Approximately one month after Director of Community Services and Recreation Gerardo Sorkin was laid off when his position was eliminated, licensing, separation and personnel policy pay questions persist.

However, town employees have reported no issues regarding the transition of Sorkin’s managerial responsibilities to finance director Ed Swinkowski.

Questions

Sorkin was laid off June 25 solely for economic reasons, according to First Selectman Michael Freda. “I had concluded that, based on the fact that our referendum only passed by 365 votes, we had to continue to work on the cost side of North Haven,” Freda said June 28. “This saves us $128,000. This is another position we will not replace next year.”

Convening July 29, the Board of Selectmen discussed Sorkin’s separation package. Because they conferred in executive session, Freda said afterward that little could be revealed yet of such severance pay.

“He is entitled to his vacation time,” Freda said of Sorkin in June. “And as part of directorial guidelines, there are provisions for him to receive severance under the case of layoff. He will receive everything he is entitled to.”

During a meeting on July 29, members of the public inquired whether town policy necessitated maintaining six department head positions, thus disallowing elimination of the Director of Community Services and Recreation job.

Town Hall’s personnel manual for department heads states, “There shall be six Department Heads of the town.” The manual reads further, “Dismissal shall be for cause, subject to all of the rights of due process.”

“The word cause can be subject to interpretation, it can be ambiguous,” Freda said on Aug. 2. “In my mind and that of the town attorney’s, the cause is difficult economic times, hard financial times as it relates to the taxpayers.”

“My goal as the first selectman is to be able to reduce costs over the course of time without dramatically decreasing services,” he added. “It was and still is my opinion that [Sorkin’s] position was not needed.”

Additionally, Freda said he discovered that the town of North Haven, or a town employee, must be licensed as capable of running the Community Services and Recreation Department, as dictated by state law.

“We’re going to have to follow that up,” he said. “My intention is to have the town licensed. I’m working on that.”

By Sept. 1, Freda believed, the town would be properly licensed. In the meantime, he added, a lack of licensing is of no concern. “Because we’ve been very forthright with the state, they are giving us time to do this,” he said.

Sorkin was originally hired on March 17, 2008 by the previous administration.

Swinkowski weighs in

Following Sorkin’s removal, recreation director Eileen Pettit, senior center director Judy Amarone, pool and daycare directors and three community services counselors began reporting to Swinkowski.

In addition to his community services, recreation and finance director duties, Swinkowski also acts as the town’s comptroller. Despite a seemingly large and taxing workload, Swinkowski and his co-workers say there have been no problems.

“As far as recreation, it has been a very smooth transition from Sorkin to Swinkowski,” Pettit said last week. “We’re accomplishing many things and running new programs.”

“We’ve been really busy, and everything has been very smooth,” she added.

Amarone agreed. “Things have been great,” she said. “We haven’t missed a beat. If I have an issue or a question, I bring it up with Ed, and we deal with it.”

“Ed is easy to work with,” she added. “I worked with him through the senior center renovation, so we already have a good rapport, and he already had trust in me. He’s a great person to work with. I really like Gerardo, too, and nothing has changed under Swinkowski.”

Freda, too, was full of praise. “The transition is going very smoothyly,” he said. “For some reason, morale seems to be up in that department.”

“Ed is covering the managerial aspects and responsibilities,” Freda added.

Oversight and troubleshooting seem to be Swinkowski’s primary community services and recreation obligations.

“When issues come up, the directors or counselors email me, and we talk about them and resolve them,” Swinkowski said last week. “It’s probably no different than how it was done in the past.”

“I direct them where to go,” he added. “I make managerial decisions to put them in line to make the right decisions.”

Swinkowski echoed Amarone that trust and prior experience are essential factors in the transition’s continued success.

“I think the directors and counselors over there do a pretty good job at what they do,” Swinkowski said. “I’ve worked with these departments before, from a financial standpoint, so we already know what’s going on. They are not new to us.”

Swinkowski has held preliminary meetings with each director and the counselors. Future meetings will be monthly, he said.

Swinkowski hoped things would continue as well, though he noted that there have not yet been any major trials. “So far it’s been business as usual,” he said. “So far nothing has really come up. I haven’t really had to test myself in any emergencies yet. I will do whatever I can to head that off. I don’t like surprises.”