CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday voted to post the town administrator position in hopes of having a new leader in place by early next year.

 

The board had entered in executive session with Carl McKinney last week for negotiations on a three-year contract. That apparently turned into an offer for a one-year extension that McKinney refused. He was not at Monday's meeting.

 

Department heads and members of other boards and committee attended the meeting with concerns of how the negotiation had played out — and how the town would move forward with the grants and projects underway. 

 

A nearly $10,000 increase had been on the table, funding that was approved in the fiscal 2025 budget in anticipation of contract talks. But bringing the administrator's salary to $75,000 led the newer members of the board to consider spreading the net wider. 

 

"We thought the increase from the existing salary to what was being proposed would open up opportunities and increase the pool of applicants that weren't necessarily, I think, interested parties before during previous searches," said Colton Andrews. "That was kind of the thought and theory that if we do raise the salary level, that at that point, we would host it to see if we can get some qualified applicants."

 

The vote not to renew McKinney's three-year contract was 2-1, with Chair Robert Norcross opposed. Norcross said he had not been prepared for the vote to go that way and neither had McKinney.

 

"We did tell Carl that he can apply for it, but I understand that he told me later that he was kind of blindsided by it, which I know he was, and I think he just was upset, which I don't blame him," he said.