Tomorrow morning, the Select Board is scheduled to appoint an Interim Town Clerk. At this stage the board is intentionally keeping mum about who they are considering appointing.
It sounds like the position could be for a short term temporary Clerk to bridge until a longer term interim appointment can be made. Last night, the Chair described that the appointment would be “until it gets billed permanently” from October 1st until the May 11th Town Election.
I reached out to Select Board Chair Kathy Cook to see if more details were available for the public about who the board is considering appointing, etc.. She reiterated what she told the board on Wednesday night, a “packet” won’t be posted for the meeting.
In last night’s regular meeting of the board, Cook brought up the meeting during her Chair’s Report. (According to Cook, that was an mainly to ensure the board was aware that the meeting was scheduled for 9:00 am on Friday, an hour later than originally planned.) She told the board that they would be “looking at” a recommendation from Town Administrator Mark Purple and Assistant Town Administrator Vanessa Hale.
Last month, Town Clerk Jim Hegarty had announced that he will be retiring from his elected post effective September 30th. At their August 11th, the board discussed a plan for Purple and Hale to conduct the search for an interim candidate to serve in the role until the next Town Election in May. That appointee does not need to be a Town resident.
As of now, it’s not clear why the job needs to be filled sooner than for October 1st.
Last night, Cook made clear an intent to keep details under wraps in advance of the vote:
There’s gonna be no packet out to the public. You’ve got the email from Mark that’s got everything you need to look at once we have the vote on Friday. Then we’ll issue to the public whatever is appropriate to issue.
Cook indicated the meeting would be quick and the agenda doesn’t specify that an interview will be involved. So it is possible the discussion won’t reveal any candidate(s) considered that are not successfully approved.
That could allow a candidate who doesn’t want a current employer to know they are interviewing for other jobs to keep their name out of public discourse if they fail to get the position. (I’ve heard past complaints from people recruiting for appointments made by government committees in Massachusetts that our state’s Open Meeting Laws make recruiting talent challenging since people vying for jobs take a risk by applying.)
Even if an appointed interim clerk isn’t a resident, they could serve in the role even past the election if Town Meeting and Town Election voters follow the advice of the outgoing Clerk. Hegarty has advocated for the position be changed from elected to appointed by the Select Board.
The meeting of the board is scheduled to take place over zoom on September 4th at 9:00 am. The only other agenda items at this time are two more unnamed appointments for a temporary position for the DPW and an intern for Southborough Youth & Family Services. (Those are under the consent agenda, so may not involve any discussion.)
Big Shoes to Fill
Hegarty has served as Town Clerk for 11 years. He competed for the seat vacated when late resident Paul Berry retired after 40 years in the job.
At the August 11th meeting, the board and other colleagues thanked Hegarty for his service to the Town. In doing so, they made clear how challenging it will be to replace him.
Select Board member Andrew Dennington credited Hegarty with “very rapidly” taking the Town Clerk’s office from the 19th century to the 21st century. Echoing that, member Sam Stivers highlighted that over the last couple of decades that the job of Town Clerk had “gotten hugely more complicated”. And Cook referred to his persistent effort to get “clickers” to work at Town Meetings for close votes.
Cook and other members stressed the importance of his role as a mentor for Town board members and committee volunteers. Vice Chair Andrew Pfaff thanked him for taking him under his wing when he was “young novice volunteer”.
Planning Board Chair Lisa Braccio commented to commend Hegarty’s service over the years, dating back to before he was clerk, when he spearheaded getting the 911 turf field project through the state legislature. She lauded his work preserving the Town records.
Hegarty spearheaded work to have the Town’s old records preserved, digitized and uploaded to a searchable public database. That included special handling of historic documents that are hundreds of years old. (Harvard University agreed to store the Town’s physical historic records in their climate controlled book depository located in Southborough.)
Braccio also highlighted how welcome he made newcomers to Southborough feel when they came to the Town Clerk’s office.
Town Moderator Paul Cimino said that he thought Hegarty had “accomplished the most with the least fanfare of anybody I know in Town government”. Knowing the level of work Hegarty puts into Town Meetings and everything else, he has observed it “in awe for many, many, many years”. He followed:
with a little bit of a tongue and cheek, I’ll say, I’m terrified at what comes next. . .
I’m sure we’ll be fine, but it won’t be the same.
