Article to shift to town manager approved

BELCHERTOWN – Voters approved an article allowing the Selectboard to petition the legislature to change from a town administrator to a town manager at the Annual Town Meeting, but not without an attempt to amend the motion.

Selectboard Chair Jim Barry explained the reason the article was before the voters.

“This article changes the title from town administrator to town manager…As some of you may remember there were Selectmen who ran the town and at some point, they hired an executive secretary to help with some of the paperwork. As towns got bigger and bigger, they hired town administrators to do that work,” Barry said. “As years have gone by, more and more municipalities have gone to town manager. The duties are very similar.”

He said the Selectboard is allowed to hire a town administrator, but not a town manager. So the towns needed to get permission from the state legislation to allow for the body to do so.

During the discussion, Terry Nagel, proposed an amendment to the town’s bylaws.

This amendment follows the Selectboard’s decision to appoint Department of Public Works Director Steve Williams as the next Town Administrator, rather than the three candidates brought forward by the search committee.

Williams applied for the position but was not considered as a finalist by the Town Administrator Screening Committee of which Nagel was a member.

The Selectboard interviewed three candidates presented by the screening committee, but during its deliberation, the board unanimously opted to appoint Williams.

Nagel’s amendment proposed that if the Selectboard does not choose one of the presented candidates for the position, that the committee would then present successive qualified candidates.

He said the reason for the amendment was to make sure the process laid out in the bylaws was a trustworthy one and one that was being followed rather than being pointed at Williams or at the current formation of the Selectboard.

Resident Elly Vaughan, and a member of the search committee, spoke in favor of the amendment.

“I think what it does is hold accountability and following of the systems in place so a Selectboard can’t just throw out all of the recommended qualified candidates,” she said. “I want to make sure we are not allowing this to take precedence.”

Selectboard Chair Jim Barry said the current process of hiring a new town administrator is listed in the current law. However, the town meeting establishes bylaws that sets the process to have the Town Moderator appoint members of a search committee who would present candidates to the Selectboard, who would appoint someone.

“If it’s important to you, I suggest you bring it to a Town Meeting as a proposed town bylaw that puts this into codification,” Barry said.

The proposed amendment was not approved by the town meeting voters, but the original article was approved as written in the warrant.

Following the vote, Williams is set to be the town’s first town manager.