Key Points:
- Multiple senior staff departures prompt hiring efforts for DPW director and town administrator
- Board of Finance prioritizes refilling town administrator role over new DPW management position
- Organizational changes shift reporting structure and redefine town administrator responsibilities
Why it Matters: Leadership gaps and structural changes at Town Hall could affect how effectively Wilton manages services, staffing and long-term planning.
Wilton officials are moving to fill two key leadership positions at Town Hall — a new director for the Department of Public Works and a new town administrator — as the town continues to address the departure of several senior staff members over the past year.
According to First Selectman Toni Boucher, candidates have already begun applying for both roles. Members of the Board of Selectmen have said they want to remain involved in the hiring process, which Boucher acknowledged at the most recent BOS meeting on Monday, May 4.
A Year of Turnover
The past year has seen several high-level town employee departures, including the chief financial officer, town administrator, controller and most recently the DPW director.
Following each departure Boucher has said operations remain on track and that the work was being handled. At the same time, she has also pointed to ongoing staffing challenges, particularly within DPW. During this year’s budget process, she advocated for adding a new, highly-paid managerial position in that department, citing workload and capacity concerns, and prioritized that over hiring a new full-time town administrator.
At the time, she told the BOS that she would make the sacrifice of not seeking a new town administrator so the DPW position could be funded.
However, the Board of Finance sent a clear message to Boucher and the BOS that it did not want to fund the new DPW manager that Boucher was fighting for, recommending instead that the town administrator position be refilled in order to strengthen overall management of Town Hall — even adjusting the FY 2027 budget to make it a priority.
The Search Continues
A search committee for the town administrator position that was formed last year and included members of the BOS had stalled following Boucher’s reported attempt to sidestep procedure by implementing her personally preferred candidate, although the group was never formally disbanded.
At Monday’s meeting, Boucher said the search is moving forward again, even though no formal reconstitution of the search committee has been announced.
“For the record, we’re continuing the town administrator search,” Boucher said. “The Board of Selectmen clearly, in their budget negotiations, said that the appointment of a new town administrator was a top priority and I really appreciate that support.”
Boucher, meanwhile, recently revised the organizational chart at Town Hall, doing so without consulting the selectmen. While the CFO position previously had reported to the town administrator, who served as the first selectperson’s second in command, Boucher has now made CFO Dawn Savo her direct report.
Further, along with letting Savo independently oversee the Finance Department, Boucher has also given her authority over the Tax Collector and Assessor’s Office as well as the Human Resources Department.
“The difference is the town administrator no longer has to govern,” Boucher said. “Since we have such a strong finance office staff — much stronger than we had a year ago — both in the CFO and the controller, and in the various senior accountants, and so forth, and it’s going very well, that they report directly to the first selectman whoever they might be, into the future, unless they decide to change that.”
Consequently, she said the town administrator will instead focus on managing the town clerk, registrars of voters, DPW, Planning and Zoning/Land Use departments, the Highway Department and Parks and Recreation Department.
“As a result the compensation would not be at the same level but we still have people very interested in doing that,” Boucher said. “If that structure changes in the future, we’ll see what happens … I think you were all in agreement that you felt the CFO should be under the first selectman going forward.”
Wanted: DPW Director
Officials said that the sudden departure of DPW Director Frank Smeriglio, whose last day was last Friday, May 8, leaves a significant void in the department. Assistant Director Jeff Pardo is going to step up as interim director, according to Boucher, but based on what Boucher and Smeriglio both said — and reinforced in Boucher’s press during the budget process to hire a new DPW managerial position — the department is already stretched thin and may need additional interim help.
“We are going to be moving ahead with a permanent replacement very expeditiously,” Boucher said. “We’re going to be interviewing candidates soon. Please note that all of our job descriptions are online and updated for all the public to see, including the position of director of DPW.”
“We’re also asking the Board of Select-members to be a part of that interview process for that position as well for DPW,” she told the BOS regarding the town administrator position, “so stay tuned for that. You’ve already been contacted about this and we hope to move very strongly ahead. We do have candidates that have come forward for both of these positions and again we’ve contacted all of you to be a part of that process.”
Smeriglio and the Search
Selectman Matt Raimondi asked Boucher if she had considered engaging an experienced DPW director who could help in the search process.
“I think we have some internal folks that we can tap in first to do the prescreening,” Boucher said. “I’m hoping to do that first, the ones that we have internally. I think that that would work.”
Raimondi asked, however, if any of them had actually directorial experience.
Boucher then suggested that Smeriglio himself might be an option. “We have a couple people that we’re prescreening right now.”
Raimondi asked, “So is Frank continuing to help us with this search?”
Boucher said that they could certainly ask him.
“I haven’t asked him but that might not be a bad idea,” Boucher said, noting they could talk more about the matter when they convene what she implied was an upcoming planned executive session on the search.
Interim Issues
Earlier in the meeting the other selectmen had raised considerable concerns and frustration with Boucher and Savo about not hearing from the high-paid finance consultant Joseph Centofanti with the firm PKF O’Connor Davies, whom the town hired more than six months ago — first as an interim CFO and currently as an accounting consultant.
“I’m a little bit burned out from consultants right now, but should we consider temporary resources?” Raimondi asked.
While she did not name the private firm Smeriglio is joining, Boucher said that Town Hall was already discussing interim help with company, which she said works and consults with municipalities, and indicated that the town could turn to them to fill gaps created by Smeriglio’s departure.
“That conversation is taking place right now between Dawn (Savo) and the firm that Frank is going to work for,” Boucher said.
The article has been updated after publication to include the “key points” and “why it matters” elements at the top of the story, that were inadvertently omitted.