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More Urgency and Action

Karl Kilduff has been Clinton’s first town manager for more than a year now. This is what the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) wrote of Karl when he was hired as CHFA executive director in 2015: “He has extensive experience with budget and financial management, strategic planning and priority setting, community development, economic development, infrastructure management, and human resources.”

And this is what the Town of Clinton asked for in the search for our first town manager: “The ideal candidate will have exceptional strategic planning and visioning skills in order to assess community priorities and develop innovative approaches to address community and organizational challenges.”

What a perfect match! Right? How lucky were we to get Mr. Kilduff for our first town manager?

So why aren’t we seeing plans for community and economic development, strategic planning, priority setting, or innovative approaches?

Again, borrowing from our town manager search brochure, where the roles of the Town Council and town manager were clearly defined, “The Town Council will provide the oversight and leadership required to guide the direction of the town...and…the town manager will be responsible for overseeing the execution of all ordinances and policies adopted by the council.”

The council’s leadership seems to be missing from the current formula. Where are the council’s plans, long-term goals, revitalization and beautification projects, or overall expectations that Mr. Kilduff will then execute? We are now a full year into his contract; we need to see more urgency and action so another year of potential, time and money isn’t wasted. We need to see more evidence of a commitment to this town’s future so Clinton can get to where we wanted it to be when we first voted for a town manager.

Carrie Allen

Clinton