Town officials got a big shock on Monday, Aug. 4, when they learned that Wilton’s Chief Financial Officer was simultaneously holding down a second full-time job in a town 2,000 miles away. But according to Wilton CFO Dawn Norton, she was in full compliance with her employment requirements when she also started working as Town Administrator/Finance Director of Greybull, WY and that she kept Wilton’s town leadership well informed about it.
Since then, GOOD Morning Wilton obtained an email sent by Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker to the all Town Hall departments heads that Norton had tendered official resignation on Wednesday morning, Aug. 6, “effective immediately.” Town Hall has also put up a job posting for the CFO position on the town’s website.
Despite multiple statements from Norton that she told Wilton officials she was also working in Greybull, both First Selectwoman Toni Boucher and Knickerbocker maintain that she did not inform them about her new job, and if they had known Norton wanted to simultaneously work full-time for another town, they would not have allowed it.
Norton contradicts that, citing a contract provision that permitted her to seek additional work if she informed the first selectman first — which she said she did. She also insisted she told Knickerbocker that she’d been hired full time in Greybull, had given him her retirement notice, and together they were “actively” working on a transition plan.
The conflict comes on the heels of the Town’s recent move to start a process review to closely examine operational and financial procedures at Town Hall — including concerns about Wilton’s Finance Department after auditors found a “material weakness” in the audit and that the department had been staffed only at half-capacity.
That, as well as an unauthorized issuance of tax credits by the Tax Department and a tumultuous budget process, prompted members of the Board of Finance and the Board of Selectmen to push for a review.
Attention focused on the understaffing in the Finance Department and how “overworked” Norton was — although they did so without knowledge that Norton had also been working in Greybull as well. But Norton said that all of those issues have contributed to her desire to leave Wilton.
Norton told GMW that “the situation at Town Hall” is what prompted her to look elsewhere for work.
“[It] is one of the reasons why I was actively seeking to get the heck out of dodge because I can’t handle the work that was being dumped on me, and I was not getting any support whatsoever in hiring positions in my office. For a year, I did accounts payable — I paid the bills, I filed the invoices, and that is not my responsibility, that is a clerk’s responsibility,” she said.
Adding to the stress of her job was what she said was “negativity” around the audit’s material weakness and the senior tax credit situation.
“I want out. I’m tired of the negative that I keep getting pushed on me. People aren’t listening to the situation,” she said, adding, “I can’t do it all, and there’s no help in my office, and there’s no help and support from Toni or from Matt.”
“Everybody keeps saying, ‘Well, the assessor and the [tax] collector report to the finance director.’ No, they don’t. They report to Matt. I have nothing to do with tax collection and the assessing. The only thing I review is what gets posted to the ledger. And as for the material weakness, the material weakness is because we don’t have the staff in my office to get all the work done that we need to get done,” she said.
She Said, They Said
Norton points to her signed offer of employment letter in January 2022 with a clause that states, “…may have employment outside of the Town of Wilton, but you must notify the First Selectwoman of such employment.”
Norton told GOOD Morning Wilton she did exactly that, giving written notice on April 7, 2025, to First Selectwoman Toni Boucher, Wilton Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker and Human Resources Director Sarah Taffel that she was, in her words, “actively seeking employment elsewhere.”
The brief letter states: ““As stated in my hiring contract with the Town of Wilton, I am informing you that I may take on additional employment outside of the Town of Wilton.”
Boucher provided copies of both the contract and letter to GMW. In written answers to questions posed by GMW, Boucher and Knickerbocker said that provision is a common feature offered to municipal employees, allowing them to accept “occasional” assignments to help out other towns in critical or temporary instances.
“This is common in municipal management; area towns frequently enlist the help of neighboring colleagues in a variety of capacities when needed, including finance, assessment, building and health inspections,” they wrote.
Boucher and Knickerbocker said it only occasionally happens for an employee to have another job, and it’s usually a part-time employee to help make ends meet. It’s allowed as long as it’s not a direct conflict or interest and that any extra work doesn’t interfere with their responsibilities to the Town of Wilton
That’s not an option they’d likely permit for Norton, had they known.
“Having a salaried department head take on a second full-time job in another town is an entirely different matter. This is not allowed, aside from the occasional “special assignment” type work as described above.”
Norton had been working for Wilton remotely from Wyoming since February 2025 on Family Medical Leave (FMLA), taking care of her husband who was injured. In April, when she learned of the municipal job opening in Greybull, she applied for it, and was hired, first on a part-time trial basis, and then full-time permanently.
Greybull town records show that, on May 12, 2025, their town council voted to appoint Norton as the town administrator and finance director.
It was then, Norton said, that she told Knickerbocker.
“I gave him my retirement notice — I gave it to him when I went full time,” she said. “My notice said I’d give them full support, whatever it is, up to Nov. 3… when all department head contracts are … renewed. I said, ‘I’ll do 100% of everything. I will get the audit done. I will attend meetings. I will do whatever it is that you need me to do in my full capacity,” Norton said.
Norton insists Wilton officials were well aware she had accepted a full-time job with Greybull, and that she and Knickerbocker were “actively working on a transition plan for probably a couple months now” — something she repeated multiple times during the interview.
“We’ve had numerous conversations on the transition and that I’d be working out here,” she said.
Although she did not directly inform Boucher that she’d accepted the second job, she said she did tell the one person she was required to — Knickerbocker. Norton doesn’t know if Knickerbocker told Boucher.
“I honestly don’t know. I don’t know what the dynamics are with everything going on there, I just don’t, so I wouldn’t want to venture to say. Did Toni know that I was seeking other employment? Yes. Did she know that I had found other employment? I don’t know. Did she know that I’ve been working on a transition plan with Matt? I don’t know. I can’t say because it’s not that I don’t speak with her, but I don’t speak with her,” Norton said, adding, “I report to Matt.”
That’s also her reason for why she didn’t tell any of the members of the Board of Finance or Board of Selectmen, despite their oversight of the work she does for Wilton.
“I never told any of the boards,” Norton acknowledged. “That wasn’t on me to do, so I didn’t feel that was my responsibility. I don’t report to them. I report to Matt.”
As for submitting a formal resignation letter, Norton said it just happened this week.
“[Matt] never asked me to give my full letter until [Monday] and that’s when I gave my full letter. And I think that was because something happened,” she said.
Town officials told GMW that “Dawn verbally agreed to resign yesterday afternoon (Monday, Aug. 4, 2025) after Town Hall became aware of her position in Greybull.”
Norton said she’s been able to effectively manage both her Wilton and Wyoming roles keeping things separate, and that she’s met all of her Wilton responsibilities in the time she was doing double duty.
“I do not do Wilton work when I have Greybull work, and I do not do Greybull work when I have Wilton work. I give 100%. I have never let any of my responsibilities down on any of them,” Norton said.
Norton said the town officials in Greybull know full well that she is also working for Wilton, and they are completely okay with .
“They’re aware that I am still fully supporting Wilton. They don’t have a problem with that, as long as I’m giving my attention during the time when I need to give my attention to my responsibilities in Greybull, I do. And they know when I have my responsibilities for Wilton, I can’t give my attention to Greybull. It’s very small out here. It’s not like Wilton,” she said.
GOOD Morning Wilton has reached out to Toni Boucher and Matt Knickerbocker with additional questions and will update accordingly.
Good riddance. As someone who, in a professional capacity, had the displeasure of working with her, I can safely say that the Town is better off.
I interviewed with Taffel and Norton in February.
I was to be Dawn Norton’s support staff using Munis.
The day I was to have received my start date, I received a phone call from the agency (Ledgent) that was doing the vetting process. They stated that Dawn suddenly had to leave and go to another state to care for an ill family member, and that Wilton was “pausing” the hiring process.
Very disappointing for me, very upsetting. Had even taken the required courses for new personnel and the sexual-harassment training to tick that box for the State of Connecticut.
Not a bit surprised.
I assumed that the agency or the Town of Wilton would have gotten back to me with an update, they never did.
Editor’s note: This comment has been updated to show that Susan Arcano interviewed with Wilton in February, not in March.