Human resources director job vacated days into Dunn’s new term
BROOKFIELD — The town’s top human resources administrator is no longer a Brookfield employee.
First Selectman Steve Dunn confirmed on Monday that Brookfield’s Human Resources Director Fern Smenyak’s last official day of employment was Dec. 7, four days into the Dunn’s term. Dunn did not give a reason for Smenyak’s sudden departure.
“It is the town policy to not discuss personnel issues,” Dunn wrote in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media.
The first selectman declined to answer a series of questions around Smenyak’s departure, including whether the former director’s employment was terminated by Dunn, or she voluntarily resigned. Smenyak, when reached by phone, declined to comment.
Dunn said Brookfield’s Human Resources assistant Lisa
Delp will cover Smenyak’s former duties.
Dunn did not indicate when the town’s search for Smenyak’s successor would begin.
Delp, when contacted, told Hearst Connecticut Media she is “helping out in the interim,” with Dunn and Marcia Marien, the town’s finance director and controller, also expected to take on some of Smenyak’s former duties.
Marien deferred any comment regarding the human resources director to the first selectman’s office.
Smenyak was hired by former First Selectman Bill Tinsley in 2014. Dunn occupied the first selectman’s seat for six years, from 2015 until 2021, when he was defeated by Selectwoman Tara Carr.
Both Carr and Selectman Bob Belden indicated they were not notified by Dunn regarding Smenyak’s departure.
“During the past two years, Ms. Smenyak has been extremely professional, enormously competent, and technically superb as the town’s HR director,” Carr wrote to Hearst
Connecticut Media.
Tinsley, when contacted by Hearst Connecticut Media, said he does not know the circumstances around Smenyak’s
departure. He described Smenyak as a “10-year employee with a great record.”
Smenyak earned a salary of $100,904 in fiscal 2023, according to town salary figures.
According to Brookfield’s town charter, the first selectman has the authority to hire and dismiss town employees, with the exception of school district employees “and other employees whose employment is otherwise provided by law.”
The charter also states the first selectman “shall give notice of each hiring or dismissal to the Board of Selectmen at its next meeting. Such hiring or dismissal may be overruled only by a majority vote of the Board of Selectmen at its next meeting following such notification.”
“If she was fired, they just got rid of the town’s very best employee,” Tinsley said.