Former Swampscott Town Administrator Addresses Early Departure

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Former Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald spoke publicly this week about his December resignation with months left on his contract.

Fitzgerald, who was the town administrator in Swampscott for eight years, was asked about the circumstances surrounding his leaving the position during a public interview as one of two finalists to be the next town manager in Danvers.

"There were some members of the (Select) Board who had recently been elected and, frankly, we just disagreed about a number of things," he said. "I thought it would be best to negotiate a separation because sometimes you just get to a point where philosophically you just don't see the same vision. My job here is to help cities and towns. It's not to hurt them. I wanted to do my best to try to leave in a way that would help support the principles that I had and support the town that I had worked for for eight years.

"That said, these are tough jobs. Did I learn some things? Yes. Have I learned some things over the past 20 years of being the person in charge and addressing all sorts of challenges? You bet. These are wonderful jobs. You can do wonderful things. You can make a huge difference in implementing wonderful change, but it's really hard work.

"I'd like to think that leveling a tax rate that had had 20 years of tax increases is generally considered to be (a positive). Swampscott passed an override for just the budget about 15 years ago. And we did some financial work that was really difficult. And we did it in a way that helped support not only a $100 million elementary school but also a $7 million acquisition of a waterfront property and another couple of million-dollar purchases of other open space.

"It was all because we had leadership and coordination with a number of really important boards. But it was challenging. The Select Board asked me to do a number of very complicated things. The Board changed and I think it was time for me to move on."

(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.)