Future Salary Levels Set for First Selectman; Sticking Point on Other 'Compensation'

The first selectman, whoever he or she may be after the November election, won't receive a raise in the 2011-12 fiscal year, or in the year after that.

The town's Board of Finance Thursday night voted to increase the first selectman's salary, now $127,020 a year, by 0 percent in 2011-12, 0 percent in 2012-13, 3 percent in 2013-14, and 0 percent in 2014-15. The actual motion was that the salary be "consistent in the next two years and 3 percent for two years after that." Board of Finance Chairman Tom Flynn, during a break in the meeting, said the increases over four years were 0 percent, 0 percent, 3 percent and 0 percent.

But the finance board's interest in moving the town's chief elected official off a pension plan and onto a 401K-style retirement plan met with resistance from First Selectman Ken Flatto, who is leaving April 29 to join Gov. Dannel Malloy's administration.

Flatto said he didn't think the Board of Finance had the authority to do that, and an opinion from Town Attorney Richard Saxl, which Flatto said town boards have to adhere to, backed him up. It says the Board of Finance "has no authority to unilaterally require that the First Selectman or Town Clerk participate in a defined contribution plan in lieu of the existing defined benefit plan."

Saxl's opinion says a town ordinance requires that all full-time town employees, with the exception of police officers and firefighters, be members of the pension plan established under that ordinance. Firefighters and police officers have a separate pension plan.

But Flynn pointed out that the Town Charter says the finance board is responsible for setting the first selectman's and two selectmen's "compensation," while the Charter uses the term "salary" when talking about the town clerk. Flynn also said the Town Charter says the question of how much to pay the first selectman's salary starts at the Board of Selectmen, which the town hasn't done in at least 20 years.

Ken Brachfeld, a Board of Finance member, said the first selectman should move off a town pension plan if the town administration wanted town employees to do that. Brachfeld stressed that he wasn't referring to Flatto, but was referring to "first selectman" generically. "I think we're trying to make clear it would be appropriate for the first selectman to have a benefits package similar to what's being proposed for...employees," he said.

Board of Finance member Robert Stone said the question of whether the finance board set only the first selectman's salary - and not other compensation - wasn't a big issue in the past. "Years ago...it wasn't a big factor, but now, when we're talking about switching people to 401Ks, it's part of the whole package," Stone said.

Stone said he didn't know how the question could be settled legally because the Board of Finance could receive 10 different legal opinions.

Flatto said the finance board had to "accept certain limitations to your authority" and disputed Brachfeld's statement that the Representative Town Meeting may have the final say. "The only role the RTM has is to set salary...You can't start creating laws," Flatto said. Flatto added that the Town Charter required every board in town to adhere to the opinion of the town attorney. He said the first selectman gets the same benefits received by town department heads.

The issue didn't seem to be resolved Thursday night. Board of Finance members wanted to hear the history of how the Board of Selectmen decided to no longer be involved in setting the first selectman's salary, which no one Thursday night seemed to know. "I'm not sure we have a specific remedy to it. It's pretty murky," Flynn said.

Flynn said the Town Charter, when it's next opened up for revisions, should be amended to indicate that the Board of Selectmen doesn't play a role in setting the first selectman's salary, since that practice hasn't been followed in at least two decades.

The board did approve a "sense of the body" resolution that asked the RTM to research the issue of compensation for the first selectman and two selectmen; the role of town boards in setting compensation for those offices; and the definition of compensation as a whole as it relates to those positions.

"We're trying to send a message to town employees that what we're considering for them should also be what is for the first selectman," Brachfeld said.

Flatto said he'd reach out to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities to see what they had to say about it.

Board of Finance Vice Chairman Robert B. Bellitto, Jr., and board members Michael Tetreau and Kevin Kiley recused themselves from the discussion of the first selectman's salary. Bellitto has formed a campaign committee to run for first selectman and Tetreau and Kiley have publicly expressed interest in the job.

The finance board also voted to give increases, over the next four years, of 0 percent, 0 percent, 3 percent and 0 percent to the two selectmen and town clerk. Each selectman now makes $11,000 a year for the part-time position. The town clerk now makes $89,905 a year.