Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

Guerino, Select Board fail to reach contract agreement

Date: 8/6/2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW — The Select Board will make an announcement at its Aug. 6 meeting regarding the next steps it will take in its search for a new town manager after it failed the come to terms with Thomas Guerino on a contract.

The board voted 4-1 to enter into contract negotiations with Guerino at its July 16 meeting, but efforts in executive sessions following that vote bore no fruit. The board discussed its options in an executive session on Aug. 3 with the intention of formulating a plan.

"We were unable to come to terms with Tom Guerino for the town manager position," Select Board Chair Paul Santaniello confirmed. "Right now the board is evaluating its next steps and Monday night we will have an announcement to basically let the community know what we're doing."

The breakdown in negotiations was the latest in what has been a difficult process for the Select Board, which included an unpopular decision to spend roughly $14,000 to outsource the recruiting process to the Collins Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Guerino, currently the town administrator for Bourne, was a controversial choice for the position after making it through a screening process by a selection committee, a grueling 90-minute interview and site visits by Select Board representatives that resulted in his emergence as one of two finalists for the position.

The Select Board was deadlocked regarding a decision between him and fellow finalist Mark Stankiewicz, town manager for Plymouth, until Selectman Mark Gold changed his vote in favor of Guerino in order to expedite the process.

Santaniello, who said he felt he could not endorse either candidate, stressed that the reasons surrounding the breakdown in talks were strictly financial. The job posting by the Collins Center advertised a salary between $115,000 and $135,000. In April, Guerino signed a two-year contract extension with Bourne that raised his salary to $138,000.

"The board was prepared to hire him. The vote was specifically to go into contract negotiations with him, not to hire him because obviously you have to get the contract before you can get the hiring done," Santaniello said. "It just didn't work out. It was definitely a financial issue, but that's life. We've just got to go on from there."

Santaniello declined to comment on Stankiewicz's status as a candidate.

"We're working on our plan, but I am not going to announce anything that is out of step with what we're doing," he said.

In the meantime, Paul Pasterczyk will continue to serve the town as interim town manager. He was appointed to that position by the Select Board at the beginning of July for a term of 45 days. Santaniello previously told Reminder Publications that if a new town manager is not hired by the end of that time frame, they will re-evaluate his status.

Guerino did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.