HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-09-14-ATMS-min.pdf Interim Town Manager Search Committee Meeting
September 14 2004
PRESENT Richard Pagett, Deborah Brown, George Burnell,Tony Close, Bill Kennedy
Dan Fenn, Hank Manz, Evelyn Silber, and Lori Manning.
The committee voted 6—0 (Mr. Kennedy was not present at the time of the vote) to
approve the meeting minutes of September 7, 2004
Mr. Pagett updated the committee on what advertising had been done for the position.
An ad was run Sunday in the Boston Globe unfortunately it was placed in the wrong
section of the job listings. The ad will be run in the Globe again on Sunday September
19th in the professional section. The ad is also posted on the Town, MMA and Boston
Work web sites.
Mr. Pagett had spoken with two people at MMA regarding the MMA s capacity to help
us with the search. They do not keep a listing of Retired Town Managers, the only
source of information they could offer for obtaining this information was to recommend
we read the People Section of their publications, which would include announcements of
Town Managers retiring from or leaving their positions.
Mr. Fenn brought the committee up to date on the contacts he had made. He had spoken
with several Town Managers and was able to put together a list of potential candidates.
Mr. Kennedy had also contacted a former Town Manager who recommended three
people who may want to be considered as candidates.
Next the committee discussed how they would like to screen resumes. They decided they
should each be given the opportunity to review all resumes and give their
recommendations to the committee. Ms. Silber stressed the importance of confidentiality
in distributing the resumes.
It was also decided that all internal candidates deserve the courtesy of an interview and
the discussion of candidates amongst the committee would take place during executive
session.
Whether or not to restrict candidates applying for the Interim position from applying for
the Regular position caused some debate. Some believed that allowing the candidates to
apply for both positions would cause the following problems. We want the person hired
as the Interim Town Manager to be focused on the job at hand, not on what can I do to
get the regular position? The person hired as the Interim Manager would build up a
constituency and this could cause some problems if he is not hired as the Regular
Manager. Considering the Interim Manager for the Regular position may complicate the
search for a Regular manager, others may not want to apply if they know there is another
candidate in the Interim position.
Some advantages of allowing candidates to apply for both positions are more resumes
would be received and if the Interim Manager were hired as the Regular Manager they
would 'hit the ground running
Some members of the committee also thought that having an Interim Manager would
allow time for contentiousness within the Town to dissipate.
No final decision was made as to whether or not the candidates for the Interim opposition
would be restricted from applying for the Regular position. The committee does not have
to make a recommendation to the Board of Selectmen until September 27th this gives the
committee one more opportunity to meet before a decision must be made.
Next the committee discussed interview questions. It was suggested that they follow the
same process the Comptroller Search Committee had used. Each member of the
committee submits a few questions, from these questions the committee would compile a
list of questions to be used during interviews.
The committee voted to adjourn the meeting at 9.00 p.m.