie his 35-years as a senior trial attorney. “I don’t sit there as a Democrat looking to see where we can chip away at a Republican colleague; I think our conversations are issue and merit based and I always try to remember that people who may have a different point of view have reached that view in good faith,” he continued.
Mike grew up in Scarsdale. He and his wife moved to Darien with their twin sons in 2008. They cheered their boys, now juniors in college, through basketball, football, lacrosse and rugby at DHS. Mike was elected to the non-partisan Representative Town Committee (RTM) in 2009, spent two years there then six years on the Board of Education. He won his seat on the Board of Selectmen in 2021.
Prompted by a lifelong call to give back, Mike began volunteering in Boy Scouts and continued through Skidmore College where he helped start the baseball team, earned his BA and later served on the school’s Alumni Board of Directors. He earned his JD at Fordham and by all reports, hits
a mean pickleball (often).
Jon, a devoted student of history, politics and policy arrived in Darien in 2005 with his wife, daughter and son. He came by way of California (where he was born), Texas (where he grew up), Virginia (where he graduated from Washington and Lee) and Philadelphia (where he earned his MBA from Wharton). His views come from talking to people, and a near exhaustive reading of opposing media outlets.
“I really want to hear from people who disagree with me. If it’s a better argument. I’ll be persuaded by it,” said Jon.
“I think it’s important to think about all of the different opinions and points of view,” agreed Sarah who is entering her third term on the Board. “I feel very strongly you need to represent everybody. You may be a Democrat, but you’re not only representing the Democrats,” she said.
Sarah, who grew up in Madison, CT and graduated from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, moved to Darien with her husband in 2004. They raised two daughters here. She came to town government after extensive volunteering locally for the Junior League and co-chairing the PTO at Hindley and Darien High School. In 2018, she spent a year on the RTM then won a seat on the Board of Selectmen in 2019. When she’s not commuting to NYC where she works full time at an executive coaching firm (though she will soon transition to Connecticut-based work), devoting herself to town business or visiting her daughters, you can spot her walking her Gardiner Street neighborhood, recharging for the many demands on her time.
A fun day out (from left) Sarah, Mike, Marcy, Monica and Kiera Parrott, Director of the Darien Library, at the 8th annual Darien Library Mini Golf event last February
“We have a really good board, and I’m excited to work with them going forward another two years,” said Monica who was elected First Selectman in 2021 after many years of volunteer leadership roles in town nonprofits including the YWCA and Opus for P2P (of which she was a founding member) and eight years on the RTM where she chaired the Public Works Committee and worked on eliminating
single-use plastic bags. Monica grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin. She came east for a marketing internship in New York then returned for a career in finance after graduation. She and her husband moved to Darien in 1994 and raised a son and a daughter here.
“If you’re going to be a leader in town, you need to put the town first, above your own personal goals and your own political aspirations and that’s what this group does,” Monica observed.
“We are really working for the best interests of every single constituent in this town,” echoed Marcy, who grew up in Shelton, CT and earned her BS and MBA from Sacred Heart University.
She and her husband moved to Darien in 2012. They have two daughters—16 and 12 years old, and a 10-year-old son. “There’s no agenda. We are a group of five people who love their community and want what’s best for it and who are going to think about that really reasonably,” she added.
Active in high school student government and shaped by her parents’ philanthropy and volunteerism, Marcy was drawn to elected public service through her role as the third-generation CEO of her family-owned aerospace and defense manufacturing company in Milford. Concerned with securing the business for the generation that will follow her, she began lobbying Hartford for trade education funding. It sparked a love of politics. The move to Darien brought her to volunteer roles with the Girl Scouts, and to new friends who, knowing her experience in small business and advocacy, asked her to join the RTM.
Despite three small children at home and a demanding full-time job, she agreed. In 2018, she won a seat on the RTM and joined the Planning and Zoning Committee (just as Darien Commons and the Palmers’ Project were coming on line). She was elected to the Board of Selectmen in 2021.
Mike and Sarah commuting to NYC on Metro North
Though “We don’t agree on everything,” acknowledged Sarah who, with Mike, split along party lines with their fellow Selectmen over which flags to fly at Town Hall, “we do try to handle it fairly,” she continued. “But I do think at the heart of it, the folks who are volunteering want to do it for the right reasons. They want to do the right thing for their town,” she added.
Not that there is a lot of discord.
“Part of the reason I think you don’t see such polarization here is because the electorate is not that polarized,” explained Jon. “…on the vast bulk of how things work—the schools, safe environment, nice facilities, great businesses and rising home values, we check all those boxes.”
It helps also that we are a small community, led by our neighbors. Often, we know each other. And if we don’t, we can, easily – through the contact information for each board member on the town website (darienct.gov) because with knowing comes access, a direct line of communication with the people shaping our lives, and with access comes accountability, which this Board has, in spades.
They open a vein for us.
In addition to the twice monthly Board of Selectmen meetings and the hours of reading required to do their job, each Selectman serves on two additional committees. It adds up to an extra 20 to 40 hours a month they must find outside their full-time jobs, their families and other obligations.
And it’s not just them: There are hundreds of other volunteers in town as jaw-droppingly committed as this Board—the seven members of the Board of Finance, the 100 members of the RTM and the nine members of the Board of Ed—to name just a few.
Play together, stay together (from left) Second place finishers Monica and Mike with winners Julie Best and Kadi Lublin, both members of the Board of Ed, at the town volunteer pickleball tournament organized by Jim Palin last spring
“Every town has volunteers but I’m telling you, the dedication, the knowledge that people have and their willingness to come forward and share that and share their time, it’s what makes this town so special,” said Marcy.
…and the paid town staff too. “I cannot stress how fortunate we are in this town with the people that work for our town. They go above and beyond,” said Monica.
While the Board of Selectmen sits at the top of the pyramid, serving as a sort of executive branch of our town government where items are initiated or first addressed, most—and definitely those requiring funding or statutory change, must pass through the Board of Finance and also the RTM, which functions as a sort of Congress. The RTM has dedicated committees that review issues related to their area then report out to the full group prior to a vote. The Board of Education runs separately from town government. Only the school building committees are run by the town because the schools are town property.
And they get stuff done.
No surprise there, when you’re lucky enough to have a Board of Selectmen like ours, committed as they are to transparent, ethical decision-making, with the kind of experience, expertise, empathy and courage to steward big change and lay themselves bare—not just in how they put themselves out there politically, but how they do it wholly and personally as well. They care about good communication. They care about building relationships. They care about trust—earning it and giving it.
Consider Marcy who lost her younger brother to suicide when she was pregnant with her second child. She channeled that pain into helping others, opening up and jumping in to help start the Mental Health Task Force following the recent tragedies in town. “I’m really proud of the work we’ve done on the Mental Health Task Force,” said Marcy.
Then there’s won’t-take-no-for-an-answer Monica, tenacious, visionary and unafraid to put her neck on the line when she knows it’s the right thing to do. Take Great Island, the 60 acres of land recently purchased by the town, the last parcel of land this size available on the entire east coast.
“People had serious doubts but I said to myself, I am going to make sure I do everything I possibly can. And if we don’t get this, it will not be because I didn’t try,” Monica said, explaining her extensive outreach to the RTM and the time she spent at the front door of Ned Steinkraus—one of Great Island’s previous owners, waiting for him to come home so she could ask him for the time the town needed to have a chance at purchasing at property.
Not surprising for someone who secured her first RTM win as a write-in candidate, standing outside the polling place, asking for votes as Monica did. Or someone who worked for 9 years as a financial consultant in the ‘80s/’90s, one of just two women in an office of 26 consultants.
It’s the same kind of determination she used working with Town Counsel Wayne Fox and Director of Public Works Ed Gentile to negotiate the $250k replanting deal with Eversource for Little Brook.
“We could have lost in mediation and gotten nothing,” said Monica.
But they didn’t.
“Go big or go home,” said Monica laughing, before adding, more seriously, “I inherently believe that if you’re willing to work really hard at something, you can make it happen.”
The Board believes it too. “We really do work together well,” said Monica. “It’s not an act,” she added.
They are all, most definitely a board, a highly functioning one, and a gift to our town that keeps on giving.
