KENT, Conn.—The only thing the Parks and Recreation Commission and the selectmen could agree on this week in their continuing debate over hiring practices is that they need legal advice.
The selectmen, upset because the commission gave mid-year raises in two consecutive years, want to rewrite the commission’s ordinance to restrict its ability to set wages to new hires. The commission members are angry over this move, contending that any changes to the ordinance should be initiated by its members and that it has the authority to expend the money in its budget as it sees fit.
At the last meeting of the Parks and Rec Commission its members emphatically said “no” to the proposed change and Chairman Rufus deRham attended this week’s meeting of the selectmen to support that vote.
“I don’t think you have the right to change the ordinance because you have created a commission,” he told the selectmen. He contended that under state statutes, the legislative body—board of selectmen—can change ordinances if there is no commission. “But you created a commission and in 2025, the Board of Selectmen agreed to this ordinance, which supports our intention to make sure that the department’s director is exempt [from Fair Labor Standards Act rules on minimum wage and overtime pay] and gives him certain powers, including hiring and firing. It also gives the commission the right to use the funds that the townspeople agreed to when they passed a budget.”
He said the Parks and Rec director has never given raises without commission approval and the commission has never exceeded its salary line item. “We have the freedom to adjust salaries mid-year to reflect our needs and to reflect changes in minimum wages,” he asserted.
He said he does not believe the selectmen have the right to change the existing ordinance without the commission’s approval. “We’re against any revision to the ordinance and think you have to look at the state statutes,” he said.
Selectman Lynn Mellis Worthington interpreted that statute deRham cited differently. She said that it referred to a “fund” and not the operating budget. “How is a fund part of a budget?” First Selectman Eric Epstein asked.
“A budget includes everything in capital and expense—that’s it,” deRham responded. “A recreation authority means a committee or commission within the government of the municipality. If you don’t have it, then you guys would control it, but you do have a commission.”
“The Board of Selectmen is responsible for ordinances and can bring things up if it thinks there is a need for change,” argued Selectman Lynn Harrington. “They discuss it and then take it to a town meeting.” She asserted that the mid-year raises did not go through the town’s “governing body,” i.e. the selectmen.
deRham insisted that the commission is the governing body for its funding. “We have been responsible to what has been given to us,” he said. “I don’t believe the ordinance should change at all and I think we should pursue a legal opinion.
At last, both sides of the issue were in agreement on something.
