Longtime Town Clerk Cindy Simon To Retire By July

By John Voket

Newtown is not without its treasures — the Ram Pasture, the flagpole, even its massive Labor Day Parade. But it was difficult to find anyone at Edmond Town Hall this week who would not include on that list of treasures Town Clerk Cindy Simon, who announced this week her plans to retire.

Much to the dismay of town hall staffers, Ms Simon broke the news formally this week that she plans to retire to the tiny community of Anthony, Fla., this coming summer. She decided to make the announcement now to provide as much lead time as possible so an appropriate replacement can be trained and appointed to the position until the post comes up for election in November.

“It’s going to be strange because I’ve never lived anywhere else,” Ms Simon said. But the desire to be closer to her immediate family members, her mother, Betty, and daughters Heather and Kimberly, has become a driving motivation, she said.

Her best friends, many of whom regard Ms Simon and her husband, Richard, as extended family, said they took the news hard.

Town Human Resources Director Carol Ross said she has known Ms Simon since their children attended Middle Gate School together in the early 1980s.

“She has been a close personal friend of mine and my family since then and we have shared our triumphs and pain on many occasions,” Ms Ross said. “How do you sum up at 25 year friendship without tears?”

It was in 1993, when Ms Ross heard about a story in The Newtown Bee headlined: “First Selectman Starts Term Without Staff.”

“My husband thought I would be qualified to do the job, so we came to town hall that Friday night to slide my resume under the door of First Selectman Bob Cascella’s office,” Ms Ross recalled. But she was spotted by Ms Simon who was employed at the time taking tickets for the movie theater.

“She came out, looked at me and said ‘I can’t believe I didn’t think of you! …give me your resume and I will give it to Bob on Monday.’ She did and here I am 14 years later.” Ms Ross said.

Tax Collector Carol Mahoney said she has been working with Ms Simon for almost 20 years.

“I will miss her both professionally and personally,” Ms Mahoney said. “I have been very fortunate to work with such a good friend over the years. We’ve shared many experiences together.”

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said Ms Simon’s retirement is a real loss for the town.

“She has been a very fine town clerk, who has served the people well for many years,” Mr Rosenthal said. “In addition to her wealth of knowledge, she has always treated the public well and is very fair in the administration of her office.”

The first selectman said her professionalism exceeded even political boundaries.

“A tribute to the way she has conducted her office is the fact that although Cindy has always been a proud and loyal Republican, the Democratic Party has also endorsed her for reelection on several occasions,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Rosenthal said he and his wife Michelle “value Cindy and her husband Fuzzy as friends who will be missed.”

Besides the two-and-a-half decades she spent in the town clerk position, Ms Simon — born Cynthia Smith — worked the kitchen and counter at Mrs Anderson’s Foods, a local market. She moved on to jobs with the telephone company, first as a customer service representative and later in a marketing position.

It was there she first met the man she would marry nearly 25 years later. But in the meantime, her first marriage brought her two daughters and the opportunity to put her culinary skills to work, producing baked goods from a commercial kitchen in her home that were distributed to stores in the area.

Ms Simon said she probably inherited the motivation for public service from her father, who served on the Legislative Council, and her mother, who was Newtown’s tax collector and later, town clerk.

“But coming to work in her office was not as much an act of nepotism as it was having the customer service skills my mother was looking for,” Ms Simon explained.

As an assistant town clerk for her first five years on the job, she cross trained in every position, gaining the knowledge she has capitalized on since transitioning to her current position nearly 20 years ago. While technology has helped ease the burden of the town clerk’s office staff, which no longer has to painstakingly type entries into every legal document on a typewriter, she said the customer service skills have served her best over the years.

“Most of this job is public relations,” she said. “You have to know when to turn away from the paperwork, look people in the eye and listen.”

Although virtually every aspect of the job involves matters of legal importance, Ms Simon said the most stressful time each year comes during election season.

“It’s stressful because you really can’t make a mistake,” she said. “While most mistakes in every other aspect of the job can be fixed, when it comes to elections, there’s no room for errors.”

Ms Simon said she will especially miss “the hometown New England atmosphere of Newtown, the flagpole, Main Street, and especially all my friends.”

“It’s surreal to me,” she said. “This job has taken up half my life. I know I’m sitting here talking about retiring, but it doesn’t really seem to be happening. I know it will sink in once it gets closer, but leaving will certainly mean a really big change for me.”

Now that she is in the position of both mother and grandmother as direct caretaker for her grandson Jayson, Ms Simon said at age 57, she is looking forward to the experience of being a stay-at-home mom without the pressures of a job for the first time in her life.

“And now I’ll get to spend some quality time with my mom, who is 79 going on 59,” she said. Ms Simon described the town of Anthony as very much like New England, with the rolling hills of north central Florida providing fertile ground for grazing cows and horses, but also the home of soon-to-be-neighbor, John Travolta.

“It’s far away from the hurricanes, there’s pine trees instead of palms, and Fuzzy — who has served on the Newtown Police Commission — will feel at home because we’ll have three deputy marshals as neighbors living on the same street,” she said.

But Ms Simon acknowledged that her final days in Newtown will not be easy.

“I know I’m going to miss my friends. I’m so blessed to know so many people,” she said. “I’m going to miss the office staff, the routine…you know I have learned something new every day I’ve been here — it’s never the same day twice.”

Ms Ross said she can not say enough about Ms Simon both as a personal friend and as a department head.

“She is truly Newtown’s gift and someone I cherish as a friend,” Ms Ross said. “The town is losing one of its greatest assets. She and her mother have been employees in one form or another in Newtown since 1959. That’s quite a legacy.”