Selectmen to hire facilitator between board and town manager

Date: 7/16/2015

LONGMEADOW – The Select Board is interested in hiring an individual to facilitate a conversation between the board and Town Manager Stephen Crane regarding the roles, responsibilities, and powers of the both branches of the local government.

Crane told Reminder Publications it would cost the town less than $1,000 to hire someone for this role.

The board voted 4 to 1 in favor of hiring an individual to facilitate this discussion regarding local governmental roles and responsibilities during its June 15 meeting. Selectman Alex Grant voted against the motion, which was made by Selectman Marie Angelides.

Crane said this is something he has requested the board to consider for more than two years.

“That is something that [former interim Town Manager] Barry Delcastillo commented to me about before I started here,” Crane said.

The job would require two aspects – someone would need to come to the town and discuss roles and responsibilities and also facilitate how “we all work better as a team,” he added.

Crane said some issues that have been brought up between himself and the board in the past include “a difference of opinion” regarding what type of information, how much information and when it should be presented to the board.

Those differences of opinion became very public in 2014.

In February 2014 members of the Charter Commission sent a letter to the Select Board, criticizing its lack of compliance with the town’s charter with regard to the town manager’s authority and separation of responsibilities.

In June of that year, Crane and members of the board engaged in a heated debate regarding roles and responsibilities during his first performance review.

Crane received better, but still mixed feedback in his second evaluation in May 2015, but concerns about communication and timeliness of information provided to the board remained for some selectmen.

Crane added within the last two years there has been a lack of consensus regarding the town’s goals.

“I think that we still, as a group, the Select Board and the town manager, still haven’t agreed on some goals and priorities for the town,” Crane said.

The June 9 Town Election, which saw Select Board Chair Richard Foster and newcomer Thomas Lachiusa beat out longtime Selectman Paul Santaniello for seats on the board, seemed to “be a message from the voters that they expect more from their local government,” Crane said.

“This consultant we want to bring in is a step in that direction,” he added.

Crane, who has met with Foster weekly for the past year to discuss issues within the town, said more direct interaction with other board members could be helpful in regards to the relationship between the board and the town manager.

“[Foster], as chair, has made it a priority to facilitate that,” Crane noted.

Selectman Mark Gold said he and Selectman Marie Angelides would interview four candidates and present their findings at the board’s July 20 meeting.

He added the list of candidates, which were suggested to the board by the Massachusetts Municipal Association, include former Lowell City Manager Bernard Lynch; Stephen McGoldrick, interim director of the University of Massachusetts Boston Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management; Franklin Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting; and former town manager of Middleborough Charles Cristello.

Interviews would be between 20 to 30 minutes for each candidate, Gold noted.

“We’re trying to make sure that there’s a right fit,” he added.

Gold said he is favor of the idea to hire an individual to help the board and town manager understand their respective roles and responsibilities.

“I’m certainly open to seeing what this takes,” he added.

However, he noted the person hired to facilitate a conversation regarding this issue may not have the right answer in terms of the relationship between board members and with Crane.

“There probably is no right answer,” Gold added.

He added that the board is supposed to be five-member team but there has been a lack of cooperation in recent times.

Foster said he doesn’t consider hiring someone to facilitate a conversation regarding the town’s charter something unusual.

He noted that “a lot of committees have a little bit of conflict” throughout the Commonwealth.