In the November elections, Clinton voters took the opportunity to make a major change in their town government by voting to switch to a town manager style of government effective Nov. 19, 2019.

Charter Revision Commission (CRC) Chairman Dennis Donovan said he was ecstatic when he heard the news that the town manager proposal had passed.

“It was a total team effort. We had a lot of cooperation from the BOS and the coalition group,” Donovan said. “This time around we felt confident we had a good package to present to the people.”

Donovan attributed much of the success of getting the charter revision passed to the outreach to the public that was undertaken by a bipartisan coalition of people in favor of making the change.

“I’d like to thank the people on behalf of the CRC having faith in our product,” Donovan said.

There are several important steps the town will need to work on to help transition to the new form of government, according to First Selectman Christine Goupil.

“We’re going to start looking at policies and seeing what the staff engagement with the town manager will be,” Goupil said.

Goupil said that the Board of Selectmen will sit down with different department heads to outline possible policy changes. Goupil said the town will also reach out to other towns that have made a similar transition before, and she also raised the possibility of using a search firm to find candidates for the town manager position.

According to Goupil, finding the town manager will be a top priority of the town, along with making sure the development of the old Morgan School goes smoothly and future development of the Pierson School.

What the Change Means

With a town manager form of government, there will no longer be a Board of Selectmen. Instead, a professional, accredited town manager, answerable to a newly formed seven-member town council, will act as the town’s chief executive, taking on many of the duties handled by the current first selectman. The hiring or firing of the town manager would require at least a 5-2 majority vote by the town council.

The town council that will hire and supervise the new town manager will be selected in the November 2019 elections. The four candidates who receive the highest number of votes will be seated for a four-year term, and the next three highest vote-getting candidates elected to a two-year term for the initial town council. After that election, all town council members would serve staggered, four-year terms.

Upon being seated, the 2019 Town Council will review town manager candidates and appoint a town manager for a term of up to three years.

Under the town manager form of government, the Board of Finance will be eliminated. Instead, the town manager will work with the finance director and department heads to propose a budget. The proposed budget would be presented to the town council, which will need to approve the proposed budget before sending it to referendum.

An update posted on the town’s website stated in part that the candidates for the town manager “will be determined on the basis of executive and administrative qualifications, character, education, professional training, and experience, such as a master’s degree in public administration (MPA), master’s degree in business administration (MBA), or related fields. The town manager need not be a resident of the town or state at the time of appointment and may reside outside the town while in office only with the approval of the Town Council.”

The Numbers

Question three on the Nov. 6 ballot called for the town to switch to a town manager style of government. The question passed by a margin of 4,317 votes for (74 percent) and 1,540 votes against. Question four on the ballot allowed for the town to keep the current Board of Selectmen (BOS) style of government, albeit with significant changes to the charter. This question received 2,347 “Yes” votes and 2,305 “No” votes.

For one of the proposed charters to pass, the majority of total voters had to vote “Yes,” not simply a majority of votes. Due to the complicated nature of the questions, it was not immediately clear if the initiatives passed on election night and a recount of the votes had been planned for Nov. 10. However, on the evening of Nov. 9 the town announced on its website that town attorney John Bennet and Registrar of Voters June Hansen had certified that question three had passed after computing the algorithm per state statute and no recount was needed. With 6,501 total votes cast at the polls, question three passed with 66 percent of voters saying “Yes.”

The Path to Passage

Getting the charter amended to allow for a town manager has been a complex, long, and sometimes strange journey in Clinton.

In 2017, the CRC proposed a revised charter that featured a switch to a town manager position. That proposal was voted down in July 2017 by the BOS, which chose to not send the proposal to a public vote. That move led to the formation of a grassroots coalition that successfully garnered enough signatures on a petition to force the town to allow the residents to vote on the proposed changes.

Initially, the BOS declined to put the proposed changes on the November ballot, partly due to an oversight by the petition organizers that provided no date for the changes to go into effect is listed; under that situation, a “Yes” vote to the changes would mean the town would need to make that switch within 30 days of the vote. However, after the Sept. 12 primaries in which four of the five selectmen were defeated, the BOS made a motion to include the proposed changes on the November ballot. The motion passed.

After seeking legal opinions on the timing issue, the same coalition that earlier encouraged voters to sign the petition then began to ask voters to vote “No” at the polls in November. The three questions concerning the charter change were defeated on election day 2017.

However, in January 2018, Goupil reformed the CRC with the goal of revising the proposed charter and once again getting the measure on the ballot in November. The same coalition that undertook the petition in 2017 held a series of informational session in the lead up to election day to educate voters on the changes.