NORWALK, Conn. – Repeated assertions by a former member of the Norwalk Zoning Commission about the Planning and Zoning director’s lack of credentials for the position appear to be accurate.
“Get us the full, up to date professional credentials of staff (not the resumes from the 1970s when they were hired, thank you very much),” former Zoning Commissioner Mike Mushak said in a Sunday comment on this site, referring to P&Z staff.
The comment was in response to comments left by Republican Town Committee Chairman Pete Torrano on a letter to the editor from former RTC chief Art Scialabba. The letter calls for an investigation into Mushak’s frequent public claims that P&Z Director Mike Greene has no credentials as a planner to qualify him for his position, among other issues (NancyOnNorwalk will address those issues in another report).
But up-to-date credentials are hard to come by – in response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by NancyOnNorwalk in November, Personnel Department Director Emmet Hibson provided the documentation available for Greene, Assistant P&Z Director Mike Wrinn and Senior Planner Dori Wilson, which did not include a resume for Greene.
It did include his application for employment. On Oct. 27, 1978, Greene applied to be a planning engineer. For education, Greene lists his elementary school, his high school and says that he graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1977. The space for “courses majored in” is blank.
Greene worked as an environmental analyst and assistant engineer for a year after graduating, then went to work as an assistant to the project manager for a construction engineering company in May 1978, the application states.
Greene did not respond to emails requesting comment.
NoN asked Hibson on Monday if Greene’s personnel folder included any notifications of further credentials that may have been obtained during Greene’s long employment with the city. Hibson said there are none.
“It doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one, it just means he hasn’t put us on notice of it,” Hibson said.
There was no resume for Wrinn included in the packet provided by Hibson, either.
Wrinn applied to be a planning engineer on Oct. 30, 1985, according to his employment application. He is a Norwalk High School graduate and received a Bachelor’s Degree in natural resource conservation in 1980 from the University of Connecticut, the application states.
He had worked for the Department of Public Works since March 1981, overseeing construction projects to make sure the work was done in compliance with the specifications, the document states. He had also been a laborer, while attending college, working on construction projects.
Wilson’s information includes a resume.
She applied to be a senior planner on April 7, 1988, according to her application. She holds a Master’s of Science degree in urban planning from Southern Connecticut State University, which she received in 1985, according to the resume. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental science and design from Antioch College. She studied biology and art at Simons Rock Early College. She also studied architectural drafting at Norwalk State Technical College.
She had worked as a community planner for Stamford since 1985, the resume states. Before that, when she was working for her masters in 1983 to 1985, she worked as an assistant neighborhood planner for Stamford. From 1978 to 1983 she worked in visual merchandising for Lord & Taylor in Stamford and Ed Mitchell in Westport. From 1975 to 1977, Wilson was urban parks project manager for the National Parks Service in Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, planning and producing exhibits for the park service throughout the northeast, the resume states.
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