Interviews begin for town manager position
Date: 12/26/2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comLONGMEADOW — The interview process to whittle down the candidates for the Longmeadow's vacant town manager position has begun.
Select Board Chair Paul Santaniello told
Reminder Publications that Acting Town Manager Barry Del Castilho has begun interviewing candidates privately in the hopes of providing the board with a short list of finalists to interview at a meeting of the board in the middle of January.
"Right now the interviews are not open to the public," he said. "Public interviews with the finalists are expected to take place on Jan. 14 [2013]."
Santaniello said that the hope of the board was that Del Castilho would be ready by that time to present "between three and five" finalists for the position that has been vacant since June when former Town Manager Robin Crosbie left when her contract expired to take the same job in Ipswich.
"Three to five candidates is the objective, but that doesn't mean necessarily that there is a definite cut-off on the number of finalists," Santaniello said. "Obviously we want to make sure we have the chance to talk with any qualified candidates."
He added that he was pleased with the response the posting of the position has received, with 29 candidates submitting resumes by the deadline.
"I think that 29 is a very good number, especially after what we have went through," he said, alluding to the board's two previous attempts to fill the position, which came up empty. Thomas Guerino was selected after a lengthy discussion and standoff by the board, but the two sides were unable to agree on a contract. After a second round of interviews, the board unanimously voted to negotiate with Bonnie Therrien, who began contract talks with the town before accepting a position with another community.
"Having this many candidates gives us a good pool to draw from," Santaniello added.
