After nearly 10 years of repeated appeals by town auditors for town leaders to improve the town's internal financial controls, add staff hours to town financial operations, and hire a full-time financial professional, it looked last week like everything was finally settled. Following a search process that yielded 28 applicants, a short list of three candidates, and a unanimous search committee pick, the town's Board of Selectmen voted to appoint Kimberly Brockett to the post of finance director last week; she accepted. But then things all fell apart.

On June 26 Brockett was appointed Westbrook's first finance director. But on the afternoon of June 28, in a phone call to First Selectman Noel Bishop, she said she had decided to withdraw her name and not accept the appointment "for personal reasons." According to Bishop, Brockett said her withdrawal from the position "was not related to salary or any other provisions of the proposed employment agreement."

It was a huge turnabout from the Monday meeting at which town search consultant Glen Klocko proudly introduced her to the Board of Selectmen as the committee pick for town finance director.

"I'm pleased and proud to introduce the background of Kimberly Brockett, the unanimous selection for town finance director," said Klocko as he introduced her.

Brockett, too, sounded excited on Monday to take on the new challenges of the post.

Said she to the selectmen that the interview process "has been a great experience and I look forward to getting on board...I'm very excited and I'm looking forward to making a difference."

After the vote, she also commented about her impressions of the town's financial issues based on reporting in various media,

"As an outsider, it was evident that something was needed, specifically a full-time finance director," said Brockett.

But the dream candidate was not to be.

Brockett, employed for the past nine years as controller for Bishops Orchard and serving in the second year of her second term on the Guilford Board of Finance, was thought by the committee to have the skill set it wanted: a degree in business, professional accounting experience, knowledge of municipal finance, and political savvy that could help her succeed in a financial management post that no one had ever held before.

"We're disappointed about her decision, but we respect her and wish her all the best," said Bishop.

Now the boards of Selectmen and Finance must decide what to do.

The first town search for a finance director earlier this spring failed to yield a consensus candidate. Now, though the second search yielded a consensus candidate-and the candidate had accepted the job-the search process must either reopen or be ended.

One challenge for any candidate for the post will be to successfully navigate the division of responsibilities for town financial matters between the Finance Department staff-the future director, the Assistant Finance Director Carol Hess, and the town's part-time accounts payable contractor Peter Apatow-and elected Town Treasurer Darlene Jones.

Without a town charter's specifying otherwise, Westbrook's elected town treasurer is responsible under state statutes for recording the town's cash receipts, revenues, disbursements, and for overseeing town investments. The treasurer signs all town checks and assures there is sufficient documentation to support these expenditures.

In CT Statutes Section 7-80, the duties of the town treasurer are listed as "to receive all money belonging to the town, pay it out on the order of the proper authority, and keep a record of all moneys received and of all moneys paid out…The town treasurer shall be, ex officio, treasurer of the town trust funds."

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