With an unusual type of government compared to other municipalities across Connecticut — a First Selectman and Town Manager model — the town of Simsbury was one the Town Administrator Workgroup hoped to learn more about as they consider a different sort of government structure locally.

The workgroup had a chance to interview Wendy Mackstutis, Simsbury’s First Selectman, at its April 17 meeting.

Simsbury changed to its current model in 2017, before Mackstutis began serving as a selectman and now as its first selectman. Previously the community had a Board of Selectmen model of government.

The 2017 change created places for both a chief elected officer in the first selectman’s office and a chief executive officer in the town manager, rather than the first selectman serving as both chief elected officer and chief executive officer similar to what Newtown has today.

So Why Change?

“Simsbury’s rather unique, only three or four towns in Connecticut have a first selectman and town manager,” said workgroup member Pat Llodra, who questioned what the reasoning was for the change in 2017.

Mackstutis said that the “focus was to alleviate the day-to-day administrative duties” and “put that on a professional manager.”

“That let the first selectman focus on policy, working with residents and working with boards and commissions, was the driving thing behind it,” said Mackstutis.

To that end, the town manager is a salaried position and the first selectman is no longer being paid a $10,000 per year stipend to help cover position-related expenses.

Mackstutis also noted that Simsbury is looking at another round of changes to its Town Charter next year to “clean it up and make it stronger.” To that end Mackstutis said she has been “doing a lot of homework” on the last charter change, as well as previous ones.

The local panel learned that Simsbury is now in the market for a new town manager, as its current one is leaving for another opportunity. An interim manager is starting in June, and one of the department heads will cover the gap between that and when the current town manager departs at the end of this month.

In looking for their new permanent manager, Mackstutis said that the key traits they will be looking for are “experience working with different personalities, and to keep things non-political and non-personal.

Llodra asked if they would be concentrating on seeking candidates with public sector experience rather than corporate experience, and Mackstutis said that “experience from the corporate environment is valuable.”

“I think corporate experience is not seen as bad at all, it’s not something to sneeze at,” said Mackstutis. “My big thing is communication and collaboration is the key to success. They need to deal with the public, they need to deal with department heads. We want them to establish a rapport and communicate. We’re looking for someone who is a leader, not just a manager.”

Formulating The Budget

As far as the municipal spending plan is concerned, “it’s the town manager’s budget” to start, Mackstutis said, as defined by the town’s charter. He works with department heads on the initial requests and forms the budget, which is then sent to the Board of Selectmen for discussion and workshopping. After that, it is sent to Simsbury’s Board of Finance.

Things like contract negotiations and staffing decisions are also the town manager’s purview, with the Board of Selectmen “signing off at the end” with contract negotiations.

The Board of Selectmen does conduct the yearly review for the town manager, who reports to them. The town manager is signed to three-year contracts, but the last contract was signed for four to prevent it from expiring on an election year.

“We did not want a potentially new board dealing with the town manager contract,” said Mackstutis; “they might not know what to do.” In looking for its new town manager, Mackstutis noted that the market for qualified candidates was “competitive” with “lots of towns looking.”

When asked why, Mackstutis felt there was “a lot of burnout” for public servants after COVID, she replied, “It was a rough time for all. Not a lot of people are looking to go into public service, so there is a lot of room for people to move around if they choose.”

The first selectman/town manager form has been working well for Simsbury, said Mackstutis, and the town manager has been “good at taking policy from the board and facilitating it to the department heads.”

However, Mackstutis said she saw “a lot of value in the administrator role” that Newtown is looking at.

“It defines the role better than a chief elected officer/chief executive officer situation like a first selectman/town manager,” said Mackstutis. “Defining lanes and relationships is important. I believe Simsbury will continue this form — we don’t believe we’ll consider going back to a strong first selectman but we may look at a town administrator.”

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.