Selectmen: Preston should keep elected first selectman and not seek town manager position
Preston — The town should keep its current form of government, with an elected first selectman running daily operations along with a Board of Selectmen and town meeting, two selectmen recommended Thursday after a study of municipal government structures in the state.
Democratic Selectman Lynwood Crary and Republican Michael Sinko took on the task of studying the town government positions of first selectman, and elected town clerk/tax collector and treasurer.
The question of whether Preston should consider hiring a professional town manager arose with long-time First Selectman Robert Congdon's announcement after the 2015 election that he plans to retire in 2017.
In a three-page report presented to the Board of Selectmen on Thursday, Crary and Sinko recommended keeping the current form of elected first selectman, town meeting and three-member Board of Selectmen “unless the town’s population increases dramatically” or political strife forces the Board of Selectmen to seek a change in government structure.
Crary and Sinko credited the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities for providing detailed data on municipal government structures throughout the state.
The data showed that 100 municipalities, 59 percent, have selectmen/town meeting forms of government, while 28 have town council/town manager governments.
“Most towns that have managers also have a town council and large populations,” the report said.
Only two towns — Granby and Hebron — have a selectmen/town manager/town meeting form of government, which is what Preston would have if it chose to hire a town manager.
All 28 towns that have town managers also have town charters, the selectmen reported, and are larger than Preston.
Preston does not have a town charter and uses state statutes to govern operations.
Preston has a population of 5,116, while towns with a town manager/town council form of government have a population range of 10,900 to 57,000, the report said, citing October 2015 statistics from the state Department of Labor.
Hebron's population is 7,789 and Granby's is 9,399.
Crary and Sinko inquired why Granby and Hebron made the switch. They learned that Granby decided to separate daily administration from town policymakers, while Hebron switched because “they wanted a more professionally run government,” the selectmen's report said.
In spring, the selectmen also recommended no changes to the elected combined town clerk/tax collector and the elected town treasurer positions.
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