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Date: 8/1/2022
LUDLOW – After creating a chief procurement officer (CPO) position at the May Town Meeting, the Ludlow Board of Selectmen interviewed Holyoke Chief Procurement Officer Lori Belanger for the new position during its July 26 meeting.
In her opening statement, Belanger said she has over 20 years of experience in procurement, budgets and finance team operations.
“My current experience includes procurement for the school department as well as the city. This positions me to be an educated, experienced, polished municipal official. The chief procurement officer is really the gatekeeper of the taxpayer and I have a value system and I take the job very seriously,” she said.
When asked by board member Manny Silva about why she wanted to move on from Holyoke, Belanger said there was a lack of continuity over her six years there. She said that she has been through four mayors, four auditors, five city solicitors, three treasurers, five personnel directors and more.
“The turnover I feel is a lot, these are key positions especially with the auditor, treasurer and mayor. You make one step forward and then with staff turnover, you take two back because people have to come in, learn systems and personnel,” she said. “There’s value in having continuity in terms of communication, teamwork, assessing process and filling gaps to move projects forward.”
Belanger added that the city is also looking for a new treasurer.
She said she is also looking forward to working under a town administrator instead of a mayor.
“I’m a fan of an administrator because the administrator or the chief financial officer is accountable to the elected board versus the voters in terms of the business of the town,” Belanger said.
Board Vice Chair James Gennette asked Belanger if she would be able to come in and identify potential places to save money, she said she had already identified some of those areas in conversations with Town Administrator Marc Strange. She said some of those areas include the town’s insurance, IT needs, co-opting services with the school department and more.
Strange said he was happy to see Belanger apply for the position.
“I am so excited that Lori applied, we kind of have a CPO peer group that me – without having much procurement experience – would reach out to quite a bit and they’re great, very willing to share their expertise and Lori was always really supportive and knowledgeable,” he said. “I was kind of hoping that once we got funding for the position to share it with that group, so I was absolutely thrilled when Lori applied and it’s a great get for the town.”
The board unanimously agreed to enter negotiations with Belanger for the procurement officer position.
Town administrator report
During his regular report, Strange noted that space was shrinking across town for both storage and meeting space as the town hires more people.
“The space in Town Hall is quickly running out, the clerk’s office currently stores their voting records and machines in the Building Department, however the Building Department is going to need that space to house the plumbing and electrical inspector,” he said.
Strange said while the animal control officer does not currently have an office, the plan is to move her into one of the hearing rooms.
“If we do that there are boards and committees that meet in those spaces, so I wanted to present this to all of you as a heads up that there may be some kind of movement coming down the pike in terms of where and when we are scheduling these other boards,” he said.
One way Strange said he is hoping to open up some space is through a new storage unit set to be placed behind Town Hall.
“This issue is just going to get worse, so we are going to have to do something in terms of creating more space in the building, not only for space but for personnel,” he said.
The board also opened the warrant for the Oct. 3 Special Town meeting and articles for the warrant will be accepted until 4 p.m. on Aug. 22. The board will then close the warrant at its Aug. 23 meeting.
The Ludlow Board of Selectmen next meets on Aug. 9 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Aug. 19 edition of The Reminder.