SWAMPSCOTT — The Town Administrator Screening Committee has been working hard to find the next person to assume the role of Town Administrator, with candidate interviews scheduled throughout the week.
Committee Chair Heather Roman spoke with The Daily Item and went into detail about the committee’s search efforts and the timeline of events for the process.
“We started out through our town bylaws, and the first thing we did was engage a professional search firm,” Roman explained. “We did a survey to get community feedback, also did some outreach and met residents at the Senior Center and the Farmers’ Market so we could get as much community feedback as we could.”
The committee worked with a consulting group to create a job description and a “community profile, which were all filed publicly,” Roman added.
“Right now in the process we have a large selection of candidates. … We’ve been meeting to narrow those down, and we’ll be doing interviews this week,” she said.
She noted that with the interviews throughout the week, the committee has begun to reach “the final stretch” of the process. “There’s still a lot to do, though. Once we do our interviews, the committee will have more discussions, and ultimately we’ll have to provide three to five candidates for the Select Board,” she said.
Roman continued, explaining how community feedback influenced the committee’s search.
“We’ve been collecting it and compiling the feedback through all of our meetings during this process, and it has guided us as to what types of questions we ask candidates,” Roman said.
Two of the most common themes presented from community feedback were a strong financial background and “integrity and transparency,” Roman noted. “Those were the priorities that were definitely most common,” she said.
Roman said the committee is working to find the balance between strong financial experience and the ability to connect to the community on a more personal level.
“I think that’s really what our goal is, and our questions toward the candidates are really based on that,” she said. “You need someone who’s transparent, accountable and trustworthy. … That also goes with working with our community, and we want to make sure somebody has those core skills. Ideally, we want somebody that can combine those skills to lead.”
She added that the resumes the committee has received have been “very promising.”
“We’ve had a good pool as far as background goes. … We really highlighted that we wanted candidates to have municipal experience, and we have a lot of candidates to choose from,” Roman said. “We also have people who are coming from other backgrounds … and we’ve had over 30 applicants.”
The committee’s consultant has recommended 14 of those applicants for further review, she said. With the committee currently going through the motions of applicant interviews, it will release more information on the proceedings accordingly.
