Cheshire Debates Next Steps After Town Administrator Quits
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night formally accepted Town Administrator Edmund St. John IV's resignation and will hire a special town counsel to guide them through next steps.
During the three-hour meeting Tuesday, the board agreed after lengthy discussion not to make any decisions in regard to hiring a new town administrator until it can meet with a outside counsel.
Last week, St. John, who served in the position for two years, resigned immediately on Friday as town administrator.
Chairwoman Michelle Francesconi said she has St. John's laptop and has switched over email accounts so she can access incoming communications. She said she has spent more than 30 hours consolidating and switching over various accounts.
She said she is willing to keep doing this and essentially cover the town administrator position.
"I am willing to continue to do this just because that is what I do for a living," she said. "I can facilitate that sort of communication."
Francesconi said she felt the town should hire a special town counsel who is not connected to the former town administrator. Town Counsel Edmund St. John III is St. John's father.
"I think we need to hire someone to guide us through what we want and what we don't want in a new town administrator," she said. "Someone not connected to the situation."
She suggested attorney Jeff Grandchamp, who has held this position for the town in the past. She said he could help the town through the hiring process as well as tie up some loose ends left by St. John.
One of these loose ends is the running down of federal CARES Act money before the Dec. 30 deadline. Francesconi said there are still questions on what the town has spent money on and what it can spend money on. She said there are also various ongoing infrastructure projects.
"We are hitting some of these little question marks as we go along," she said.
The Selectmen broached hiring an interim town administrator, and the there was a suggestion of tapping a former selectman or a retired town administrator. Francesconi said she did reach out to former Town Administrator Mark Webber who, although was willing to help, was not interested in the position.
But for the time being, Francesconi said she was happy to fill the role with some help from her fellow board members.
Selectman Robert Ciskowski suggested that Francesconi receive some sort of stipend for her service.
"The work you are doing is not something I would be good at," he said. "We were paying someone $800 a week to do that, and I don't think it is fair for a selectman, like yourself, to do this for nothing."
Francesconi said that was a discussion for a special town counsel.
The board asked Francesconi if they could hire an attorney sooner rather than later to expedite the process. Selectman Mark Biagini felt because the situation was so unexpected and an emergency that they could vote even though it was not on the agenda.
Francesconi did not want to test the Open Meeting Law and Selectman Jason Levesque suggested holding a special meeting Friday to officially bring forth Grandchamp and appoint him Tuesday.
Looking toward the future, the board did feel as though in order to do a proper town administrator search, it needed to hire an interim administrator
"We will definitely have to do an interim but we need to find someone that is going to fit with us," Levesque said.
A full search could take a year.
Board members also felt it was important to take another look at the hiring process. Ciskowski felt the hiring of St. John was a bit messy, especially with only two selectmen at the time.
Also, the members agreed to take a deep dive into the town administrator job description.
"We need to build the entire thing from scratch," Ciskowski said.
Selectman Ronald DeAngelis felt St. John held too much power and acted more like a mayor than a town administrator. He felt that the selectmen were often kept in the dark.
"It got away from us, and we need to be clear about what we are looking for and what we are willing to give up," he said.
He went on to say in his opinion the last two years were a loss under St. John.
"Look at all the time we spent, and we got nowhere," he said. "To be honest with you, we spent two years and we are nowhere better."
Not all of the selectmen were as critical but noted mistakes were made that they need to learn from.
Francesconi agreed there were things the selectmen could improve upon but did not see St. John's tenure as a loss. She said he helped bring the town into the 21st century and created momentum that the town should try to run with.
"I think he had some great intentions for the town. If we can harness whatever good momentum that there was and keep pushing forward and see where we need to go as a community, I think we will be OK," she said.
Tags: town administrator,
