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Date: 7/25/2022
BELCHERTOWN – Gary Brougham will remain as Belchertown’s town administrator through at least the end of June 2023. During its July 18 meeting, the Belchertown Select Board voted to approve the extension after initially announcing that the board voted to allow his contract to expire during an April meeting.
Background
During that April 11 meeting, Vice Chair Jim Barry revealed that Chair Jen Turner, Clerk Ed Boscher and former member Nick Pucel voted against renewing the contract while Barry and member Ron Aponte both voted to extend Brougham’s contract. “It was not unanimous,” Barry said.
Turner said the decision to move on from Brougham was made after receiving a recommendation from the Department of Local Services to transition his position from a town administrator to a town manager.
Members of the Sportshaven Mobile Home Park then came before the board during its May 2 meeting to express their concerns with the decision to move on because Brougham was spearheading the work at the park with litigation pending and work to be done on site. During that meeting, Pucel was verbally threatened by someone in attendance and resigned from the board the following day.
Since that time, the town has entered into an agreement with Community Paradigm Associates to help with the transition from a town administrator to a town manager and to find a candidate to fill the position.
The July 18 meeting
To start the renewed discussion about Brougham’s contract at the board’s July 18 meeting, Turner said it was too soon for the board to move on from Brougham based on the steps ahead in the transition between positions.
“We went through a long process these past couple of months and we found out that we need to do some more work before we transition from our town administrator role to a town manager role,” she said.
For the transition to begin, Turner said the position change would have to be approved at the Town Meeting set for May of 2023.
“The recruitment firm is OK with waiting and helping us put forth a timeline that makes sense from that point in time. If it passes at Town Meeting, it will have to go to the Legislature also, so there are a couple trigger points that we need to be patient about,” she said.
Following a potential approval at Town Meeting, Turner said the next steps will be “a little fluid.”
“We’ll have to wait on the state Legislature approval piece, but we could potentially hire a town administrator with an understanding that the role would transition once the legislation is approved, but really the Town Meeting vote is the trigger to decide what we’re going to be looking for next,” she said. “It’s the question mark for the community to decide and weigh in on.”
Turner also detailed the length of Brougham’s extension.
“The Select Board has met with our current Town Administrator Gary Brougham, and we have come to an agreement to extend the contract through the end of June with some extensions built in. Basically, what this will do is shift our timeline,” she said.
In an April interview with Reminder Publishing, Brougham said that he wanted to have his contract extended through the exact timing laid out in the extension.
Brougham said he was happy with the extension.
“I am just quite pleased that we have come to an agreement, and I am looking forward to getting back on track with the essential business of the town,” he said.
With the extension, Turner said “everybody is on the same page about the whole thing right now.”
The board unanimously approved the extension of Brougham’s contract.
Town administrator report
During his regular report, Brougham discussed some of the projects that were being approved in town with the help of state Rep. Jake Oliveira.
“He confirmed over the weekend that a request I had made several weeks ago for upwards of $300,000 to install a pressure relief valve in the area of Carriage Drive to facilitate the next phase of development at the Belchertown State School had been approved,” he said.
Brougham added that Oliveira was also able to secure an additional $55,500 for the sensory trail along Lake Wallace.
Along with the two funded projects, Brougham said there were still several other earmarks currently making their way through the Legislature, including $310,000 for the parking lot at the town beach, $685,000 for the engineering on Main and North Main [Streets] and $2.5 million for the reconstruction of Main Street.
“Those are in the transportation bond bill, which is still in the Senate,” Brougham said.
The Belchertown Select Board next met on July 26 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Aug. 4 edition of The Reminder.