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05/29/2024 08:30 AMLast month, the Clinton ended a four-month search when the Town Council announced it had hired Robert Tait as the town’s new finance director.
Clinton had been without a finance director since December 2023, when previous finance director Sue Cunningham announced she would be retiring that month. In late April, the town announced that it hired Bob to be the new full-time director.
Following a lengthy career as the finance director in Newtown, Bob says he was ready for a change.
“I had reached retirement age but I was looking for something new and something that was challenging,” Bob says. “I had been there a while and had helped them grow and fixed some things, but the day-to-day became kind of the same. It dawned upon me I wanted something where I could make a difference.”
As finance director, Bob describes his job as “being a caretaker of Clinton’s financial health.”
“There’s a lot of cycles; there’s a budget cycle, a capital improvement cycle, and a financial statements cycle. Right now, we’re working on reporting on the last year’s financial performance,” Bob says.
Bob’s specific duties will entail financial planning, reporting, debt management, internal auditing, grant administration, advising in collective bargaining, and all other financial functions of the town.
Bob’s journey to Clinton is a little different than most employees. He was born in Nottingham, England, and lived there until he was 12 when his family moved to America. After initially considering pursuing a degree in engineering, Bob joined the Navy and served for five years.
During that time, he took an accounting course and discovered he liked it. After his discharge, he became an accounting major in college and, soon after graduation, got a job with KPMG. At KPMG, one of his clients was a municipality, which intrigued him, and when an opening for a municipal finance job became available Bob took it.
In Connecticut, Bob has worked as a controller in Fairfield and a finance director in Meriden, in addition to his roles in Clinton and Newtown.
“I enjoy finance a lot. I enjoy presenting and informing people of the finances, whether it’s the Town Council or citizens,” says Bob.
Bob says it’s those times he is called upon to make a presentation he enjoys the most.
“My favorite part is teaching the various stakeholders municipal finance. It’s fun to me to try and explain it in ways everyone can understand,” Bob says. In fact, Bob even has taught continuing education classes at night because he enjoyed the teaching aspect so much.
In his spare time Bob enjoys spending time with his four grown children, history, and traveling with his wife.
“There’s a lot of places in Connecticut people don’t know about. When you just get in a car and go around the state, you can find some really interesting places, so we like to do that,” Bob says.
Though he’s only been in Clinton for a few short weeks, Bob says it’s been smooth sailing thus far.
“All the department heads have been knowledgeable and fun to work with so far. Everyone has been very helpful and I’m looking forward to working more with everyone.”