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Moyer surprised by lack of managing authority

Date: 7/16/2015

EAST LONGMEADOW – Interim Town Administrator Greg Moyer said he was surprised to find out that East Longmeadow’s town administrator position offers less managing powers than he expected when he recently began working for the town.  

“I’m going to meet with the Board of Selectmen individually and see what their expectations are for me,” Moyer said.

Moyer, who previously served as the interim town manager of Bethel, AK, also said the town did not supply him with a work chart of all the department heads and their respective contact information and he was unsure who among the department heads answers to his authority.

The assessor and library director do not report to Moyer, he noted.

“It was a big surprise,” he added.

The Board of Selectmen was scheduled to meet with Moyer on July 14, however that meeting was canceled earlier in the day.

While his meeting with the board is on hold, at least one member is in agreement with Moyer’s observations.

“I think [town administrators] should have more authority,” Selectman William Gorman told Reminder Publications. “That’s why [former East Longmeadow Town Administrator] Nick Breault left – it was one of the reasons – and I think we should be giving them more money because these people stay here all these years and then they leave because we do nothing to try to keep them here and who makes out? The town they go to makes out. Nick went to Wilbraham and he has more authority. I’ve talked to Nick myself.”

Breault, who was recently hired as town administrator for Wilbraham, affirmed some those sentiments in a recent meeting with a representative of the Charter Commission, which is currently exploring the possibility of altering the town’s form of government.

Charter Commission member Ralph Page met with elected and municipal officials from Wilbraham and noted at the commission’s July 9 meeting that Breault considers his new position to carry more authority.

“The [Wilbraham] Board of Selectmen doesn’t want to be involved with every minute day-to-day issue,” Page said. “All they want to do is to keep flowing, make the important decisions, and make the policy.”

Wilbraham’s town charter allows for the Board of Selectmen to grant the town administrator more or less authority regarding the operational day-to-day aspects of the town, he added.

“They can remove those authorities as fast as they can give it,” Charter Commission member Eric Madison said. “It’s often a game that gets played.”

In addition to Wilbraham, the commission heard feedback from Madison’s conversation with Palmer Town Manager Charlie Blanchard.  

Madison said Blanchard noted that Palmer’s charter required a series of revisions once it was established approximately eight years ago.

Palmer’s local government consists of a strong town manager and a representative town council, Madison added.

Madison said Blanchard told him East Longmeadow’s population of about 15,000 people would best be suited with a representative town council form of government.

“He said, ‘It works so well, so efficiently, and so quickly,’” Madison said of Blanchard’s suggestion. “He said, ‘The councils can meet monthly, they’re the legislative body, and budget transfers can be done … you’re not doing it twice a year at Town Meeting.’”

Madison said Palmer public meetings open with public comment sections for residents to express concerns or ideas.

He added Palmer is made up of four villages – Depot Village, Three Rivers, Thorndike, and Bondsville. One representative is elected from each village.

“Prior to that they had more representation from each of the villages and it wasn’t working,” Madison said.

Madison said Blanchard recommended that East Longmeadow establish “clear lines of authority that takes personalities out of the mix or at least minimizes them” within a charter.

Other towns the commission is anticipated to meet with include Longmeadow, Ludlow, Sturbridge, and Easthampton, Charter Commission Chair Dawn Wiezbicki-Starks said.

Gorman said if the residents approve a town charter with a new form of government in April 2016, he would like to see the town adopt a mayoral form of government.

“As a selectman, you’re only one vote, one person,” he added. “It’s hard to do something yourself.”

Moyer said he is impressed by the work the Charter Commission after attending several meetings and often found himself nodding his head, ‘Yes,” to ideas regarding new forms of government.

In the meantime, Moyer said he has called for weekly departmental head meetings as a way to foster communication within the town.

For more than three decades, he has utilized a form to determine what the top five pressing needs are for each department and the town as a whole, he explained.

“As interim town administrator, my objective is to provide the citizens of East Longmeadow with the most effective and efficient services possible,” Moyer stated in the form. “That said, I cannot do it alone. Your input important and I want to know your concerns and ideas.”

The form was submitted to at least a dozen department heads on July 8 and as of its due date, July 13, Moyer said nearly all of the forms had been returned.

He added that the high number of returns “says something about the willingness of town employees to identify areas of improvement” in order to create change within town government.

“Maybe they need something,” Moyer said. “Maybe they’ve already told a bunch of people what they need and no one listened.”

He added that he also plans to give department employees the form, which could also be answered anonymously.

Moyer said he would also like to keep a scheduled open door policy for residents to meet with him to address concerns or share information with him about the community.

“I want the public to come see me at anytime,” he noted.

He noted that residents could also contact him on his cell phone at 918-644-8280 or by email at greg.moyer@eastlongmeadowma.gov.