Adams - The search is on!
The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved two motions Wednesday night that will allow the town to push forward with the search for a new town administrator.
Selectmen Joseph R. Dean Jr., Edward MacDonald, and Joseph Solomon approved the assignment of four members to the search committee headed by fromer Selectman Edward J. Driscoll, bringing the total proposed committee members to 11. Selectwoman Myra Wilk and Selectman Donald R. Sommer were not present at the meeting.And Selectmen approved what Driscoll called "an aggressive timeline" for finding a replacement for Town Administrator William Ketcham, who announced his resignation from the position last month.
"I have no idea what we're going to find," Driscoll said about the search, and he noted that planning was still in the early stages.
The search committee hopes to meet with the Selectmen on Monday, June 11 to get preliminary ideas about how the search will be conducted, according to the newly-approved timeline.
"We hope to get the philosophy of the board and create the ad on that day," Driscoll said. Within a week - by June 18 - the committee plans to meet again with the Selectmen to finalize the advertisement that will request applications, resumes and cover letters from potential candidates.
Though the timeline is tentative, Driscoll and the Selectmen hope to set the deadline for applications for July 20 at 4 p.m.. From there, Driscoll plans to present the top 2-4 candidates to the Selectmen for consideration by August 8.
After former Town Administrator James J. Leitch retired in 2002, the town underwent a lengthy, nationwide search for a replacement. Ketcham was hired in 2004 after Leitch's successor William Sheridan resigned due to health issues. Ketcham was the third choice selected after a four-month search. Applicant Dennis Lutrell was the Selectmen's first choice for the job but plans to hire him were abandonded after a Boston Globe newspaper article named him as negotiating with another community for a similar job. Second choice candidate Shaun Kelly declined to accept the job.
Driscoll said the committee will avoid the same kind of confusion this time around.
"We learned from our mistakes," he said. "This time around, we have the experience of having done it twice in the recent past. Before Leitch resigned, the town hadn't done a search in 15 years. We learned our lesson."
Driscoll stated that he hopes to find a candidate more locally. He was unable to name the 11-member committee definitively, but Finance Committee member Rosemarie Stachura did confirm that she will sit on the committee.
"I'm confident the committee can handle it," said MacDonald.
The Selectmen also unanimously approved the planting of public community gardens at Youth Center, Inc. by Peter Levesque and at Greylock Apartments by REACH Community Health Foundation.
"Everybody can plant their gardens this week," Dean said.
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Adams Chair Blames Public 'Beratement' for Employee Exodus
By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — The town's dealing with an exodus in leadership that the chair of the Selectmen attributed to constant beratement, particularly at meetings.
Since last fall, the town's lost its finance director, town administrator, community development director and community development program director.
"There's several employees, especially the ones at the top, have left because of the public comments that have been made to them over months, and they decided it's not worth it," Chair John Duval said at last week's Selectmen's meeting. "Being being berated every week, every two weeks, is not something that they signed up for, and they've gone to a community that doesn't do that, and now we have to try to find somebody to replace these positions."
His remarks came after a discussion over funding for training requested on the agenda by Selectman Joseph Nowak, who said he had been told if they "pay the people good. They're going to stay with us."
"You've got to pay them good, because they're hard to come by, and people are leaving, and they had good salaries," he said. "I wish I could make that much. So that theory doesn't seem to be working."
Duval said the town doesn't have a good reputation now "because of all of the negative comments going on against our employees, which they shouldn't have to deal with. They should just be able to come here and work."
The town administrator, Jay Green, left after being attacked for so long, he said, and the employees decided "the heck with Adams, we're out of here, we're gone."
The town's dealing with an exodus in leadership that the chair of the Selectmen attributed to constant beratement, particularly at meetings.
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