Clarksburg Select Board Offers McKinney Town Administrator Post
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Select Board Tuesday morning voted to offer the town administrator position to former Town Administrator Carl McKinney.
Shortly after interviewing a fourth candidate for the vacant post, Danielle Luchi and Jeffrey Levanos agreed that McKinney's experience is the best fit for a town looking to return to normalcy after a summer and fall of turnover and turmoil.
"Carl has five years of experience, and that five years of experience is in the Town of Clarksburg," Levanos said. "I feel, in my opinion, Carl is the best choice for town administrator. And I really want to do something sooner rather than later."
Luchi, the board chair, had asked her colleague if he wanted to do a second round of interviews with any of the candidates. They both agreed that they had enough information on Tuesday morning to offer the job to McKinney.
"He has made mistakes in the past, but I'm the type of person who knows you can make mistakes and come out of it a better person," Luchi said.
"We need someone quickly. We have a lot of business that needs to be handled, and every day the business gets more and more intricate. I love Clarksburg, but I'm not the one to wear this hat long term."
Luchi, as the lone member of the Select Board for weeks after the abrupt departures of two board members and the former town administrator, has been more involved in the day-to-day operation at town hall during the search for a new occupant of the corner office.
Last week, the board interviewed McKinney, Florida Town Administrator Christine Dobbert and Jeffrey Roucoulet, the director of Pittsfield's Retired Senior Volunteer Program. On Tuesday morning, iBerkshires.com news editor Tammy Daniels, a Clarksburg native, was in the hot seat at town hall.
The Select Board members said that all four were strong candidates who could do the job, but the choice, in the end, appeared to come down to either McKinney or Dobbert, based on their direct experience in municipal government.
"In a different situation, if we had a town administrator who was leaving us to retire and everything was going smoothly, I'd love to try someone like Tammy [Daniels] or even Jeff [Roucoulet]. I've never interviewed someone who interviewed so confidently, for a young man.
"If the situation were different, either one of those two would be, in my opinion, the best choice. Because we're in the position we're in, I feel experience is the biggest asset you can bring to the interview."
Luchi agreed that either of the more "outside the box" candidates would be a good fit, but for the "circus" in which the town finds itself.
What put McKinney over the top, in addition to his deep knowledge of Clarksburg and history of service in various capacities, was what separates Clarksburg's town hall from Florida's.
"Christine – 13 years of experience is big," Levanos said. "My issue with Christine is she wears all the hats. That works well for the Town of Florida, but she's a one-woman show up there."
Luchi said she wondered how Dobbert would transition from a one-person operation to one where she would manage the administrative team that Clarksburg is hoping to rebuild.
Earlier Tuesday morning, Daniels echoed McKinney and Dobbert in saying that rebuilding that team should be the first task for whoever the Select Board ultimately chose.
"The priority is getting a treasurer/tax collector and getting a qualified treasurer/tax collector," Daniels said. "You could contract out. You could have a full-time person. You could do shared services [with another municipality]. At this point, I think you need a full-time qualified treasurer/tax collector, and you need to pay someone who knows what they're doing because that's the most important thing right now.
"Whoever you get is going to have a learning curve. If there's no support system, that's part of the problem."
Levanos kicked off Tuesday's interview by joking that it was odd for a longtime public servant like himself to be interviewing Daniels, a veteran journalist with a long history of covering North County, including Clarksburg.
Daniels was frank during the interview about her lack of direct experience working in government, but both Select Board members agreed that Daniels' life experience gave her knowledge of the demands of the job.
"I learn things pretty quickly," Daniels said. "I've been a union steward, I've done data entry, I've picked tomatoes – I've done a lot of things. I'll admit … it would be a learning curve, but I'd be coming with a different perspective, and I have a deep bench I can draw on for advice."
Luchi's response foreshadowed the discussion and vote to come after Daniels' interview concluded.
"I don't disagree," she told Daniels. "The hardest part for me is figuring out who is the best fit for the situation we're in right now.
"If we weren't in that situation, someone as charismatic as you, I know could do the job. It's just that we need someone who can jump in with two feet and hit the ground running."
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