Despite protests from Select Board member Kara Minar, the board voted at its March 19 meeting not to hire a professional search firm to look for a replacement for Town Administrator Tim Bragan, who is set to retire July 1.
Instead, the search process will be conducted by a seven-person committee consisting of two Select Board members (Minar and Don Ludwig), the town moderator, one member of the Finance Committee, and one member of the School Committee. The last two members will be a department head, which will be Police Chief James Babu if he is willing to serve, and a town employee, which will be Land Use Administrator and Conservation Agent Liz Allard if she agrees. The finance and school committees will each be asked to select a member.
At the board’s March 5 meeting, Chair Rich Maiore tasked Bragan with gathering cost and process information for executive search firms. This week Bragan reported that the price range for the five firms he looked at was between $10,000 and $25,000, although Maiore said the high end of that range was an outlier; the rest were no higher than $15,000. Bragan said the process would include discussing the board’s criteria for a town administrator; reviewing and placing an ad; collecting, reviewing, and vetting resumes; and communicating with the candidates.
Outside search: ‘Not enough value for the money’
Four members of the board agreed that hiring an outside search firm would not provide enough value for the money it would cost and would delay the search process. Member Don Ludwig was concerned that there was not enough time to choose a firm from among the five, and he said the services they provide are largely clerical. “I’m not sure we can’t handle it ourselves and save the town some money,” he said. Members Erin McBee and Charles Oliver agreed.
Minar strongly disagreed, saying that a search for the executive leadership of the town should be run by a credible and independent source, not a volunteer committee. But Maiore said the committee’s search would still be “credible, open, and transparent, and it would have a higher level of public engagement.” Either way, Maiore said, a committee would still need to be set up to review the resumes and conduct the first round of interviews. Minar also pointed out that candidates may not trust the confidentiality of a volunteer search committee, and some may not want their employer to know they were looking elsewhere for a job. Maiore said committee members could be asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and the initial interviews could be conducted in executive session.
Minar said it wouldn’t hurt to put out a request for proposals for a search firm, and if the board decided it was too expensive or there wouldn’t be enough value in the services offered, it wouldn’t have to hire any of the respondents. She made a motion to issue an RFP, but she was the only member who voted in the affirmative. Ludwig then moved to form a committee to do the search; all but Minar, who voted a “big nay,” agreed.
The board briefly considered adding two members of the public to the search committee. Oliver said the public members could possibly be chosen from the residents who signed the letter that was read at the board’s March 5 meeting. The letter voiced the expectations signers had for the search process. But the board quickly realized that choosing two members of the public to serve on the committee would be difficult. “While we’ve been talking, I’ve already gotten two texts,” Maiore said. The board voted unanimously for the proposed composition of the seven-person committee, which will not include any members of the public.
Because Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro, who is also the town’s human resources director, will likely be a candidate for the position, Maiore said resumes will be collected by Executive Assistant Julie Doucet and passed on directly to the committee.
Minar suggested the committee begin by setting the criteria that will be used to evaluate all the candidates, and Ludwig and Maiore agreed. Maiore said the committee hopes to conduct interviews by late April or early May.
