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03/26/2019 01:30 PMWith the town’s budget season firmly underway, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) has announced that former interim finance director Dawn Norton has been hired as a consultant. The BOS made the announcement at its March 20 meeting.
Norton’s contract will run through June 30 at a rate of $2,500 a month. The BOS unanimously approved a motion that the agreement was not to exceed a total of $10,000. Norton will work as a consultant to help during the budgetary process, as well with preparation with the audit.
“Her expertise and familiarity with town is invaluable with balancing the workload required during this transitional period,” First Selectman Christine Goupil said.
Goupil said that Norton will mainly work remotely during her tenure.
The request to the BOS for the assistance came from the Finance Office, due to the vacancy in the assistant treasurer role resulting from Susan Cunningham’s promotion. Earlier in 2019 the town promoted Cunningham from assistant treasurer to the role of interim finance director.
Norton wrote a letter of recommendation to the BOS in favor of Cunningham, and cited her understanding of the inner workings of the town departments and the public schools as valuable skills needed for the job. Norton also praised Cunningham’s stability and leadership in keeping the Finance Department running through the regular turnover in the office department.
People coming and going from the Finance Department isn’t new for Clinton. In summer 2018, the town began working with Linda Savitsky to assess the department and assist with the hiring of a full-time finance director. In fall 2018, the town announced Richard McArdle had been selected as the new finance director. However soon after it was announced that McArdle had rescinded his acceptance of the finance director position before even beginning to work. An unnamed member or members of the Board of Finance had allegedly interfered in the hiring process by contacting references without disclosing those conversations with the first selectman or the Board of Finance.
After McArdle resigned, Savitsky was hired in October as an interim finance director to work for several months and assess the department further. Savitsky left her role in Clinton on Feb. 22 to become the deputy treasurer for the State of Connecticut.