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Date: 1/3/2024
BLANDFORD — Interim Town Administrator Ira Brezinsky said the screening committee for a permanent full-time administrator for the town completed its work on Dec. 4, and forwarded three names to the Select Board for consideration as finalists.
The committee interviewed Mark Siever of Lanesborough, a lawyer who is counsel for two government entities including the Lanesborough Water and Fire District, along with a private practice, and Michael Szlosek from Ludlow, who has served as a town administrator for several area towns.
The third candidate, Jessie Permar Kelly from Hadley, a nonprofit grant manager, was offered the position, but declined the offer.
Brezinsky said he has now been asked to connect with the other finalists to gauge their level of interest and check their references, and report back to the Select Board on Jan. 2. He said at that time, they will make the decision on how to move forward.
Brezinsky, who is retired from business and does some part-time work for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission as a project assistant, has been serving as the interim town administrator for four weeks.
“The initial arrangement was that I was to be there until Jan. 12. I’m available to stay a bit longer. I could probably remain up to another month or so, to help them to get the best candidate they can so they can move on as they move into budget season for the town, to keep things moving,” he said.
He said there is still a shortage of qualified and interested candidates for town administrators in the state, but there are a lot of good ones, too. He said while there are communities where an administrator may stay for a long time, the average tenure in the position is three and a half years in any given municipality.
“The job description is very variable as well. What a town wants the administrator to do varies quite a lot. In some towns, they are involved in day to day operations; in others, they take more of a policy oversight role,” Brezinsky said.
“There’s definitely an opportunity for folks looking to make a career out of this. It doesn’t have to be someone with a long background in municipal government, but that always helps,” he added.