The First Selectman needs to serve as the leader and bridge between different town departments. Not that the town’s top official should dictate how departments fulfill their mission, but there needs to be coordination and a flow of information between the departments and commissions to ensure efficiency and clear communication. My goal would be to work with the department heads and commissions to break down divisions that may have built up, so the town works better as one entity.

How would this be accomplished? The first step is to have individual discussions with each department head and the chairman of each commission to seek out ideas and collaborate on how things might be improved. A second step would be to set up a structure for communication - whether that is a regular meeting or the use of digital tools. It is key to offer respect to each of the departments and commissions for their subject expertise.

One of my goals is to have a culture within the town government that encourages open exchange of information so that residents and taxpayers feel supported in many different ways. We need to be open to suggestions but also realistic in our planning of what can be done currently balanced against what might be possible in the future. At the same time, if a culture of collaboration and efficiency could be developed and projected by the town’s departments and commissions it would be a healthy situation.