Above: During a zoom meeting last week, the Select Board was happy to approve hiring an employee they appear to hope will bring stability to the Building Dept that he once ran for five years. (images cropped from meeting video)
On Friday morning, the Select Board approved an employment agreement for a new Building Commissioner. Mark Robidoux will return to his former role working for the Town of Southborough almost seven years after he left.
Chair Andrew Dennington opined that the hiring “is a great development for the town”. In his introduction of Robidoux, he explained that he had worked for Southborough from 2013 – 2018, “knows the town really well”, and was “outstanding” in the role the last time around.
Dennington noted that in his own prior role as ZBA chair, he had gotten to know Robidoux very well.
The board was unanimously welcoming of the decision.
Member Kathy Cook told the board that everyone she spoke to who knew Robidoux was very positive about him. She was happy about his coming aboard and explained to him:
We do need a very stable, robust Building Department for the next few years. We think we’ve got some big projects we believe coming your way that we need to make sure we act timely and appropriately.
Between the lines of Cook’s comment was the instability in the Building Dept since Robidoux’s successor (Laurie Livoli) left in February 2023. Her successor (Casey Burlingame) lasted less than a year before resigning. There was gap from late March to June in 2024 before Chris Lund took the role. His position was “vacated” in April.
Rather than immediately recruiting a replacement, the Select Board relied on an Interim Commissioner (Gene Novak) while they reviewed how to structure the department. At the time, Town Administrator Mark Purple charactarized the dept as having had a “tumultous” couple of years, and Select Board Vice Chair Marguerite Landry said she was concerned about the “fragile” state of the dept. Later this summer, the Town finally advertised they were hiring a Building Commissioner.
Robidoux is set to start back in his old department on Monday, October 27th, the date of a Special Town Meeting that includes zoning Warrant Articles. He quipped that it was going to be a long day. But he noted that he was excited to attend and “look forward to hit the ground running”.
Cook stressed the relevance to his job of the first Article on the Warrant, which “is what we need to approve. . . to get the project that Atlantic wants to do done.” (You can read more about the Select Board’s support for that Article, which they hope will result in bringing Costco to town, in their letter to the public they asked me to post on Friday.)
Friday’s meeting agenda didn’t include a posted resume or details about Robidoux’s experience beyond his past tenure for Southborough. But LinkedIn filled in the gaps.
Since Robidoux resigned from Southborough the fall of 2018, he has been working in the same role for the Town of Lincoln. He has also been serving as the Vice President for the Mass Building Commissioners & Inspectors Association for ten years. And he is a long time member of the Board of Directors of the New England Building Officials Education Association.
