DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board voted to table the appointments of the Town Manager Screening Committee until March 24. 

 

It does plan to further discuss its formation at Monday's meeting.

 

The board was going to vote on appointments at its last meeting.  However, several residents expressed their concerns that the proposed list of members was not selected in an open or transparent manner.

 

The agenda for March 10 included appointing John Kelly, Gabrielle Taglieri, John Bartels, Deborah Merry, and Craig Wilbur to the screening committee. 

 

"This is a particularly important task because the town manager's the person with the greatest impact on our community," Finance Committee Chair William Drosehn said. 

 

The proposed selection of screening committee members did not occur during a public meeting, so, "I am very concerned [it] has not occurred in an open or transparent manner," he said. 

 

"The work of the search committee will impact every single voter and taxpayer in this town. The people of Dalton deserve and need to be able to trust this committee." 

 

Drosehn urged to ensure transparency in the selection process by having: a public solicitation for committee members be posted for two weeks to allow responses, a list of those volunteering be posted on the town website and read aloud, and then have the Select Board vote on each name in a public forum until it is narrowed down to the final five members. 

 

"This may take some time, but filling such a critical position like town manager should not be taken lightly nor done quickly," he said. 

 

According to the town's bylaws, the Select Board is responsible for appointing a five-member screening committee to assist in screening all applicants for the position of town manager.

 

The subcommittee will submit "a list of at least three qualified applicants to be interviewed by the Select Board," the bylaw says. 

 

"From this group of candidates, the Select Board shall appoint a Town Manager. The screening committee's duties shall be terminated upon the Town Managers' appointment."

 

Resident David Wasielewski suggested that the Select Board notify and solicit interest from existing committee members and others who are already actively involved in the community to search for screening committee members with relevant experience and understanding of the town's priorities.

 

Resident Laurie Martinelli said she first learned about the formation of a town manager screening committee when she saw it on that night's agenda. 

 

She urged the board to pause the search to allow for more community input and expressed a desire to serve on the screening committee. 

 

"There are many Dalton residents with relevant and important experience, and I assume there are several of them who would be willing to serve on the screening committee and would provide significant value added. I count myself as one of these people," Martinelli said. 

 

Resident Henry Rose highlighted how the proposed screening committee members all seem to favor building a "police station with all the bells and whistles."

 

"That's going to be our major decision for this town and it looks to me like there are people on it who already have a strong bias in favor of going ahead without considering regionalization, without considering the true cost to the taxpayers, [including] the current dispatcher, a former Chief of Police, somebody who's already on the building committee," he said. 

 

"Those individuals are probably going to be heavily biased towards going ahead with the building as proposed by the architect, and I think we have to be more careful about this. I think we have to be careful to spend our dollars wisely. So, I advise you to go back and open it up to have people with expertise in interviewing and get a lot of input from the community, and choose some people in a more democratic way."