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Date: 10/25/2023
SOUTHWICK — After 17 years serving as the town treasurer, tax collector and town clerk, Michelle Hill will give up all three positions for a new opportunity in Southbridge on Dec. 8.
“There’s never been a dull day in the office since I started,” Hill said Oct. 23 from her office in Town Hall.
Before applying for her current job in Southwick, she served 11 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and Reserve, reaching the rank of sergeant.
While serving in the Marines, Hill earned a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from the University of Southern Indiana, and last year earned a master of public administration degree from the University of Connecticut.
While Hill emphasized that she enjoyed her service to the town, she said that about a year ago she began looking for new opportunities that offered her a chance of advancement.
She is landing in Southbridge, a Central Massachusetts town of 17,700 where she will serve as the treasurer-collector and finance director while being groomed someday to step into the role of town manager, the equivalent position to Southwick’s chief administrative officer.
Southwick is the last town in the state to have the responsibilities of town clerk, tax collector and town treasurer combined, and in May, voters at Town Meeting approved separating the job into two positions: town clerk and treasurer-collector.
Hill said juggling the three job responsibilities was manageable until 2016, when the state began amending election regulations. There have been at least 500 election law changes she’s had to keep track of in the past eight years, she said.
“Because of the changes, it’s just been nonstop,” she said.
She credits her military experience with helping her manage the changing conditions, and added that will be one of the challenges facing whoever fills the position.
Another is that not only is she leaving, but the Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart is retiring in March 2024 after 35 years in office. Between these two people, more than five decades of institutional knowledge will be lost.
“That’s going to tough for whoever comes in,” she said.
Because of that, she has already agreed to assist the town in the interim by offering advice in the evenings and on weekends “as long as it doesn’t interfere with my new position.”
She said there’s no timeline yet on how and when the treasurer-collector-clerk office will be restructured in response to the Town Meeting vote. It needs to be ratified by the state Legislature before it can go into effect.
Town officials met this month with state Rep. Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick) and state Sen. Paul Mark (D-Becket) to discuss the home-rule petition, but Hill said she still isn’t sure when to expect it to be voted by the Legislature and signed by the governor.
Hill said she will value her time working with Stinehart.
“Working with Karl has been great. He’s helped with my personal growth and served as a mentor,” she said.
She also thanked all the members of the Select Board she has worked with.
Select Board Chair Doug Moglin “appreciated all the help and support” she had given him, and wished her “the very best in her future endeavors.”
“She has been an excellent treasurer-collector-clerk, having worked in Southwick for the last 17 years,” Moglin said. “She elevated the office to a new level of organization and structure, and improved many of the processes that keep the three functions running smoothly. I appreciate all the help and support she has given me during her tenure as well.”
He also said Hill’s military service added to her contributions to the town.
“She has been an advocate for veterans both in Southwick and in her home community,” Moglin said.
In addition to serving as a town employee in Southwick, she has also served in various roles where she and her family live in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. She served for four years on that town’s Board of Selectmen and 13 years on its Board of Finance.
Moglin and Stinehart were authorized at the Oct. 16 Select Board meeting to begin the search for Hill’s replacement. The treasurer-collector-clerk position is appointed by the Select Board for a term of three years.