Residency issue dogs Saugus’ Bisignani

SAUGUS – With two shots taken at Town Manager Andrew Bisignani for his choice of hometown in as many weeks, the idea of a residency requirement is on the mind of a number of people.Town Meeting member Al DiNardo said it isn’t about Bisignani, but is more about the office he holds. DiNardo said a town manager makes decisions that impact the lives of residents everyday, “and then he goes home.”He said he would like to see boards and committees, whose members are required to live in town, treated with more deference and sensitivity.DiNardo said when a manager lives outside of town, “they ride off into the sunset and we’re left with the dump, Berthold Farm and the cemetery.”DiNardo was referring to three issues that some feel were not wise moves for the town. However two of those – the closing of the town landfill and the loss of Berthold Farms to a private sale – were handled at least at the start by managers who lived in town: Steven Angelo and Ed Collins, respectively.Town Moderator Robert Long said the town has had a hit-or-miss record with residency and town managers.”Angelo lived in town and did not endear himself to a lot of people,” he said. “We had Richie Cardillo for 19 months and he didn’t live in Saugus. He lived in Wakefield.”But prior to being town manager, Cardillo had been the town accountant and worked in the school system for a number of years.”In a sense he was sleeping in Wakefield but he was living in Saugus,” Long said.Ed Collins lived in Saugus but left for greener pastures as soon as his contract was up and Long believes he was happy to move on. It has been said by many that Collins could be difficult to deal with, but at the same time he was also beloved by many.Former Town Manager Norm Hansen wasn’t raised in Saugus but did live there and, in Long’s estimation, was a good manager and a great communicator.Long, however, is not of the mind that a town manager be homegrown or even live in town.”It’s really great if you can find someone in town, but the possibility of that happening, it’s not likely,” he said. “You can’t really limit your search area to just this community.”Residency is also a question the Charter Commission is tackling in several of the proposals put forward regarding possible charter changes. Commission Chairman Peter Manoogian said commissioner Gene Decareau is easily the most vocal on the issue. Decareau’s proposal doesn’t require a manager to be a resident at the time of hire, but requires he or she to move to town eventually.Manoogian said the majority of commissioners believe that requiring residency automatically limits a pool of candidates. And if they are going to require a manager to move to town, officials should also be prepared to pay moving costs and a higher salary in general.In his proposal, Manoogian said he isn’t seeking residency but does offer an incentive for candidates to consider it.But Manoogian believes that people are missing the overarching issue tied to the residency requirement. As far as he is concerned, Manoogian said residency is the answer to the wrong question.He said he agreed that residency should be a requirement for the people setting policy and deciding how the budget is allocated, but he doesn’t believe it’s needed for those implementing such decisions.”If that’s the case, why don’t we have a residency requirement for the Superintendent (of schools) or principals,” he asked.