by Joan Eliyesil ·
Friday, April 11, 2025
The Select Board broke its long-standing pattern of skipping town administrator performance reviews this month. At its April 1 meeting, the board showed the results of a full-scale review of Town Administrator Dan Nason’s performance. Nason has been on the job for about seven months.
Select Board Chair SusanMary Redinger told the Press that feedback for the review was solicited from department heads and all committee, board, and commission chairs. She said the board also offered “informal one-on-one sessions to all Town Hall staff who wished to provide verbal feedback.” One employee opted to do that, and another sent an email with comments, which were included in the review.
Nason was rated on 18 categories, ranging from communication to knowledge of processes to personnel management. Respondents graded Nason in each of the categories as needing improvement, proficient, highly efficient, or exemplary. In most of the categories, Nason’s overall grade was proficient. When asked to rate his overall performance, about half of respondents said he was proficient, with the other half rating him as highly efficient or exemplary.
Nason was rated particularly high in communication, collaboration, and partnership across town entities, and community engagement. One respondent said, “Dan’s communication has been so refreshing. He is always willing to take time to listen and come up with helpful ways to approach a situation. His focus on collaboration and open communication between boards, groups, and individuals is much appreciated.”
Another said, “Dan continues to demonstrate his desire to listen and learn from all town constituents. He has been seen at many events engaging with townspeople and actively demonstrating his desire to see multiple perspectives.”
About half of the categories included one or two responses that expressed an area where Nason needed improvement. In some of those categories, such as knowledge of statutes and laws, respondents recognized that he would likely improve with time and experience.
But some negative comments were not related to Nason’s time on the job. Some indicated that Nason was slow to respond to emails, sometimes not responding at all. There were a few comments about relevant information and updates not being shared as often as some boards would have liked. And some respondents wanted Nason to take a larger role in oversight of some town employees and committees, including the Facilities Manager, Town Counsel, the Finance Director, and the Finance Committee.
Redinger said the board chose to review Nason at his 6-month anniversary to address the lack of an “established review process,” as well as the absence of reviews during Tim Bragan’s tenure as town administrator. Last fall the board created a formal review process, and Redinger said respondents will be asked for suggestions on how to improve the process for the next review. Select Board policy calls for annual reviews of the town administrator to be completed by the end of March, and Redinger said the board may wait until then to do Nason’s next review.
The full review, with anonymous comments, is available in the Select Board April 1 meeting packet, under agendas on the Select Board page of the town website.