New Canaan’s CFO is planning to retire this summer, the town’s highest elected official said Monday when asked about the status of the municipal Department of Finance.
Dawn Norton following a recent meeting of the New Canaan Audit Committee approached First Selectman Rob Mallozzi with a plan to step down, likely in July, he said.
“I will start looking for an interim CFO in the next couple of weeks and we will see how that goes, but in the hopes of having a full-time CFO in here come late June or July,” Mallozzi told NewCanaanite.com.
The news came from Mallozzi following New Canaanite’s inquiry into the status of Administrative Officer Tom Stadler as overseer of the finance department—a recent change initiated by the first selectman that members of the Audit Committee said allowed them to support the town’s annual financial report for the year ending June 30, 2016.
Norton has held the position of finance director for about five years, taking over for Gary Conrad. For a short period of time and on an interim basis as a consultant, Town Councilman Kathleen Corbet also held the position prior to Norton.
The New Canaan Advertiser in 2014 hailed Norton as “Person of the Year,” saying she created financial procedures in areas of record-keeping that solved problems in accounting, oversights in billing and general accountability.
In the fall of 2015, New Canaan’s then-recently created Audit Committee detailed what it described as needed changes for New Canaan to rise to a level of internal controls that would support an annual financial review by independent auditors. Members of the Audit Committee surprised many by announcing that they would “suspend activities” unless steps were taken by the town and schools.
In a meeting two weeks ago, the Audit Committee noted that the schools had solved all major deficiencies identified by the group, though the town’s finance department had not.