Council Approves Erin Halsey as City Clerk

In the end, it probably didn't hurt that Erin Halsey knew Common Council President Richard McQuaid probably since they were in kindergarten.

Halsey, a lifelong Norwalk resident, mother of three and member of the Board of Education until last week, was approved unanimously by the Common Council on Tuesday to be Norwalk's next city clerk.

But more than knowing some officeholders, Halsey has experience in other areas relevant to the job of city clerk: She's been a member of an important city board—sitting for two years on the Board of Education—and she's familiar with the logistics of organizing meetings, having done that as part of her career working for companies in the pharmaceutical industry.

"I love doing logistics," she said. "I'm really glad that the city's allowing me to give back what I've gotten over my lifetime."

Mayor Richard A. Moccia, who nominated her and in whose offices the city clerk does most of her work, said he will administer the oath of office to Halsey later. As city clerk, Halsey will be present at Common Council and Board of Estimate and Taxation meetings to assist those boards with any clerical duties, such as handling documents and calling the roll—but not in recording meeting minutes, a task performed by another employee.

City clerks also help out the mayor with various administrative projects. One of the duties Halsey says she expects to enjoy most of all will be giving tours of City Hall to visiting schoolchildren.

The city clerk also is in charge of the city seal, and applies it to official documents, like proclamations (see a photograph of a seal attached to this article). Scheduling the use of the Norwalk Concert Hall is yet another duty.

Halsey may be best known in Norwalk for having successfully lobbied for a state law mandating that all public schools have automated external defibrilators (AEDs), and now all schools in the towns surrounding Norwalk have them. Unfortunately, Halsey said, a loophole in the law allows comunities who have financial problems to avoid the mandate. Not even her two years on the Board of Education was enough to get the defibrilators into Norwalk schools.

The devices can cost as little as about $1,2,00, and with the fundraising done in schools for other goals, they should be within reach of Norwalk schools, she said. People sometimes think the devices would be difficult to use or they might get sued if they used them improperly, but those are myths, Halsey said.

"It's very easy, and there's no liability," she said.

Her own youngest child was born with an aortic stenosis, a heart condition that required six surgeries before he was a year old. At one point, doctors told her they didn't expect the boy to survive long, but he's now a healthy sixth grader attending .

Halsey was one of eight children raised by a single mother in Norwalk. After graduating from , she received a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Connecticut at Storrs.

A resident of East Rocks Road in the Cranbury section of Norwalk, she is raising three children, including two daughters, one a senior and one a sophomore in Norwalk High School, along with her son.

As a member of the Board of Education, Halsey said, she was impressed by how much time and effort board members put into their unpaid positions. The  superintendent of schools, Susan Marks, has impressed her with Marks' strong commitment to doing what's best for children, she said.

As a board member, Halsey most enjoyed going to children's events and least enjoyed the long board meeetings, which she thought were sometimes repetitive. She was most frustrated by the teacher's unions, who complained about relatively small losses of income while she was scrambling to find work and took a huge pay cut after losing her own job.

Correction: Instead of "city clerk," the article originally identified the position as "town clerk," a different office.