Stoughton Selectmen Vote to Form Citizen Committee and Hire Consulting Firm for Town Manager Search

February 7 marked Stoughton Human Resources Director one-year anniversary working for the town, Town Manager Francis T. Crimmins, Jr. told the Board of Selectmen at their Tuesday meeting.

Crimmins credited McNamara with helping to hire a half dozen department heads and fill other key vacancies on the municipal side of government, as well as assisting with collective bargaining negotiations.

Now McNamara is helping to to replace the man who hired him.

In a addressed to Board of Selectmen Chairman John Stagnone, dated Jan. 24, 2012, Crimmins informed Stagnone of his intent to , effective March 31, 2012.

McNamara appeared before Selectmen Tuesday to continue a of starting the process to find a new Town Manager.

In a rare 2-1 vote at their Tuesday meeting, Selectmen agreed to advertise for a citizens’ search committee for a new Town Manager.

As part of the same motion, the Board also voted to hire a consultant firm to assist in this process and voted to ask the Finance Committee for a $20,000 transfer of funds to pay the consulting fees.

The search committee will help select the consulting firm and will help advise the Board in the hiring process, as will the consulting firm.

Selectmen John Stagnone and John Anzivino voted in favor of the motion with Selectmen Cynthia Walsh voting against. Selectmen Steve Anastos and John Anderson, while vocal in their support for hiring a consulting firm and establishing a search committee, abstained.

Anastos said the Town should follow the template that resulted in the hire of Police Chief Paul Shastany back in 2010.

In the search for a Police Chief, a search committee, with two Selectmen as well as citizens-at-large, interviewed search firms and recommended search firms to the Board of Selectmen, Anastos described.

A consulting firm had a “comprehensive review” of dozens of candidates, narrowed it down to 20, and then the final three, Anastos said.

At the same time as the search for Police Chief, Stoughton also had to find a Town Manager.

“There was not an appetite at the time to pay for a Town Manager search [as well],” Anastos said. So Selectmen recruited for that position without the assistance of a firm and “people questioned the integrity of that process,” he said.

“I don’t want to put us in that situation,” Anastos said. “The model that yielded Chief Shastany worked.”

Anderson agreed and said it was important to “hire the right consultant” and to “match the consultant to the needs of the town of Stoughton.”

“This is a very, very important process,” he said.

Walsh thought paying $20,000 for a consulting firm was “ridiculous” and said the Board has taken care of hiring a Town Manager without a consulting firm in the past.

McNamara said most consulting firms are “cafeteria style” where the Town can pick from an a la carte list of services that are provided and the cost of the firm is dependent on how much the Town asks it to do.

Walsh also expressed concern with the amount of time it would take to hire a Town Manager if a search committee was formed and a consulting firm was used.

“It shouldn’t take six, seven, eight months to do this,” she said. “That’s the trouble with committees…it’s well known in the state of Massachusetts if you don’t want something done, send it to a committee.”

McNamara said the timeline was more like 90-120 days, once the consulting firm was hired.

Still, Crimmins’ last day is March 31, so finding or naming an interim Town Manager becomes an important part of the process as well, whether that be a retired former Town Manager from another town, or a current town employee.

Anastos suggested Anderson, who led the search committee for Police Chief, lead the search committee for Town Manager. He also suggested Selectman Anzivino be part of the search committee.

Anzivino said that those involved in the search committee should be “here for the whole process,” citing the upcoming Town election in April. Anderson and Walsh are up for reelection.

McNamara said the suggestion is to limit the number of members of the search committee. Based on Tuesday’s discussions, there will be five members on this committee, with potentially two members of the committee coming from the Board of Selectmen, but that has yet to be decided.

The Selectmen next meet on February 28, 2012.