Danvers 3 Town Manager Finalists From Gloucester, Swampscott, Belmont

DANVERS, MA — Three finalists with town administration experience in Gloucester, Swampscott and Belmont will interview publicly to become the new Danvers town manager next week with a possible Select Board vote on preferred candidate as soon as later that night.

The trio of one-hour Select Board interviews is set for March 12 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The Select Board will then consider the candidates with a vote on offering the position likely either later that night or on March 18.

The interviews will be aired on DCAT on delay to preserve the integrity of the process for each candidate.

There were 31 applicants for the town manager position vacated when Steve Bartha resigned to take the town manager job in Lexington in October. The selection process whittled the field to 11 candidates, then seven, before the three finalists were revealed publicly at Tuesday's Select Board meeting.

Gloucester CEO Jill Cahill is one finalist. She has served in that position since January 2022 and previously served that city as its Community Development Director from 2017 to 2021. She is also the former Chief of Staff of State Sen. President Karen Spilka.

Former Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald was the administrative leader in that town for seven years before stepping down in December in the final months leading up to the expiration of his contract. He previously served as the town administrator in Plaistow, NH for nine years and was the Chief of Staff in the Peabody Mayor's Office for seven years. Fitzgerald also served as the MAPC Regional Services Coordinator from 1995 to 2001.

Patrice Garvin has been the town administrator in Belmont for the past seven years. Garvin was previously the town administrator in the north central Massachusetts town of Shirley from 2013 through 2018 and worked as the assistant town administrator in neighboring Groton from 2007 through 2013.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)