Boucher Questioned Over Inaction to Improve Town Hall Working Conditions

First Selectman Toni Boucher heard both resident and town officials’ questions about how she’s handled fixing the Town Hall working conditions for municipal employees.

Despite Wilton voters authorizing the bonding of $1,585,000 in 2024 for some Town Hall repairs (including heat, windows and other urgent fixes), the Town has not yet gone to bond market to fund the repairs.

At Wednesday’s (Feb. 4) Wilton Capital Planning Committee, Boucher was asked why the long-standing issues at Town Hall remain unresolved and why she hasn’t pursued even temporary solutions, despite her frequent mentions of her staff’s discomfort with the poor physical conditions at work.

Since taking office more than two years ago, Boucher has repeatedly cited inadequate heating and limited space at of Town Hall and the Town Hall Annex, frequently reiterating a need for extensive remediation work and possibly an entirely new facility.

When she did so again at the Wilton Capital Planning Committee meeting, some committee members asked why she hasn’t relocated her employees to other available town facilities, including Comstock Community Center, until remediation efforts move forward — especially if the funding exists to do so.

According to Boucher, the employees don’t want to.

Boucher said the option has been discussed but that employees have expressed a preference to remain together rather than be split across multiple locations.

During the meeting, Boucher broached the topic again, recounting a story about a recent job interview with a candidate for a purchasing agent position in the Finance Department. and described how working conditions were discussed during the interview.

According to Boucher, the exchange happened when the candidate asked the unnamed interviewer what the offices look like. “So [the interviewer] had to hesitate. She goes, ‘Well, certainly not as nice as the one you have now, but mine isn’t very nice either, but we’re gonna get heat next … We’re finally making them get heat.'”

Board of Education Chair Ruth DeLuca questioned why the heating issue still hasn’t been remediated.

“Working without heat is not okay,” DeLuca said. “We’ve known that there hasn’t been heat in Town Hall for three years.”

Department of Public Works Director Frank Smeriglio said the delay was that they hadn’t gotten to Phase 2 or Phase 3, although he gave no more specific details. 

Boucher, meanwhile, said that the remediation work has been unable to move forward because the town does not have adequate staff to manage the projects it has before it, including Town Hall renovations that were approved and authorized at the 2024 Annual Town Meeting.

“We now do not have the staff capacity to get those projects done until the other projects are finished … The capacity isn’t just there right now, so we’re a little bit delayed on getting that,” Boucher said.

“Everybody’s been patient and we’re okay with that,” she said, referring to her staff.

Board of Finance member Kari Roberts asked why the Town has not considered relocating people to temporary office space for a year or two, even just to develop cost estimates and options to do so.

“Maybe you could put numbers on paper, and maybe companies like Turner Construction or something, maybe they outsource project management,” Roberts said, to get projects moving forward faster.

Boucher’s response started with, “It’s more complicated than that … The synergy of having to work together is really important.”

Boucher said there was no available space at Comstock before describing crumbling infrastructure and the need to have more building inspectors in town, although she said there was no room for them. She spoke at length about the influx of people into Wilton and the “growth mode” of the town, before referencing the fire department’s ability to service five-story buildings. She also stated that the Town Hall Annex once had been a DPW garage, and noted that the IT director was operating out of a closet and that all of this needed to be addressed.

“It is quite frankly at times a little embarrassing when you’re trying to bring people into town to have them see, where is their workplace going to be,” Boucher said.

She later stated that, in essence, Town Hall employees would rather work under these conditions than be split apart.

“Every time I mention that, well, they say, ‘We have to have all of these people with us. We all work together,'” Boucher said.

“We are a people place and we are not doing remote in the town,” she said.

At the meeting’s end, Wilton resident Sara Curtis admonished Boucher for her lack of leadership and her choices in not giving her staff adequate working space.

“Personally, I’m sick and tired of having the comment that, ‘Oh, Comstock’s full. There’s no room. Every single room is used.’ There’s over 3,000-square feet two seconds down this hallway that can be utilized,” Curtis said.

“An entire department could be moved over there … but we continue to absolutely ignore it,” she said.

“I absolutely reject the comment that we need to all be face to face … Please don’t tell me that working out of Comstock is a hardship or something you can’t do,” Curtis said.

“We have absolutely no leadership in this town from the first selectman … Strategy. Planning. Meetings. We are better than this,” she said.