The Common Council is the elected body for the City of Norwich charged with adopting legislation that controls the operating functions of City government.

We six members ran for office to serve our city with the vision of making it a better place for residents, businesses, and visitors. Despite the challenges we face, we remain focused on doing just that.

At times we are faced with controversial issues that need resolve. The City Charter charges us with the duty and authority to make legislative decisions on behalf of the city, and despite every outcome our goal is always to do our best – regardless of perception. State Law affords us the opportunity to deliberate some issues outside of the public eye for some important reasons.

One of those reasons is issues related to personnel actions. While we utilize the executive session privilege when it is necessary and warranted, we always conduct all public business openly for the benefit of the public, even when it would be much more convenient to deliberate sensitive issues behind closed doors.

The recent decision to hire a Youth Bureau Director to succeed long-time Director Bob Mason has drawn much criticism. It is our intent to share more detail about the process to provide transparency to the supporters and critics of the process and the decision.

When Mr. Mason publicly announced his decision to step away from the position for personal reasons, the Common Council decided to pursue refilling this position and solicited applications. We anticipated applications from a variety of prospective candidates and hoped to receive applications from candidates that we believed would be a great fit for the position due to their various backgrounds and experiences.

We were surprised in two ways: first, we expected there to be more applications for this important position; second, some of the candidates turned out to be ideal selections for different roles that were open in the City’s government. We must work with what we receive, and we did just that.

The City Charter authorizes the Common Council to be the appointing authority for employment of the City government. We determine which positions to fill and when, and what methods are used to recruit, interview, and hire within the boundaries of state and federal laws.

In the case of the Youth Bureau Director, we determined the first round of interviews would be conducted by the Human Resources Director, the Mayor, and at least one member of the Common Council.

This is not uncommon and has been one of many successful methods that we have utilized over the years. One excellent candidate decided to withdraw their application for personal reasons prior to the interview process. The best candidate was made an offer and counter-offered a much higher rate of pay that was outside the Common Council’s range for the position.

Unfortunately, that candidate was not willing to accept the employment terms offered by the City. Correspondence between that candidate and the city was handled exclusively by the city’s HR Director under the direction of the Common Council.

A few weeks ago, Mayor Sastri decided he was interested in the position and applied. At that time, the Common Council immediately removed Mayor Sastri from the interview and selection process and contacted all applicants for the position that decided to remain candidates for the position.

We consciously decided that in fairness to the process, the candidates, and the taxpayers that restarting the interview process was most appropriate and we have not wavered from that decision. Some candidates decided they were still not interested despite the change in the process, and we proceeded with the remainder of the candidates.

Sometimes we find a diamond in the rough, and in this case we did.

While interviewing a candidate for Youth Bureau Director we discovered that their education, skills, experience, and personal characteristics were the ideal fit to proceed with community development. Unfortunately, that candidate made a last-minute decision to not accept employment with the city for personal reasons after initially accepting an employment offer. With that decision in place, we were then faced with selecting the next best candidate to fill the Youth Bureau Director position.

After considerable discussion and debate we decided that making an offer to Mayor Sastri was the best option.

We made our decision with all the information we had available at the time, as we do with every decision we make. Between the time of the employment offer and Tuesday, July 6th several council members received new information from a variety of sources that we determined warranted further discussion before making the appointment at Tuesday night’s special Common Council meeting.

We determined the new information should be considered before proceeding to the next step and for that reason a motion was passed to table the appointment of Mayor Sastri to the Youth Bureau Director position.

At this time, we are discussing the next appropriate steps and will determine the best course of action to go forward.

Respectfully,

Members of the City of Norwich Common Council

Alderman Ward 6 Robert D. Jeffrey

Alderman Ward 1 Matthew E. Caldwell

Alderman Ward 2 Brian Doliver

Alderwoman Ward 3 Nancy Allaire

Alderwoman Ward 4 Linda Kays-Biviano

Alderman Ward 5 David Zieno