Town Clerk

Longtime Town Clerk, Donna Centonze, retired in 2008 after mentoring Carla Lawrence, for half-days for five years. Carla was elected as Town Clerk in 2008. The major duties of the Town Clerk are to organize and maintain official municipal records including land and vital records; issue licenses and permits; and supervise elections.

Municipal Records

A major initiative of scanning and digitizing municipal records was launched early in 2011. Tropical Storm Irene emphasized the critical importance of these actions. Thus far all land records as far back as 1944 and all survey maps have now been digitized. This initiative will continue until all land records are digitized and available on the municipal website.

Elections

State law mandates how voting and elections are conducted. For both federal and state elections, municipalities are required to provide access to Omniballot equipment, which allows the hearing and/or visually impaired to vote independently. This specialized equipment was provided to the Town Clerk’s office by the Secretary of State’s office.

The COVID pandemic forced changes to voting practices including mailing ballots to all registered voters. Other changes implemented during the pandemic are resulting in changes in the election statutes, which will become law in 2021. These include:

• Processing of absentee ballots as they are received rather than waiting until the official election date. With over 3,000 absentee ballots received for Waterbury’s 2020 November election, this change greatly reduced the need for last-minute ballot counting.

• Minimizing in-person voting; and

• Implementing changes to Town Meeting Day voting to provide safe and socially distanced means for both voters and poll workers.