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05/29/2018 03:45 PMIs the first selectman, as chief executive officer of the town, responsible for supervising the work of town employees who serve as staff for the Zoning, Planning, and Inland Wetlands & Watercourses commissions? If the answer is “Yes,” are there any limits to the scope of that supervisory authority?
To help answer these questions, long-time town labor attorney Gabe Jiran reported on the results of his investigation into the legal provisions underpinning the first selectman’s authority and responsibilities with respect to town employees.
“This question is not unique to the Town of Westbrook,” Jiran told the Board of Selectmen (BOS).
Conflicts have arisen in town in recent years about whether the first selectman or a commission holds the main responsibility for selecting a candidate to hire for a town employee position whose role is as staff for that commission. Also at issue in recent years has been the extent to which the first selectman should or does monitor the day-to-day work of town employees, in particular those employees who are staff for a town board or commission.
Jiran’s investigation was intended to clarify the legal roles and responsibilities of each party.
Unlike most area towns, Westbrook’s government operates under default state regulations rather than under its own set of regulations, called a town charter. If the Town of Westbrook had a town charter, Jiran explained that it would be the document defining the division of roles and responsibilities between the town’s commissions and the first selectman. Typically, town charters list key town employees by title and identify supervisory lines associated with them. Without a town charter or town ordinances that speak to this issue, Jiran said that the authority granted in Connecticut General Statutes governs.
The Connecticut General Statutes, Jiran said, describes the first selectman as chief executive officer of the town with responsibility to “superintend the town.”
To understand the extent of the first selectman’s authority and role, in the absence of town ordinance or town charter provisions, he had to examine another official document, the Town of Westbrook Human Resources Manual, as adopted by the Board of Selectmen.
“I looked at the job descriptions in Land Use and note that the first selectman has administrative supervision,” said Jiran. “One question is about the first selectman’s substantive versus administrative supervision.”
Jiran explained that administrative oversight would be for those items contained in the Human Resources Manual. For example, questions about an employee’s interactions with the public and responsibility to the public would be administrative oversight, for which the first selectman is responsible. The first selectman also is responsible for issues of accountability, such as where staff members are each day or expenditures of town money, and collective bargaining with unions.
As to who should address other employee issues, Jiran saids there is a duality. The commission and first selectman need to be cooperative in employee evaluations. In the HR manual, the chair of a commission is the department head, carrying the substantive oversight responsibility.
Inland Wetlands Enforcement Officer Heidi Wallace asked Jiran in the selectmen’s meeting if the first selectman should attend pre-application meetings for land use application processes, and noted that Bishop had done so; Jiran declined to answer.
At the close of Jiran’s presentation, Bishop made a public commitment to start holding regular staff meetings with Land Use Department staff. In response to a question from Water Pollution Control Commission Chairman Marilyn Ozols, Bishop said that commission chairs would be invited and welcome to attend.