The Board of Selectmen last week voted in favor of making New Canaan’s emergency management director role—an unpaid, volunteer role just two years ago—a full-time, paid job.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during the Board’s regular meeting May 17 that “many surrounding towns are beginning to hire full-time emergency management directors.”
“The preparedness for events, that only requires being there when the event occurs,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “But also there’s a lot of preparation and a lot of planning and a lot of drilling that’s required. So the past few months I’ve been thinking that we really ought to look at what our surrounding towns are doing and take the opportunity to create a full-time position.”
The salary range for the job hasn’t been finalized yet, according to New Canaan Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones.
It wasn’t clear which “surrounding towns” Moynihan referred to—neither of New Canaan’s similarly sized neighbors, Darien and Wilton, have a full-time emergency management director, officials say.
According to Wilton Human Resources Director Sarah L. Taffel, the town’s police chief serves as its emergency management director, getting an annual stipend of $3,000 for the role.
According to Darien Human Resources Generalist Karen Dunn, the town’s deputy fire marshal also serves as emergency management director. The salary of $116,261 isn’t broken down by role, Dunn said, though when the deputy fire marshal job was a separate position without the emergency management component, the salary range for it was $80,814 to $100,021, she said.
According to Westport Human Resources Director Ralph Chetcuti, the fire chief also is the town’s emergency management director and receives no additional money for the role.
In New Canaan, the job of emergency management director long had been done on a volunteer basis. Then, in June 2020—a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic—Moynihan ousted then-Emergency Management Director Mike Handler for reasons that Handler called lies. A few months later, Moynihan made the initially volunteer jobs of emergency management director and deputy emergency management director paid, with salaries of $20,000 and $15,000, respectively.
“We have two volunteers who receive stipends—[Emergency Management Director] Russ Kimes [Emergency Management Deputy Director] Phil Sheibley—who have been doing a terrific job,” Moynihan said. “Quite honestly, to do the job requires a lot of time and effort, as a volunteer, beyond a-full-time job.”
Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of approving the full-time, paid position.
Moynihan said the town will figure out a way to move money around so that the salary is paid out of the recently approved budget for fiscal year 2023.
“I would also mention that this position is not fully funded at this point,” he said. “Our fire chief had budgeted for an assistant file chief position which he is willing to forego to contribute to that. I have talked to [Board of Finance Chair] Todd Lavieri [Town Council Chair] Steve Karl, and we will find the money otherwise in the budget to fund this for the new [fiscal] year.”
He added, “This will first be advertised to internal candidates, and there’s only two qualified, the fire chief and Russ Kimes.”
Asked whether the two “stipends” now on the books will go away once the full-time emergency management director position is formalized, Moynihan said, “We have not decided that yet. I think, over time, [Fire Chief] Albe [Bassett] is prepared to be the assistant, as he has in the past.”
Officials said at the meeting that the new job’s responsibilities will include applying for funding reimbursement following emergencies—a task performed by the Department of Public Works in the past—as well as recruiting volunteers for fire, EMS and emergency response.