Council OKs Merging City Departments Amid Republican Objection

Editor's Note: The merger of the Personnel and Legal departments was voted on at a May 2 special council meeting, according to mayor's chief of staff Joseph Samolis.

The proposal to merge the city's human relations and legal departments has met with concern and opposition from local Republicans who says the move is virtually unprecedented in cities across the country and presents a conflict of interest.

At the Feb. 4 Middletown Common Council meeting, several resolutions were proposed: rename the deputy city attorney as deputy general counsel; change the legal department to the office of the general counsel/human resources, create a director of human resources and removing the director and deputy director of personnel positions; merging personnel and legal; and create three divisions of general counsel: legal, risk management, and human resources.

At the April 11 council meeting, the four agenda items were tabled.  Mayor Dan Drew says the council has 90 days to vote on the resolution, which means the May 6 meeting is the deadline. Republican councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski says the Democrats took the proposal off the April agenda at the start of last month's meeting.

"They didn't give a reason although Tom [Serra] did say he needed more information on stuff I've asked about, like what is it going to look like, who's responsible to whom, conflicts of interest what committees are associated with that, and a cost analysis." Ken McClellan, Republican Town Chairman and an alternate on the planning and zoning commission, has an outright objection to combining the two.

"If we merge these two departments, there is going to be a serious conflict of interest, where the chain of appeal goes from worker to personnel department to the legal department and legal can't represent both." Drew says there is a precedent for this type of merger.

"There are some around the country, but off the top of my head, I can't remember. A lot of companies do it this way, too." Drew disputes the conflict of interest claim.

"The operations and municipal personnel departments are so intertwined with legal issues and legal consequences that it makes good sense to have some labor relations and personnel issues that are handled through our attorneys because what it does is help us prevent employees from doing things wrong on the front end, which also prevents lawsuits." 

In fact, Drew says, "in a lot of respects, it's a much better scenario that what we have been doing." "I have no idea where this idea came from," McClellan says. "This was not about saving money, there are other areas in city government that would make much more sense, both organizationally and logistically that would save money."

McClellan says, "In my 40 years of working, I've never heard of human resources department reporting to legal."

Tonight's common council meeting is at 7 p.m. in city hall council chambers. Other items of note on the agenda are an appointment to the planning and zoning board to replace Michael Johnson, who resigned. Johnson and his wife recently purchased a home in West Hartford.

The council will also vote on appropriating $3,117 to purchase leaf blowers and hedge trimmers for parks and recreation and $23,085 to reimburse DeRita and Sons for emergency snow removal after the early February snowstorm, as well as another $28,000 to pay parks and recreation employees for overtime during the blizzard.