Departing Officials Took More Than

200 Years Of Experience With Them

By John Voket

To the unsuspecting eye, the operations of Newtown’s government and school system continue functioning day-to-day without any readily discernable interruptions. But in roughly one year, Newtown has lost more than 200 years of collective experience as a result of turnover or retirement among top town officials and department heads.

Carole Ross, human resources director for the Town of Newtown, told The Bee this week that the exodus of so many long-tenured professionals who serve the community is unprecedented in her 15 years working for the town, a dozen of those years in her current position.

“I’ve never seen so many people leave in such a short concentration of time,” she said.

Perhaps the most high-profile official moving on — former first selectman Herb Rosenthal — was a personnel decision made by the voters. Mr Rosenthal lost to current First Selectman Joe Borst in last November’s election. But in the past year the town has lost a dozen other ranking staff members or department heads, nine since Mr Borst took office in December, according to Ms Ross.

After 20 years of service, administrative assistant Mary Kelly tendered her resignation concurrent with Mr Rosenthal’s departure. Jan Andras, who also worked in the selectmen’s office and as a meeting clerk for several boards and commissions for nine years, departed soon after to take a job in the Wilton first selectman’s office.

Mr Borst replaced those two staffers with a single assistant, Sue Marcinek. And Mr Rosenthal now serves in the unpaid capacity of minority selectman.

Benjamin Spragg, who served as the town’s finance director for 26 years, retired in May. He was replaced by Robert Tait, who formerly worked as a municipal finance official in Fairfield and Meriden before coming to Newtown.

Coming onto the job around the same time as Mr Spragg, former town clerk Cindy Simon retired last July after 26 years serving in that capacity. She was replaced in an interim capacity by Debbie Aurelia, who subsequently won a four-year term in last November’s election.

After 23 years, Land Use Agency Director Rita Macmillan retired late last August, and was replaced by George Benson, who was promoted from the position of Land Use Enforcement Officer. In a neighboring department, Tom Paternoster retired after ten years serving as the chief building official.

He has since been replaced by John Poeltl, who previously served as a town building inspector.

Serving 35 Years

Parks & Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian, who worked for the town for 35 years, recently retired. Her position has yet to be filled according to Ms Ross, but the town is currently considering several candidates.

Having only served as assessor for four years, Tom DeNoto recently announced he was departing to take the job as assessor in his home town of Bristol. He told The Bee that his new position will afford him a five-minute drive to the office versus the 40–60-minute average one-way commute to Newtown.

While Mr DeNoto is the most recently hired department head to resign, in his short tenure he helped streamline his department’s technology, and helped bring Newtown through its most recent state mandated property revaluation.

Ms Ross said that her office is in the process of narrowing down a short list of qualified applicants for the position, and she plans to present Mr Borst with her final two choices by month’s end.

Joseph DelBuono served seven years as director of emergency communications, managing the 24-hour dispatch center handling all local police, fire, and ambulance traffic. In mid-June, he transitioned to a similar position with a regional dispatch center serving Litchfield County.

Last week, the emergency communications vacancy was filled by Newtown native and Sandy Hook resident Maureen Will. According to her resume, Ms Will served as a captain of the Brookfield Police Department. Working in that capacity since 1999, she supervised the Communications Division with responsibilities including scheduling, training, and personnel management.

Ms Will also served as supervisor of the Brookfield PD Records Division, was an EMS liaison to the fire department, and a system administrator, overseeing computer systems, purchasing, and hardware. In that capacity she was charged with preparing and administering a $2 million operations budget.

School District Turnover

On the school district side of the equation, the longest-tenured department head to retire was Dominic Posca, the building and grounds supervisor. He served the town and school district for 25 years.

Mr Posca was replaced by Gino Faiella. Mr Faiella previously was director of facilities and corporate services for the Oxford Health Plans Company from 1995 to 2006, where he was responsible for 13 facilities totaling 1.2 million square feet. He also briefly served as the property and facilities manager for IKON Office Solutions/General Electric Asset Management.

The school district also lost its superintendent and assistant superintendent within the past year.

Assistant Superintendent Alice Jackson retired last summer after serving in that capacity for six years, and following a career with the district dating back to 1985. She was replaced by Dr Lynda Gejda, who previously served Region 15 at Rochambeau Middle School, as assistant principal at Wamogo Regional High School in Litchfield, and the Manchester Public School system where she was the K–12 supervisor for math, science, and technology. During that time, she served as interim assistant superintendent, as well.

Dr Evan Pitkoff also left last summer after five years to head up a Trumbull-based regional school support organization called Cooperative Educational Services (CES). Dr Pitkoff was replaced by former Derby School Superintendent Janet Robinson.

Dr Robinson was a classroom teacher for the gifted program in the Anaheim City School District in California; an instructor in family-community relations at Cypress College, North Orange County, Calif., and an adjunct at Long Island University, Southampton.

Tapping Outgoing Officials

According to Ms Ross, her job attempting to replace the departing officials was made somewhat easier in several cases by the outgoing officials themselves. She said several, including Mr Spragg, Mr DeNoto, and Mr DelBuono, not only reviewed resumes and sat in on interviews, but circulated the news of job openings through their own professional organizations.

And in the case of the town clerk, Ms Ross said Ms Simon was instrumental in qualifying and training Ms Aurelia, who was promoted from an assistant town clerk seat.

“I basically went back to these people once they formally announced their retirement and asked them how they could help find someone to replace them,” Ms Ross said. “And in several cases, the ones departing have been phenomenal working with us in the hiring process.”

In all of her interviews, Ms Ross said she was keenly interested in finding not only candidates who would be “the right fit” for the responsibilities and personalities in their offices, but those who would bring comparable or advanced technological skills to the table.

“I know the types of people who will be working for them, so finding the right person with the right fit is crucial,” she said, adding that if applicants indicate they lack technology training, “they are pretty much out of the running.”

Ms Ross said that she also looks for a certain sparkle in people’s eye that reflects a heartfelt commitment to community service.

“These are people that live for serving their community, not just paying lip service to the notion,” Ms Ross said. “This is part of who they are. Look at the ones who left…Herb, Cindy, Barbara. These were people with an outstanding devotion to the town.

“So when I’m looking for the right person…, I have to know they’re gonna love it.”