SAUGUS – The Selectmen voted Tuesday 4-1 to extend Town Manager Andrew Bisignani’s contract by 18 months.Selectman Michael Kelleher took at least one of his colleagues by surprise when he made his motion to stretch Bisignani’s contract to July 21, 2012. The extension does not come with a raise. Bisignani’s salary remains the same.”There will be many that will be happy with my motion and some that won’t be,” Kelleher said.Selectman Stephen Horlick was one member who was not so happy.Kelleher said he realized recently that Bisignani only had two years left on his contract and was worried “that the sharks would begin to circle.”With economic issues in flux and no foreseeable end in sight, according to Kelleher, he said he thought the town needed stability and Bisignani could provide it.Kelleher pointed out a grocery list of accomplishments Bisignani has made in the last two years including getting the town on the state’s health plan, settling the Kasabuski deficit, and turning a $1.7 million deficit in free cash into a $150,000 surplus in one year. Kelleher said he was also impressed with Bisignani’s ability to negotiate a five-year rubbish contract with weekly recycling.During his six-year tenure, Bisignani also worked with Selectmen to negotiate the Administrative Consent Order from the Department of Environmental Protection regarding cleaning up the town’s sewer system. He implemented a new water meter program, a streetlight buy back program and a long-term ambulance contract at no cost to the town.”If I sound like his biggest promoter, I don’t think I am,” Kelleher said. “Have the manager and I not seen eye to eye on everything? Absolutely. Have we agreed on everything? Absolutely not.”But Kelleher said the manager now has six years of municipal finance experience on top of the financial experience he had coming into the job and that made him an attractive candidate to want to keep around.”The point is he comes to work every day and does his best for the town and believes in what he does,” he said.Horlick did not dispute Kelleher’s list of achievements, but pointed out two open-ended issues as well. Horlick said he is still waiting for the results on a landfill audit. And he alluded to last summer’s FBI investigation when he said he would like to hear from “a government agency” that was looking into the town, but never issued a final report.Namely, however, Horlick said he felt the issue of contract renewal was being handled wrong.Horlick said the last time Bisignani’s contract was extended, Selectmen met with Bisignani, who made a case for renewal.”I had no knowledge of this,” he said. “I think there should be a hearing with the manger and we should hear from him why he thinks his contract should be extended.”Kelleher pointed out that Bisignani had no knowledge that this was coming, and therefore didn’t need to defend himself.While Horlick stood alone in voting against the contract renewal, he did congratulate Bisignani following the meeting by shaking his hand and wishing him luck.Bisignani said he appreciated the board’s support.”I’m deeply committed to this job and at this point I plan to stay through the contract,” he said. “I think I’ve accomplished a lot in six years and I plan to do a lot more.”