At a special afternoon meeting last week, the Select Board unanimously approved offering Jared Mullane, currently assistant town accountant in Andover, the position of Harvard’s finance director to replace outgoing Lori Bolasevich. Mullane signed a contract with the town this Tuesday.
There were 14 applicants for the position, of whom a subcommittee interviewed three and chose Mullane as the candidate to present to the full Select Board. During his Dec. 9 interview on Zoom with the Select Board, Mullane said he had applied for the job in Harvard “because it seemed like a great community.” In particular, he cited the town’s triple-A bond rating, money set aside for future post-employment benefits, and the long tenures of many town employees.
Because his current job requires him to give three weeks notice, Mullane will not take over as finance director in Harvard until sometime in early January 2021. Bolasevich is leaving at the end of this week. Meanwhile, Alice Ferro, Westford’s longtime town accountant, will fill in on a part-time basis for Harvard.
Mullane said he had begun studying accounting in high school at the suggestion of a friend’s mother, who was a certified public accountant. After earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Bridgewater State College in 2012, Mullane spent five years working for accounting firm Powers & Sullivan. The firm specializes in municipal finance, and Mullane said his job sent him to many towns across Massachusetts.
For the past three years, Mullane has held the Andover accounting job. Andover’s yearly expenditures are about five times larger than Harvard’s. In fiscal 2019, the last year for which state figures are available, Andover spent a total of about $152 million, compared to Harvard’s $28 million.
Select Board member Kara Minar asked Mullane what his biggest challenge at Andover had been. He cited a four-month period early in his tenure when his boss went on maternity leave and another member of the finance department retired, requiring Mullane to cover the work of three people.
According to his profile on LinkedIn, Mullane received certification as a school business administrator from Worcester State University in 2018. But a six-month stint in the Chelmsford school system, he said, taught him that he liked the accounting aspects of municipal finance more than school budget issues like transportation and lunch programs. He also said he expects to complete his MBA from the University of Southern New Hampshire early in 2021.
Given his credentials, Select Board member Lucy Wallace asked Mullane about combining the town finance director’s job with that of school business manager. But Chair Alice von Loesecke said that was not under consideration, as the board had taken a vote some time ago to separate the two positions. Moreover, she said, the school district’s current business manager, Aziz Aghayev, has just received a new three-year contract.
