Saugus town manager search committee selection spurs opposition

SAUGUS – The Board of Selectmen has chosen a committee to advise it on picking a new town manager, but not without sparking disagreement over one of the three members picked to serve on the committee.Search committee members Joshua Dellheim and Peter Rossetti live in Saugus, but Richard MacDonald is a Haverhill resident, and Town Meeting member Al DiNardo said his appointment to the committee by selectmen Tuesday night violates the Town Charter.The charter dictates that anyone appointed to a town board “…be a presently domiciled resident of the town of Saugus.”?We have someone who isn?t even a resident. Are we going to follow the charter or not?” said Dinardo.Selectmen Chairman Ellen Faiella said picking MacDonald to serve on the committee makes sense: The former Duxbury town manager is a Saugus native with broad management experience, she said.?He worked in the community many, many years. We need people who have been in upper management,” Faiella said.The selectmen voted on Oct. 29 to fire Town Manager Scott Crabtree and they are in the process of hiring a new manager even as they face a yet-to-be-scheduled town vote to recall them from office.The deadline for applying for the manager?s job is Friday and Faiella said selectmen will ask the search committee to review resumes and application letters and forward three to five candidates to the selectmen for review and eventual selection.She did not specify a timeline Wednesday for the selection process and selectmen?s secretary Wendy Reed declined to state how many applications she has received for the manager?s job.Faiella said selectmen initially considered hiring a company to advise the board on the manager-selection process. She said the search advisory committee is made up of two town residents and a former resident while a consulting firm would, most likely, have few, if any, ties to the town.?We?re not arguing with the charter but we don?t think it applies in this case: This is a short-term advisory committee,” Faiella said.