Community Corner

Sengle: "Clinton Needs a Town Manager"

"When we were a small New England town with fewer distractions, no I-95, etc. and few traveled far to work, the system worked."

This Letter to the Editor is written by Phil Sengle:

I recently read a Hartford Courant article about Cromwell’s change to a Town Manager form of government after decades of Town Meeting/Board of Selectmen rule.  They outgrew this form and so has Clinton. We are often compared to Cromwell due to size and other characteristics.  Except they have sewers. 

I will continue to promote the Council/Manager form of government as a way to increase professionalism and continuity in town government and reduce the amount of favoritism in hiring and the awarding of contracts. 

As a result of decisions made by first selectman and boards of selectmen over several years, we currently have precious little in the way of professional town staff and that hurts Clinton.   

I am not talking about the offices of Town Clerk, Assessor or Tax Collector, they are fine.  I am mainly referring to the various boards and commissions staffed by volunteers (who need technical assistance) and the Board of Selectmen itself.   Only the Board of Education and the Police Commission has a professional staff to implement the policies set by those two boards. 

The Waste Water Pollution Commission has no staff so they hire theirs at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Planning and Zoning has no staff so they hired an outside consultant to help write new regulations for the I-95 interchange zone (a.k.a. Morgan School site).  The often criticized and feckless Economic Development Commission has no staff to implement ideas and policies.  The Department of Public Works has no engineer so we hire one as needed.  We have no Human Resources function and no merit reviews – a legal liability. 

These are deficiencies we seldom see but are costly in terms of bad decisions, poor performance and outside consultant hiring.  Worse yet is ignoring issues staring us in the face.  A good idea might be hiring a combination town planner and economic development coordinator.  Hire a Public Works head who is also a professional engineer and maybe a part time HR person.  What are we waiting for?  

Will a Town Manager fix all of these problems?  Of course not, but such a change will put us on a course towards better government.  No town manager will allow these deficiencies to exist or they will never get another job in town management.  Too much power is currently in the hands of the first selectman.  As Mr. Fritz famously stated at a Board of Selectman (BOS) meeting I attended – “I am a dictator.”  Some power is granted by charter and some just usurped since he is never challenged by the BOS members of his own party. 

By design in our system, politics rule, so why should we be surprised.  This problem grows as ever larger amounts of money are at stake.  On top of this we have very poorly attended town meeting system which leaves us open to costly bad decisions and special interest forces.  A meeting can easily be packed to insure a desired outcome.  It all depends on who shows up, which is dependent on how much or how little the BOS or advertises the meeting.  

When we were a small New England town with fewer distractions, no I-95, etc. and few traveled far to work, the system worked.  It worked for 300 years, but not for the last 50 years or so.  Cromwell changed their charter and the sky did not fall.  They advertised for a town manager and already have 64 resumes, some with outstanding qualifications according to the Hartford Courant Article. 

Our First Selectman position has no qualifications attached to it whatsoever and it shows.  The pool of candidates is reduced to people who need the job, who have a thick skin and have the time.  We are really missing out on some great leaders.  Gone are the days when corporations like SNET would grant someone a leave of absence to be first selectman.  Our first selectman is paid approximately $85K per year.  A good town manager will be paid about $120K per year.  That extra cost will be overwhelmed by improved efficiencies, reduction in cronyism, better planning and, over time, an increased level of professionalism at all levels. 

Let’s insure the next 350 years will be even better than the last for the sake of future generations.  


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here