John Amport

The Board of Selectmen is a policy making board with the First Selectman as Chairman & CEO. The Board of Selectmen is to "generally supervise the administration of the affairs of the Town" and be "generally responsible for coordinating the activities of all the Agencies of the Town, and for keeping under review, the present and future needs of the Town". They are also specifically charged with responsibilities having to incurring indebtedness, acquisition or disposition of land and roads, approving contracts and initiation of legal proceedings.

The hiring of a Town Manager would do little to change the BOS role in the operational activities of the Town. The First Selectman is the Chief Executive and Administrative Officer (See Charter Section 7-2). The real question is; what is the best organizational structure to have effective and responsive Town operations? I believe that the best solution is to create a Director of Operations responsible for the hands-on day to day operations in the same vein as our Director of Finance position. I think it is unwise to remove the First Selectman position from its daily managerial oversight role (This holds true as well as to the elimination the Town Clerk and Tax Collector as elected officials).

An ancillary benefit of this approach is that it would allow the 1st Selectman additional time to focus on more strategic issues.

I know some will say that the Town cannot afford "another layer" of overhead. It is my considered opinion that it would actually save money through improved productivity, better purchasing strategies and superior planning.