BOS Interview Three Interim Town Manager Candidates

by Inanna Arthen
In two special meetings this week, the Board of Selectmen interviewed three applicants for the position of Interim Town Manager, who will handle Town Manager responsibilities until a new permanent Town Manager is hired. Current Town Manager Justin Sultzbach will be leaving to become the Town Administrator in Middleton, MA as of July 7. The applicants interviewed were Bill McKinney, James White and William M. Baldwin.

On Tuesday, June 20, the Board interviewed Bill McKinney, who is a resident of Dedham, MA, and met with the Board in person in the Town Hall second floor auditorium.

Mr. McKinney stated that he is "familiar with the area" because he attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester (earning a B.A. in Economics/Accounting according to his LinkedIn page). He earned his Masters of Business Administration from Babson College because, he said, "I liked the fact that Babson is highly regarded for entrepreneurship, and I've always been actively involved in my community. And you know, I've been a Boy Scout leader for many years. I've coached youth baseball for many years. Soon as I turned 18 I registered to vote."

Mr. McKinney's experience in state government is extensive. He began working for what was then the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) (now DCR, the Department of Conservation and Recreation) during the administration of Governor Jane Swift (2001-2003). "I was totally impressed with the government workforce. Having come from the private sector, you know, the only thing you hear about government workers was what you read in the papers. And that was not the case at all. A lot of hard working people that were dedicated to making government work more effectively for the public and for the citizens," he said. He described the MDC as "almost like running a town except without a school department." He worked with the transition to DCR under Governor Mitt Romney (2003-2007) and then was "let go" when Deval Patrick (2007-2015) was elected Governor.

Mr. McKinney was then appointed to the Finance Committee for the town of Weymouth and after six years became Weymouth's Chief Financial Officer (CFO). "I was there for four years. It's a town with about $150 million budget, community of about 50,000 people, and I really enjoyed it. And then Charlie Baker got elected Governor, they asked me to come run the Department of Labor Standards, which I've never heard of before," he said. With about 55 employees, the Department of Labor Standards "was responsible for employee health and safety for the public sector." After four years there, Mr. McKinney moved on to work with the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM). "DCAMM is the agency that builds all the state buildings," he explained. Since current Governor Maura Healey came in, Mr. McKinney has been "a free agent," he said.

Mr. McKinney is a career Republican, at least to the extent that he lists that experience on his LinkedIn page. He worked on Mitt Romney's 2008 Presidential campaign and served as State Committeeman Suffolk and Norfolk for the Massachusetts Republican Party for four years, from 2016 to 2020.

Weymouth has a mayor and a town council; Dedham, which is located inside Rte 128 and has a current population of 25,364 and a median family income of $72,330, has representative Town Meeting with a Town Manager. The Board asked Mr. McKinney how he would work with Winchendon's smaller population and much more modest budget.

Mr. McKinney said, "With a smaller budget, there's a lot more challenges because it's tougher to just add a person for a particular role. So one of the things that I always love to do when managing people is, people leave, that's when I reassess the role of what they were doing, is it something where the work can be spread out to other people." He also spoke of collaborating with neighboring towns to share services, such as trash collection, which could save money.

Board Chair Audrey LaBrie said, "We are looking for an interim who is going to keep things moving forward. The last couple of years, we've had a lot of projects going on in town, paving of Central Street, the whole redesign of our Central Street, the community park, we opened up a brand new amphitheater...we definitely don't want to lose that momentum as we go through this change in the town at the high level."

Mr. McKinney said that one of things that attracted him to the position, despite the three-hour round trip commute, was "it seemed like there were a lot of positive things happening. And I didn't want to just come in and be a seat filler. I think there's a lot of things that can drive a lot of improvements." He went on to talk about his work in Weymouth on establishing an OPEB* Trust Fund and meeting the 100 percent net school spending requirement. (*Other Post Employment Benefits for retired employees, which Winchendon's Finance Committee established a maintenance program for just this past year.)

Asked what challenges he saw on Winchendon's website, Mr. McKinney immediately named the town's bond rating, which he said was the lowest in Worcester County at A+. (The highest bond rating is AAA.) He also cited the town's recent rejection of the Community Preservation Act. "The finances are going to be constrained," he said. "And so it's going to take some creativity to try to figure out, how can we get these things done or are there grants available for some of the things that, some of the capital needs that the town would have because, obviously grants only go so far." He admitted that he has not written any grants, but he has managed grants.

His top priority when he started working, Mr. McKinney said, would be to get to know all of the Board and get to know what people in Winchendon really wanted--more business? More industry? How did people like their interactions with Town Hall? He agreed with the Board that keeping a tight handle on town finances was extremely important.

"Just a year before I got to Weymouth, they had layoffs, which is one thing I made sure that we did not have going forward because that's devastating to a whole range of things," Mr. McKinney said. "It's devastating to the people that got let go, it's devastating to the people that are still there. And then it's tough to recruit employees if they're afraid that they could lose their job at some point." He described helping the firefighters get an extension on a grant so they could keep five jobs in the department.

Board member Barbara Anderson said, "I think finances in all aspects could really benefit from a fresh set of eyes to look at. And it would really be helpful to the residents. Also, somebody who's willing to listen to the residents, that they're important and we work for them. And to always remember that is always my priority, that a lot of times they don't feel welcome, coming to Town Hall with their issues, and I would like it to be more welcoming to them."

Mr. McKinney gave examples of times when he had gone out to talk to members of the public, or listened to employees' feedback, and made changes in response to things they said. Sometimes small changes that make a big difference to people are easy to implement.

Mr. McKinney stated that even though he has no job experience as a town manager or town administrator, supervising various departments such as the police and fire department, he works closely with all the town departments in Weymouth in financial matters, and he has "a great working relationship with them."

He added, "For a lot of people that have worked for me, I want to know, what are the roadblocks, like what is it that's preventing you from doing the best job you can, is it technology, is it the hours that you work, whatever it is, I want to remove those so that everyone comes to work every day excited to be there. That's the kind of enthusiasm, I love coming to work with a smile and it's kind of contagious. So I want to find out okay, how can we make things better for you, what are some of the simple fixes that we can do to make it a better experience?"

With the interview concluded, Ms. LaBrie explained that the Board had at least one more interview and they would get back to Mr. McKinney by "the end of next week at the latest" with their decision.

On Thursday, June 22, three members of the Board of Selectmen--Chair Audrey LaBrie, Danielle LaPointe and Melissa Blanchard--interviewed two more candidates via a Zoom meeting which was open to the public. Several members of the public joined the meeting but did not ask questions of the candidates.

James White was interviewed at 5:30 p.m. A resident of Marshfield, MA (on the South Shore near Plymouth), Mr. White explained that he had left his position as Controller at the Boston Medical Center to care for his wife, who was going through a lengthy recuperation period following surgery. He is teaching in the evenings and seeking part time work, easing back to full time.

According to Mr. White's LinkedIn page, he has extensive experience in high-level financial management for wealthy private institutions of higher learning, including Berklee College of Music, Suffolk University, MIT and Harvard. He does not have as much experience with town government. He has taught Governmental Non-profit Accounting for 25 years. In his courses, he said, they "really do a deeper dive on the municipal piece of financing...we do a lot of work on taking a sample nonprofit organization...kind of do a deeper dive so as you get a deeper dive on the financials, you also get into areas in terms of strategy and planning, and we would sort of pick a town or a city to work with throughout the course, and we've done that for many, many years. So you got a sense or a flavor a little bit of, not just the financial piece but also some of the operational pieces in terms of core services, in terms of education, fire, police, those kinds of things going forward."

Mr. White said the first thing he would want to do is look at the town's audit and financials and budget. Asked if he had questions for the Board, Mr. White said, "I was curious if we could just have a conversation about how you handled the pandemic and the funding you received and where you are now coming out of the pandemic, in 2023, and I don't want to say this, but it's kind of like you're on your own now because the pandemic money's gone now. You're kind of dealing with just where you are financially."

Mr. White asked more questions about the town's funding and pending capital projects, and the Board talked more answering his questions than he did himself. Asked how he would manage the very long commute and the situation at home, Mr. White said the family had support, and that he was probably not interested in the permanent position, just the short-term. "I'm probably going to stay in the nonprofit [field]. I don't really know, I've never really been a town manager," he said.

Mr. White asked more questions, including why the current Town Manager was leaving, what financial software platform the town uses (it's MUNIS), whether there were open positions, what the town manager's schedule would be, and how the town manager worked with the school department.

At the conclusion of the interview, Mr. White said that he would need to talk to his family before he could be sure when he could start work.

After taking a recess, the Board members and citizen guests reconvened at 6:15 p.m. to meet with applicant William M. Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin lives in Atkinson, NH (population 7,087, on the Massachusetts border in Rockingham County) where he has been a member of the Board of Selectmen for many years. Mr. Baldwin explained that he is retired from two jobs, the military and his first career, and is "a big advocate of local government." He has also served on the School Committee. Atkinson has a Town Administrator, but Mr. Baldwin said, "As you well know the Board of Selectmen, we do the hiring and firing, but we give a lot of latitude to our Town Administrator, he is almost like a town manager in a sense, without the title."

Asked about his experience with finance, Mr. Baldwin said, "So, I have worked with budget committees. Obviously, our own budget committee which has been quite interesting, from year to year, but I gotta tell you that I've worked with budget committees even prior to me being involved in the School Board or Selectmen. As a municipal employee, I've worked with the budget pretty closely for emergency management budgets and law enforcement budget. So I have an extensive amount of experience with it" including managing budget line items and warrant articles.

Mr. Baldwin spoke of how interesting Winchendon's history is, and was impressed at the "466,800 something dollars" in grant money the town recently was awarded to expand the rail trail, something Atkinson is also doing. He also said the amphitheater opening is "phenomenal."

Asked about his experience with capital projects, Mr. Baldwin spoke at length. "I helped build a police station," he said, going to Florida to learn how to build police stations, fire stations and emergency management centers. "Also, looking to forecast the future, we put committees together to do a Master Plan, which we're currently doing now for the future, for current and the future of the town. And then the big one that we're working on also is, I'm sure you're all aware, is the housing, student housing projects." He stated that Atkinson is a rural community and has very few apartments or affordable housing. "What we're looking at is other ways to bring some affordable housing, without ruining the character of our rural community," he said.

Other things Atkinson was working on was incentivizing accessory dwelling units and repurposing historical buildings as possible affordable housing. "You just really got to evaluate your facilities and really assess them from a maintenance perspective, and how to maintain them," Mr. Baldwin said. "Because oftentimes in municipalities we get lost on maintenance, we don't budget enough for maintenance. And that is one of the two things that you have to look at for each facility, if you want to maintain it. You let them go for so long, that price tag becomes now a larger price tag. And then now you're asking the taxpayers to foot a big bill when you could have been more proactive and prevented it through the budget process."

Mr. Baldwin also described his experience overseeing town budgets and working with the town financial director. As a member of the Board of Selectmen, he sees budget reports every month.

Asked about collaborating with the school department, Mr. Baldwin said, "You just said a key word that is phenomenal, and that is part of my teamwork concept, and that is collaboration. And I think that's so key in this day and age, and how leaders can get together and work together." When he served on the School Board in Atkinson, it was a four-town district with a $68 million budget. "I think working with the other leaders and other department heads is so crucial in this position, and having an understanding of what the overall goal is, and frankly, at the end of the day, we all answer to the taxpayer. So we want to do right by the taxpayers," he said.

Asked what his availability would be (Atkinson is also a long commute), Mr. Baldwin said, "I will tell you this as a town manager in that position. You know, I hate to use the word 24/7. But in reality, you know, it's just not a nine to five job. And you have to understand that going into it. There's a commitment here. And it's a commitment to the Board. And it's a commitment to the community. So I'm not a clock puncher. So I don't just punch in and punch out. I mean, I do until the job is done. If it takes 12 hours to do it, it takes 12 hours. If it takes 60 hours a week to do it, then it takes 60 hours...I would personally make it a point to have my cell phone on 24/7. Because you know things happen, and you need to be apprised of them so I can apprise the Board."

Mr. Baldwin said he would be interested in the position long-term, and that he will educate himself on the specifics of Massachusetts municipal governance and laws. He's passionate about this work, he said. "I'm a proven leader with a great work ethic."

At the conclusion of both interviews, Ms. LaBrie told each candidate that the Board would be meeting next Monday, and they expected to get back to the candidates next week with their decision.

BOS Appoint Community Members to Search Committee

by Inanna Arthen
At a special meeting on Tuesday, June 20, the Board of Selectmen interviewed five of the six applicants for a citizen seat on the Town Manager Search Committee, which will review applications for the permanent Town Manager position and make final recommendations to the Board. Current Town Manager Justin Sultzbach will be leaving to become the Town Administrator in Middleton, MA as of July 7. The Search Committee will also include Karen Kast as representative from the School Committee and a member of the Finance Committee (to be decided). After hearing each applicant, the Board voted to appoint Jane LaPointe, Thomas Liao, Guy Corbosiero, Cindy Landanno and Thom Schotanus to the Committee.

First to speak, Jane Lapointe said, "We're far beyond the stage where we want what we used to have as a traditional town manager, who just came in and managed stuff. We want someone who can come in and lead with a vision, and who is out there listening to people, being proactive in what's going on." Ms. LaPointe said that she "graduated from Murdock before many people in this room were born." She worked on the Robinson Broadhurst Enhancement Committee which was created in 2013, helped write the Master Plan, and has been involved with many town committees.

"Through the Community Park Committee, I've gotten to really know the DPW department really well," Ms. LaPointe said. "And also the Recreation Department and with the Local Food Works to HEAL Winchendon, the Community Heart & Soul. I've actually heard a lot of things from people now, I've been helping with the story gathering, all the data collection about what's important to people in the town." She added, "I'll bring to [the Committee] what I have from my experiences and talent, what I use in working and helping organizations and businesses continue to thrive or turn themselves around."

Next up was Thomas Liao, who admitted that he doesn't know as much about the town manager's job as some. "I have some interviewing experience, both as a manager interviewing new employees as well as a person from a team who is interviewing a manager to take on that team. So that is the kind of perspective that I would want to bring to this particular search," he explained. "I'm a firm believer that a manager is only as successful as he can make his team successful, the way that he works with them to accomplish everything that he's setting out to accomplish. One of the factors that is going to be important for me to understand, that is of interest to me, is things like how does he plan to leverage institutional knowledge, because let's face it, the people who are on the team know a great deal about how the job is done right now and what things work and what things don't work. Obviously, you want to leverage the valuable institutional knowledge, but that doesn't mean that you have to be stuck with the way things are if you discover a better way to do things."

Mr. Liao added that he is retired from a career in software development and has lived in Winchendon for 20 years.

Following Mr. Liao was Guy Corbosiero, who has long experience with many town boards and committees and is a lifelong resident of Winchendon. He has served on the Board of Selectmen and is currently Chair of the Planning Committee. "I'm chairman of the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission for another week and a half," he said. "So I will have plenty of time to deal with this. And I think, as I said, I have a good perspective on what the town needs, what the role of a town manager is. And I understand that as a committee we'll have to vet a lot of the applicants. I know it's a confidential position where you can't let anybody know the applicants."

Cindy Landanno spoke next. She began by saying she spent summers in Winchendon as a child, and her child grew up here and attended the Winchendon Public Schools. She's had experience with administration, teaching, and hiring. "But more than that, I think I bring kind of a passion for the community," she said. "I think that this is such a unique community. I've been here through many of the ups and downs. And I think we're poised in such a good spot right now as a town. It's encouraging that so many positive things are going on, including one of the things I think you brought up, in terms of the town and the school working together. It's such a key part...Those are the kinds of things we're going to need for a town manager. We're gonna need them to be part of that team that wants to work together on that piece."

The last speaker was Thom Schotanus, who described his extensive experience working in African countries. After years in the construction industry, in 2001 he went to Cameroon in west Africa with the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board. He worked in Cameroon and then Liberia helping to build infrastructure. "I realized that [Cameroon] has resources, human resources, natural resources, but it was still a wreck. And so I began to wonder, what is the real problem? So through my job over there, I get to meet a lot of government people, get to experience a lot of corruption, and begin to realize that the lack of development in these countries has nothing to do with money. And it has everything to do with the way people behave, how they work in government and how they work together, cooperation, how people are honest and faithful."

Mr. Schotanus wrote and published a book, Solving the Puzzle of Development: Transforming Hearts and Minds to Change the World, based on his experiences and will be returning to Cameroon, Liberia, the Congo, Kenya and Uganda this summer. "We came back here and we're seeing all the issues that they're going on here in the United States now. And I see a lot of people complaining about the state of government, the way things function. I follow the elections that have happened here in town. The last presidential elections that were like 50-100 people came out to vote, the last school board, and I think there was some Selectmen, it was about 500. So I saw the apathy." He added, "I really have a passion for this. I want to be an active citizen. I want to be involved."

Mr. Schotanus was asked the only question by Board members: whether his travels would interfere with meeting with the Committee. Mr. Schotanus said he will only be away a couple of weeks, and otherwise works remotely.

The sixth applicant was not present at the meeting.

Board member Barbara Anderson said, "I love that we have our experienced voices and people who are very familiar with being on committees, but I'm just so thrilled that new people have stepped up. I can't even express that. Because I think we need new fresh eyes to look at solving some of the problems that we have in town, as well as the expertise of people who've been here for quite some time."

The Board voted unanimously to appoint the five interviewees to the Town Manager Search Committee.

Ms. LaBrie stated that the Board is putting out a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a consulting company to run the initial application process and pass on candidates to the Search Committee. They hope to have a firm signed by mid-July.

Solstice Fair Fun Defies the Weather on Saturday, June 17

by Inanna Arthen
It wasn't the Solstice Festival we were all hoping for, post-COVID; the traditional parade, which last marched down Central Street in 2019, will have to wait another year. But attendees at the Clark Memorial YMCA's Solstice Festival, the UU Church of Winchendon's Lawn (and indoor) Fair and Immaculate Heart of Mary church's Strawberry Festival on Saturday, June 17 still had good food and fun, even with damp feet and more umbrellas in use than a gray day in London.

The Clark decided to cancel the parade early on, as the weather was forecast to be rainy right at its scheduled time of 11:00 a.m. The Morin Real Estate 5K Road Run for adults went on as planned, but the kids' "Fun Run" at 12:30 p.m. was cancelled. The Clark moved all of its vendors and activities--including a whole row of inflatable "bounce houses"--inside the big Robinson Broadhurst Memorial Field House, which has an amazing capacity. The only exceptions were the food trucks and the Kiwanis' famous food tent, which had many canopies and marquees over them, with a covered walkway to the field house entrance.

The Unitarian Universalist Church gave its vendors the option to move inside the parish hall, where vendor fairs are held in colder weather. Most did; a few vendors chose to stay outside, and so did the church's hot dog concession stand. The IHM church's Strawberry Festival was "covered," as it traditionally sets up under an enormous marquee tent, which held the auction, food concessions, vendor and raffle tables, and tables to sit and enjoy the food and strawberry-themed treats.

Just as in a usual year, attendees circulated among all three events, although in smaller numbers than normally seen. One attendee observed that they had not seen Solstice Fair rained out in 16 years of participating. Call this year's "rained on" rather than "rained out!" The outright tropical downpours that drenched Central Street--multiple inches of rain--failed to force a complete cancellation at any of the locations.

Even without the parade, activity peaked between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with all three venues bustling with visitors. Kids played games and did gymnastics on the Field House astroturf, while adults filled out surveys, collected informational brochures and bought food, raffle tickets, books and crafts.

People at the UU Church remarked at how good-natured everyone was about the rain and lower attendance--they just took it in stride. After all--this is New England! We never know what kind of weather we'll get next, we just roll along with it.

Some scheduled vendors chose not to stay for the event given the weather, but most of them will be back for Fall Fest in October. We can look forward to next year's Solstice Fair when our beloved parade is sure to finally return.

Still early in the day, a double row of vendor and organization tables can be seen running the length of the Clark Field House, including Murdock cheerleaders, the Sunshine Café, the Democratic Town Committee, prolific local author Kevin Flanders, Fidelity Bank, the Winchendon CAC and many more.

Vendors and organizations filled the center and sides of the UU Church of Winchendon's Parish Hall, including the Winchendon Garden Club with their beautiful raffle baskets and the Winchendon Cultural Council, offering free candy to everyone who filled out their survey.

Family History Runs Deep

Monique Connor, a long time member of the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 193 in Winchendon has taken the high ranking position of Department of Massachusetts American Legion Auxiliary President Title on June 11, 2023.

Monique comes from a long line of military in her family starting from the beginning with her Great Grandfather, Chester Mann who was drafted in 1917 to WWI at the age of 24 and in 1942 drafted again for WWII at age 49. He was one of the original charter members that formed the American Legion Post 193 in Winchendon.

Her Grandfather, Harold LaDeau was drafted in 1942 for WWII at the age of 19 and was involved with the American Legion Post 193. Just one of many groups he was involved in like working with the Army Corp of Engineering and was instrumental in the development of the Birch Hill Area.

Her father Ronald King served during the Vietnam Era stateside and was an Ashburnham and Winchendon Firefighter for many years.

John, her husband served in the Air Force during Granada and was a Winchendon Firefighter / EMT.

But, it wasn't until her oldest son joined the National Guard in 2009 and received his orders for Afghanistan in 2010 that she felt the calling to really get involved more deeply with the American Legion Family.

Monique's plans for the coming year are Love of our Veterans, Life of our Country, Liberty for all is going to be her moto for her 2023 - 2024 year term. She will be going back to the basics on "why we are here and how" we can "Be the One" in the campaign the American Legion started in 2022 is making a difference in so many ways. You can follow her on her Facebook page where she will be sharing a lot of information, even how and why you should be a member of the American Legion Auxiliary no matter where you are, as well as programs and events for you to check out.

Murdock High School students from Mrs. Ellis' ALL class helped the Unitarian Universalist Church of Winchendon clean out and replant some badly overgrown garden plots on the north side of the church on Friday, May 19. They worked very hard and accomplished a transformation to the gardens. UUCW looks forward to collaborating with the students again in the future! Any business or organization interested in working with the ALL students can contact Mrs. Ellis at cellis@winchendonk12.org.
Photos by Joe Sackett

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