Above: At April’s Town Meeting, Hegarty drew attention to his former Deputy Town Clerk for giving up her Saturday to help out in Southborough. Now, he’s appointed her his interim assistant for the week prior to her taking his job on an interim basis, and maybe much longer term. (images cropped from meeting videos)
This morning, the Select Board appointed the successor to Town Clerk Jim Hegarty when he retires on September 30th. His former Deputy Town Clerk will take the interim role until — at least — May 11th 2026.
Amy Berry, who currently serves as Grafton’s Town Clerk, will return to Southborough’s Town House on September 23rd as Interim Deputy Town Clerk, to work with Hegarty on transitioning into the head job. As of October 1st, she’ll take on the role until the Town’s Annual Election.
If the Town and state ratify converting the job from elected to appointed, it could be extended to a long term gig.
At the October 17th Special Town Meeting voters will be asked to approve petitioning the state legislature for permission to change the Town Clerk’s job to an appointed one. If that’s approved, the last step in the process of making the conversion would be a ballot vote on May 11th. And, if that’s approved by voters, being hired for the appointed job would be up to the same board that enthusiastically hired her this morning.
If that happens, it will be the second time that Berry makes history in town as their first unelected Town Clerk. In spring 2025, she became Grafton’s first appointed, and non-resident Town Clerk.
In this morning’s brief interview, Select Board member Tim Fling asked Berry if she was comfortable taking the role, knowing the risk that it could remain an elected position. (As a resident of Holden, she wouldn’t be eligible to run to keep the job.) She responded:
I hope it works in my favor that it becomes an appointed position, but if it doesn’t, I’m happy to come for the time that I can. I really enjoyed working in Southborough. And I feel like it would just be more experience for me if I had to look for another job in May, if it didn’t pan out.
Select Board members were happy to that Berry brings both her experience working in Southborough’s Town Clerk department and knowledge she gained while leading another Town’s department for 18 months.
Town Administrator Mark Purple told the board that a lot of the “binders and the processes” currently used in the Town Clerk’s office are ones that she worked with Hegarty to set up. And members spoke about their hopes to continue improving efficiencies and technology in the Town Clerk’s office.
Upon questioning about improved processes she could bring from her experience in Grafton, Berry gave an example of bringing dog licensing online. She also “learned a few tightening up things for elections” and streamlined the appointment process.
Member Andrew Dennington said that he’d like her to work with the Town’s website vendor as they look at redoing the website and the posting of meetings and minutes.
On the Town Meeting side of the job, Berry confirmed that Grafton also uses clicker technology. It’s worth noting that not only did Berry work at Southborough Town Meetings as a Deputy Town Clerk, but she came back to Town to help out at multiple Town Meetings since (2025 & 2026 Annual Town Meetings and last October’s Special Town Meeting).
For more details about the outgoing Town Clerk, you can read yesterday’s post. (It includes the accolades from Town officials on all Hegarty accomplished over the past 11 years.)
When I posted yesterday about the board’s plans to make an interim appointment, I was unclear what Chair Kathy Cook meant when she described that the appointment would be “until it gets billed permanently” from October 1st until the May 11th Town Election.
As I wrote, I incorrectly believed that may have meant they were appointing someone for a short term temporary Clerk to bridge until a longer term interim appointment could be made. (For some reason, Cook was keeping the details of what the board would be considering out of the public eye until the meeting this morning. The reason wasn’t clarified in this morning’s meeting. But it may have been to allow Berry to keep Grafton from knowing about the potential job change until an official decision was made.)
