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Date: 11/9/2022
BELCHERTOWN – The Select Board met with representatives from Community Paradigm Associates to talk about an existing contract to help with a transition from a town administrator to town manager and help them search for someone to fill that position at their Oct. 31 meeting.
Community Paradigm Associates is an organization founded to assist municipal, nonprofit, and community entities.
For the last year, the Select Board have talked about adding more responsibilities to the town administrator.
The two representatives from Community Paradigm Associates were Founder and Managing Principal Bernie Lynch and Senior Associate John Petrin.
Select Board Chair Jim Barry said he thinks it would be in the best interest of the town to start with making a list of responsibilities the town administrator would have.
Lynch said that there are three different ways to determine what the responsibilities of a town administrator are.
“The most concrete way to do that is by a special act or form of charter that clearly identifies what the responsibilities would be. Another option would be to run a bylaw or amend your current bylaw that states what the specific responsibilities are. The third option would be following 41.23 A general laws in which it basically says that the town administrator acts by and for the Selectmen in any matter in which they assign under their supervision and control,” he said.
Pertrin mentioned that option one with the change to the charter would take a minimum of a year to get everyone needed to vote on it, sign it and eventually implement it.
Pertrin added, “The one thing about not going through charter or going through bylaw is that the Select Board can make changes to that at any time in the future with a different board.”
Select Board Vice Chair Ron Aponte talked about how feasible the three options are for the town with the amount of time they have.
“The special act or charter is the most concrete but would take between one to two years which frankly we do not have. Option two of having a bylaw describing concrete job description of the town administrator that would have to be passed out our May Town Meeting. Option three would be strictly contractually with specific job descriptions that would lead to a phase two moving to a town manager.”
Lynch mentioned that the search process can take an estimated 20 weeks and that the board is already ahead of the game if they want to fill the position by June 30.
As of right now the current town administrator contract expires on June 30.
Barry explained that the current Town Administrator Gary Brougham is open to signing short term contracts after June 30 if the process takes a little longer than expected.
Lynch said that it is up to the Select Board to make a list of responsibilities they may want to add to town administrator like appointment powers, personal powers, budget making authority and the responsibility to do collective bargaining.
Select Board member Ed Boscher added, “I agree with giving the town administrator power of appointment, budgetary aspects and collective bargaining. I do not see a reason why we cannot come up with a list of job responsibilities by January.”
Aponte said that the next step is to make a list of duties that the board wants the next town administrator to perform and once they finalize that they will send it to Community Paradigm Associates to have them complete the next steps.
Lynch said once they get the list of duties, they can work with the board and Belchertown on adding those responsibilities in a contract and begin the search that will start sometime in January 2023.