001of you the 7 p.m is january marcel at 7 45 do i have any uh comments or motions relatives a second i just have a question well i understood the plan was to set up a meeting where the third would be interviewed we were going to discuss that in the fourth agenda out in the discussion okay all right yeah i just i i thought the plan was to do all three but one wasn't available tonight i understood yeah uh and my doctor told me i have to keep dark glasses on i was going to wear my pirate patch but i didn't think that would have been so anyway thank you for and the consultant to ensure that we bring in administrator select committee against with the town administrator town hall and the town the group
002of eight excluding one member decided to present the three candidates that were invited to the meeting last week to me about the meeting which kind of needs a guest by the way in which the deliberations were initiated it was extremely disheartening to see that the town administrating mr walden was supposed to uphold the committee's choices and not interfere with the process instead there was a clear indication that preference and bias were present in the way in literal light due to the actions that were taken in this meeting in addition many of the town administrator select committee members do not feel that the interviews and deliberations that followed him speaking to this situation not only as chair of the committee but as a citizen of the town as i feel that the process we observed last
003week did not represent the people of sherborne even though those that directed us to choose from for this ta position as the process continues it is our hope that it is reflective of integrity thank you vicki mr chairman make a comment um so i'm going to open the review process now is noted on the agenda first item is the review of the interview process i reviewed it last week but i'm going to go through it a little bit quicker today but i want to and vicki alluded to some of it in her public comment this we did have a search committee that was formed uh the select board uh commissioned in january um created a position description that when the position was advertised for 30 days and we received 23 applications and then the sundays
004that they felt the search committee should consider interviewing at that's absolutely given a week or two later all those materials on eight candidates their resumes that they were totally four of the eight candidates um based on that and after the four award to the select board to be interviewed and that's what was done they picked three candidates to be interviewed but the motion was made that we should maybe consider interviewing them in person and what might make the decision easier so that's why we're here tonight the um interim count administrator uh read the uh will have the first interview starting at 7 pm and background checks on the candidates um not not really like a full reference check but just background check will to do a background check or reference check the select board with
005the candidates is to review that we have a phone call with uh on a resume if there's questions about and uh you know share that with the board with the um talk about that in their opening remarks with the various committee dumb the next gentleman who will not be many years of experience both the moment three years in that position he's a certified patient no violations of no issues with regards to his ethics check several professional references one in los alamos and then we talked to a reference here brings analytical skills and the good of working as a contractor for the federal government uh jeremy who will be here in a few minutes jeremiah natick as a dpw director uh involved with the mma on a number of boards committees uh region uh that i
006interviewed uh three references a former see they have uh mentored him when he was in framingham and this is that um felt that he uh you know in their experience with him working with him as college our labor relations uh uh you know those sorts of things and again a registered a neighbor lives in natick worked there for a number of years and have interviewed a number of people uh and he felt he had a he was an asset because he he didn't have he didn't bring uh some of the drama some of the uh time during the budget process uh and then i spoke to two work colleagues that praised his style respectful to them and others individual in his capacity but 5 30. you just don't have to work anything negative i mean
007i've made it through our process i mean it would be embarrassing if we found out say okay thank you very much we'll move on to another candidate i'm going to bring you somebody that's going to embarras they had issues find out negatives to an individual that i would say based on their skills in terms of so i want to make that before we have the candidates here i can see rebel tonight so we'll have to decide in our discussion session how we're going to handle the candidate but we do have two available tonight jeremy marchette and tim o'leary questions of these candidates and one of the things i've been concerned about is we haven't gotten a lot of input from town department heads and town employees in the process so when i did this to
008any of the candidates on their behalf so it was a way in which if they had a concern about something that they would like to have answered by the candidates i'm not sure we only have a half hour with each one so i have one that weren't consolidated they were just verbatim from town department heads so i appreciate the select boards as we go along so that's my plan there right right and i think it will be refreshing having these candidates already so i'm going to do i need to make sure their questions get answered but otherwise i'm going to defer be relatively quiet just to remind you it is only half an hour and excited to be back before you um you know your candidates are all very capable i know i'm i i'm
009very confident that i can do the work try to give some um something you know a little bit about me i want to talk a little bit take some time to talk a little bit about me um you know i've been a resident of medfield your neighbor for 18 years my wife and i chose medfield because of the school system advocate for public schools and for smaller class sizes then you know there's some challenges that you know people move to medfield and sherman because of the schools and then they stay for the character in the community that that your town has so that's you know a very you know important part of your community i understand that um you know i have two kids um that learn very different ways um my daughter is an
010aspiring equestrian class she needs one-on-one learning my son spent a fair amount of time with him as a soccer coach in the community and watching him develop as a player and person find all the 4 000 four mountains in vermont new hampshire new york name uh canoe the the rivers uh the st johns river between sailing that's my current fashion um became new hampshire my second which was great but we also had a great time um jim not stanley this weekend because he's doing the pan masks challenge i love the energy that he brings um cape cod on the weekends those properties to a fair i like to do home improvements and trips this past year after some hiatus and we're trying to talk him out of a ferry my wife calls me a municipal
011geek christie i've wanted to be a town administrator for some time now dedication um the skill set a great time administrator after serving for mike's within as top administrator has done very well as it has gotten planned they have just updated um and compassionate residents that are helping medfield which is a relatively small community that things don't get done without as a resident being active and interested in passion and kind of can leverage all of that volunteerism um you know and looking for a community that in your community um the last time i was in this room on the way here talking to the design it was like quintessential quintessential small town character it was wonderful i think today it's a little too hot to have those things inside but great thank you so who
012would like to lead off do you want to start out with let me do one why don't you do one of those department heads what is your strongest once again listening motivation or organization certainly a tough choice um i think of of all of those i think i listen um i i'm open to new ideas our folks are working interacting with residents the public um you know helping solve things shoulder to shoulder through so that you know kind of to support them you know leadership i can think of some examples from my time in natick um you know as a leader of public works just a few months before i i started work there was a fatality so this needs to change it's not that we listening understanding and trying to find out their needs
013and what uh what was lacking you know what they what they were doing in the supervisors we developed a safety program it wasn't didn't exist before we developed a whole program together that included a handbook that was simplified that we could give to folks we had a safety manual more comprehensive and detailed if somebody wanted to dig into it we received got some grants from the state 30 30 000 or so to do a complete update of all the training through the department of consulting did you know osha 10 the ocean 40 climbing you name it we updated everybody's training so they they thought wow okay and then during those trainings you know we deserve our trailers for other personal protective equipment so we all work together to make that program and to keep it
014make it successfully sustainable as well so you know it was one thing to develop but folks were really appreciative of that they felt that we cared we one of the other things we did we actually we raised money to build a memorial um every year and annually we advocate so you know that you know listening and just observing so you know taking the next steps of actually doing something about it and working together as a team to do it as well good question and one very specific tough you know on the ground kind of question you you're a dpw director you've been a town engineer um the dbw director has a plan wants to do something it's a process that you don't agree with as ta um you know when asking questions doesn't mean that
015you're you're criticizing or from what i've seen you have some strong department heads and they are so i would find no need to question those those don't work together as a team and leverage all their strengths um but have projects that are underway right now pedestrian improvements okay um so where do you see what do you see as boston changes what has been unique i think the opera is incredible you need to protect that and that you face is that you know housing in the commonwealth whether it be just markets great goals statewide there's opportunities i believe of some of those zoning changes so that there's more flexibility such that you're maintaining your strong school system to maintain your talent services you're not putting other there's other strengths that other communities bring to bear or
016folks leaving so i've been able to you know sort of uh succession planning my way of making people and i'd have had the fortune to aim to the public works department in natick uh as it didn't retire he was i and i was selected that quickly melted away and i remember about six months since i'm here and i had a chance to work with you and um but filling his role uh was a challenge a position um we were hoping to have somebody internal was it was difficult to identify a good candidate who fit uh realize that um right person that you know things were it had the internal candidate i mentioned that uh i think he's been he's one of the best managers his uh mentor him and uh helped him grow in that
017role so that failure um i've had the opportunity to fill that role um you know i've got experience with um not micromanage but stepping back and letting the the way they do the work in their own way so this is kind of related with a department head or an employee in in the situations become pathetic but my satisfaction of getting things as well you know even for location of where my office is it's just for everybody coming in and out before they even happen sometimes or um kind of steer it in a direction one of time administrator natick has helped me we're doing doing a native timeline transportation advisory committee that's an advisory need you know they have different ideas i'm stepping in to help um to been doing some driver on them and you
018know i have some different takes on on folks from public works but also has resident from the safety committee we're getting warned that what's that do with the uh okay um municipal officials today five years i mean of what this like um limited prop two and a half projects that gets approved and i think that is a game and then after accomplishing do for for modern tour rates under sustained having that fill with their cat report and help them uh mission funds that have dedicated funding fully vetted but the regular when i started on the warren committee i mean we had police cruisers that were not good so for many communities as i see employees to just improve your communication that that sounds like it's been a challenge communication has been kind of bored um
019you know so there's definitely a lot of um your community budget stress is going forward so if you can get replacement tires or vehicles the um is definitely above the top three because um the best people can balance away it's just been your experience interacting true um he's helped something that might not be the best for your community wrong volunteers you want strong winning of projects creationists to help build your community maybe an extension of the side against the great one typically sure and framingham the conservation project manager and the community economic board the building office and every testify in front of the planning board to help um to manage our our shirts too to to make sure infrastructure can accommodate with working together with them to create new bylaws i have one last department
020and we're right at some education are an integral part of the community and providing the surveillance school superintendent made a commitment um a regional school system that you know you can educate and and you know your your population is old sounds like you've got an election coming up and you know for those elections you hear ideas from the candidates and house departments can provide things that you can do to support your seniors you can bring to them facility is open a couple years in hearing um and services that that are less cost if your field has been in town or in that field it's not far um streams um i i think they've been the values of what you're valuing your community for how you've stayed in for your community what is important to you
021the timing is perfect yeah i think we've got a great fit for your community because they have really enjoyed working with you all energy and a lot of friends you know we've chatted a lot about in the last couple weeks what what is true and would be silly not to happen and whatever i can do to support [Music] on their behalf so i have a bizarrely even just remaining from is there any sort of opening statement as i intend to be brief okay interview process in the hr consultant with them in real time i was about to get a new housing i think i'll see if that comes up in the commentary be brilliant be brief be gone thanks for coming nice to meet you in person uh turn over the supervisory rule and since
022you've been in knock those were in turnover as to reshape the culture appreciate the organization i have my diversity equity and inclusions and most of them love new people we made initial offers and we ended up hiring somebody who'd been working in communicable government although i had experience in local government so we hired somebody else whether they've never been in low percent transit i guess of course the military everybody the first 20 years my professor is important and people to move to the media for the rest of their lives some didn't like yeah i told us a a story coach versus the expert driven approach who described how uh you had a lot of people you told us the story about you know you went ideally optimally at hopkins and experience which is pretty recent
023it was the first answer referred to an assessor for a city with a 20 i'm the assistant treasurer and we there were some oh so go ahead i was good as that assumption was not correct we'll have other issues in the analog service uh because i wish i will say though you always you have people remember the cfo the coast guard coming in was even these two guys you're trying to move on and find something different people out and i would say on balance no go ahead from the department head there's a brief way what is your strongest playing one i'm gonna say so i'm really committed to mission i'm i'm really we're we're here to are turning the crank on a machine they've been turning for 20 years lost their spark for mission and
024i really feel strongly and i think that i have been most effective by creating a folker i had some crew members who used to complain when we got a call train them bought a vessel bought gas your training drills you know you're not so i'd like to uh ask you what do you see in sherman's planes in the coming years and what opportunities i just need to make a few notes uh not have its own need to be a new dunkin donuts and of course we have this uh community of homes and those families after living this area is not a money the mbta someday hope g is is there for people to be if people can live in a place like shear burn and the town will become we which is safe and secure
025because our tradition system for it and by going with so that's a hundred year question really what did he be able to affordably treat whatever contaminant our experience was when legacy farms built down houses were going at they were highly changed what hopkinton high school was and talking to most people in that community i think there's no question it's been brilliant it's been a real refresh i guess then this is another wave of immigrants and you know it's going to make us all that maniacal uh obsession with systems purposely about how we're planning and preparing for that what do we want this town to be given the projected ch sure good right i eat it and that process what would you have added uh and foresight i think i think no is it does it
026include things like moving to a paper focused on their concentric inhalation change consulting process where you look at what the holes in the gap you know the counseling we have a significance so we have donut access to those services the town wants to go in to meet its goal experience in the coast guard anti-aircraft systems too and then they'll tell us what they're not putting money on those priorities totally understand why you couldn't guess what was development is happening everywhere open space and climate which opened a lot of doors for a community through some of these every opportunity you have and everywhere as is in the in the open space and i think the money being spent on education which is exhaust of educating new students and do you want to go high density or
027northwest dc just up by american university for a long time and that is a risk to the historic nature of your town the wanna build four million dollar house to to have it make sense i don't know so sure what has been your uh specific experience interesting so uh i guess i border health planning board and conservation don't add it here i'll have so in my role the siblings and claims and worked on a lot of the admin issues uh we had so i was involved in those cases that was a bit of a learning the council had some let's say the second one was in los alamos actually my spouse on some of these matters because she was the marketing major i have done a couple of uh where i got a couple friends
028and we bought a failed and and participated in that and then sold the condos and i have several lots in total committee on some analytical questions for the past seven years we've gotten more new from most towns we were the founder of the whole community group including people in the police department are bad and that was so i have some knowledge of that and it's also an interesting thing and then i did jobs in every phase of the planning programming budgeting you're a budget person planners are planners i did everything thing so i'd enjoy that we know that schools and education are an integral part of the care representative and provided with the services they need about that the equity part of that before i talk about sir the court makes decisions on my own
029initiative i developed proposals for sewer discounts for seniors who met the state circuit breaker incoming the select board has now approved annual discounts for some of our neediest seniors three years in a row to pay to provide discounts for these acne these needy seniors then when we got into this problem with our pfas water supply i propose the same thing for water and we have just during the early days of coven when we were under the cares act i proposed and developed and personally operated a proposal to provide grants to people who had income disruption as a result of kovid checks after we had developed deployed received applications vetted the applications and turned out before christmas we mailed them out the wednesday night before thanksgiving i think if the select board is interested in equity
030measures to try to everybody else and what we found is when other people see it and it's of course scalable if we gave ten thousand dollar grants it would have been unaffordable but you can help people in a material way and modestly and stay true to your community values and it can be affordable and pull that out of the air you you need that analysis i'm working right now in an analysis on a residential exemption in the property tax we've never done that and those are the people who use the residential exemption but that can give a lower tax available you can do it at any degree where it provides a modest discount it hasn't be in that case that the vacation the decision of the select board but you need somebody to give you
031room i think the chance to physically gather is probably i know you have an innovative transportation program but i think we just decide they want to explore doing more for the seniors ten great ideas than to think up one really easy things you can do and you've been really great about collaborating with other communities there's a scale factor too so i think there are a lot of opportunities to really grab the low-hanging fruit and find those opportunities i you know i answered an essay question i've got to be cheating so i'll try it out this will be a recall test too you can do a uh you can do make sure all the classified pubs are there you have to review the person it gets a new captain every two years and reviewed my notes
032from that thought about the two times were a small city it's its own again thinking about about what has to be done and then making jail and the state had taken receivership do that kind of risk analysis of what comes first and what's most about because i have a method i would follow in the absence of guidance and that's what i wrote in that paper valuable and important and have insights so that's what i do i think now i think that it's been it's been i actually watched a little bit of the other interviews i think you have some excellent leadership leadership with integrity and we used to say in the coast guard i'd rather be captured and this is a very attractive opportunity for me to move from and uh you know it's a
033it's about a beautiful from where i am to this job and appreciate it seeing you again in person thank you thanks everybody thank you i do better with a live audience so um that concludes the interviews um the deliberation into that i do agree with that i think it's only fair i guess while it's fresh in our mind i don't know if we want to discuss anything that was said tonight that that or do you think it's better to just wait so i happen to like the third candidate that's not here to sherbert that's a little different from the other two per opportunity to to show you what that person could do to this town saying you know what we like what we don't like because uh set of answers from the five or six
034he's done he's got back up for a few errors monday tuesday wednesday that was as of a sounds like wednesday is the day wednesday is okay um but just one is it going to be working for all five of us and i understand that eric couldn't be here tonight and he wasn't at the last one now he can he can watch the tapes of all those things so i i'd like to to have the next date based on eric's schedule insights yeah i didn't announce that they had the media we know the candidate's schedule so it sounds like well it's when they shoot wednesday going to have validates i think the work of the search committee i was honored to be a member of the search committee they have a a series of candidates we
035candidate be quiet and on favor hi all right guys have it