##VIDEO ID:Sp4UokWUu7k## e okay how you doing good recording in progress thank you thank you hello your chair go good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the lunenberg select board today is Wednesday January 15th please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunenberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to the lunenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law we're going to begin tonight with public comment are there any public comments from the board no are there any public comments from the public Mr Rogers Mr chairman member of the board um I just to for my own edification um will you give us a thumbnail sketch as to the process that was used and what has transpired uh and uh will we have an opportunity to hear from each and every one of you relative to um your selection and and the people that impressed you the most kind of like you know uh encapsulated version soall yes we're going to have an open discussion okay great the entire thing is going to be an open discussion thank you yeah are there any other public comments from the public Mr pasos I saw you had your hand up yeah I don't know why it went down but uh Dave pasos forly of 56 Whiting Street lunenberg presently a resident resident of Jefferson New Hampshire uh seven decades in the town of lunenberg um I'm before you this evening just to reiterate what I said back at the beginning of this process to both the search committee and this committee that this needs to get done correctly uh the process should not be rushed don't give away the bank and make sure that the decision you make in this process is the best POS possible choice to take the town forward into the future um and a better future than we've had for the last few years um personally this is my own opinion no one else's but I believe that this search should go back to the committee as of tonight thank you all right thank you Mr pasos are there any other public comments from the public on Zoom all right seeing none we're going to move into discussion and possible motion to name a preferred candidate for the position of town manager with whom to enter contract negotiations with the town of Lunenburg so last night we interviewed three highly qualified candidates for our permanent Town manager first I want to thank each of them for their interest in lunenberg and for taking the time to get to know our community and coming in and interviewing with both the screening committee and the select board when Heather announced her resignation I immediately reached out to the town moderator and the chairs of the Committees who needed to select a representative to serve on the screening committee we put that committee together in a little over a week and they hit the ground running to start the search for Heather's replacement I want to thank all of the volunteers who served on that committee for their time and hard work going through the applicants interviewing them and putting forward the finalists that we ultimately interviewed last night they did a great job in presenting qualified candidates I also want to thank John P vetan and the team at Community Paradigm their guidance and experience went a long way in making this process as smooth as possible the way the agenda was set up last night did not include a discussion so we've had some time to think about this ahead of our discussion tonight I'm going to open it up for discussion but I'd like to ask members to focus their discussion on the positives and let's first see if there's a clear front runner Mr petran is there anything else you'd like to add all right so in no particular order I'll just open it up for discussion Mr chair what I if I may comment first I I would hope that everybody would speak to all the candidates before anybody I mean I'm not looking for a front runner I'm not looking for anything to to Mr Roger's point I think we should we owe it to people since we just did the interviews last night that we all give our perspective on each of the candidates in however light we want but that we go along before anybody takes a straw poll or makes any motion or makes anything just so people can understand where each of us stand on any of these yeah I agreed I think that's fair anyone want to go first sure I'll go first why not I was a member of the I just take this off for now I was a member of the screening committee so this was my second interview with with all these candidates uh I too want to thank them all for their U interest in lunenberg for their research for their candid responses to our to both interviews um and I think you are right Mr chair that as I said when we the committee the screening committee brought these three members forward the three candidates that I I don't think we can go wrong with any of these three um that being said in no particular order I'm just going to go through the three candidates as they appear in my uh on my notepad here so Mr wood I thought he as with his background in uh as DPW director uh in holand and his tenure there uh brings a strong sense of leadership from his team um he focused on collaboration and communication with his uh employees and the people and other employees is obviously as DPW director he works in conjunction with other departments often school he mentioned a lot uh Conservation Commission planning board Etc so making sure that there is a full discussion before any decisions are made making sure that people can uh Express their opinions and his respect of those opinions was very important uh his financial planning background is limited to the DPW so he's never been a manager of a whole town uh that was obviously known going into it that is you know I guess one drawback to his candidacy but because he heads a $12 million department and has 33 FTE working for him I think that the next logical step would be Town manager so I am not really too nervous about him if we would choose him to step into that position position um his own admission is that he enjoys although his background educationally is an engineer he really considers himself these are his words a municipal nerd uh and joined the municipal ranks and worked his way up those ranks uh to where he is now he's been in hold on I believe 13 years now um had a lot of familiarity has a lot of interest of his own in expanding that so while his position there seems to be secure he really wants to take the next step and expand his career to uh Town manager and and I think that everything leading to this would would lead that to a normal conclusion so it is not something that I think is Out Of Reach for him [Music] um he's very interested in life work balance that has been something that uh you know has been at issue in lunenberg for several years more than several years probably at least the last 10 that we've had people work extra extraordinarily long hours and then we get used to that and I don't think that is conducive to somebody continuing the job I think that really leads to burnout and he wanted to focus on that he's good delegator but he's also detail oriented enough being an engineer in maintaining projects and project management and overseeing both the fiscal and um organizational part of the town so I thought it was a very a very good candate uh Angie Ellison uh is next on my list and she brings probably the longest amount of or the deepest experience in this job for Town manager at which she has served in several locations uh see seem to have a good command of how the town what the town manager position is uh what the town the mgl laws are on all different fronts um in in zoning you know where she need to in zoning and finances very good Financial background uh again as all of them pretty much said that collaboration is the key is is key to any positive outcome um she is Reliant heavily on Department uh head meetings and then making sure that she meets with other members of the staff uh deeper than the department heads on those occasions when need be or as need be but most of the organization would be through department head although she continuously said she had an open door policy which I think is very important she has experienced in all different types of towns from North Adams to Fair Haven uh and I'm missing one I could look up that I'm not going to but so lots of different towns I mean Fair Haven being uh on the water and North Adams being all the way you know in the Northwest part of the state very different but has had you know success in those areas with projects very solid in HR and employee management very confident in her own abilities I think all of them were very confident in their abilities uh she came with a a whole list of accomplishments I thought was an interesting list that she provided to us and again overall a very very strong candidate but I which I with the deepest resume uh as Town manager than any of them and last was Jen Warren diamond and um excuse me uh she was a very strong candidate in a very different way so um very of all of them probably the most and I don't mean this to be a negative for her or negative against everybody else but probably the most openly energetic of all of the candidates so really you know really kept the pace of uh her speaking uh she spoke clearly but quickly and on point which is very interesting very data driven person uh looks to again as all of them do you know the whole organization will be held together with uh Direction policy from this board to the town manager the town manager disseminating that through the department heads as the policies call for and and that position in town manager overseeing everything that is fits perfectly into uh her mindset uh another o Open Door Policy person she has had some Town manager experience um but uh only recent only most recently uh but for for a few years so again uh familiar with the job she would be new to budget creation as a whole she's done parts of budgeting uh at her other job she relied heavily in West Boyston on finance director and other parts of the finance team this would be a first go round where she would be doing the entire budget she was upfront about that um she openly said that finances are not her strength but obviously organization is her strength and management and attention to details are her strengths very once given a mission very driven to accomplish that mission with the proper people uh and employing the right people and Reporting back and establishing you know consensus not only among the elected and appointed bodies or not just the hired employees but also the community at large uh has done some Union negotiations uh as had Angie um and again overall I think the foundation of a real solid Town manager material who would be benef very beneficial to the town uh as a whole so again that was my initial overview of all of the three candidates thank you Mr chair thank you Tom anyone else want to go next sure so my notes are just in the order of how we interviewed them last night um I agree with Mr Alonzo on everything that he just said I think he did a great job of summarizing um how the interviews went at least for the ones that we saw obviously we weren't on the screening committee um for Angie I have her um I noted that she had significant experience with infrastructure and projects which I think is important with what we have facing um our town as well as in various leadership roles in her different um in her resume uh she talked a lot about she has a strong Dei focus and some team building initiatives um and a proven ability to reorganize and streamline operations which I think can be important coming in um for Jennifer I have exceptional PR preparation and research on lunberg I thought you know she was the only one that created a custom um PowerPoint which we didn't require but I did appreciate the amount of of how knowledgeable she was about our community community and about the key players I thought that was impressive um she has a strong focus on morale building um in public engagement she was a clear Communicator um and then for John um I think again as I stated with Angie extensive infrastructure um experience which in project and capital capital man project management um which I think can be would be able to be expounded upon um and broadened to be a whole town approach reliable and Method methodical and Technical and operational challenges and a strong project management track record thank you Amanda are you done yep so first of all I want to thank the screening committee um for all the work and it was aggressive timeline and I know they um they all had many things to do and they squeezed Us in and and got it done I want to thank them and and John petran petran and Community Paradigm I think they brought forward three um three good qualified candidates um I'll just like um Miss Moore take him in the order that uh we met them last night um first let me say there's some common underlying threads across all three all of them are you know said they're collaborative they are are you know team building um openness communication Integrity all of those basic core qualities every single candidate commented on so that's a given that that's good they all have the same um Foundation that that I mean I'd be looking for in a town manager um so Angie she has experience as a a Town Administrator um she she did stress a lot of about the um staff development training succession planning um she has dealt with you know with budget um her presentation actually um was on how she explained an override to town at town meeting um with Jennifer she uh served as assistant Town Administrator and recently as a Town Administrator um so she has also gone through a budget I actually had on my notes that West filston where she was Town Administrator did not have a finance director or an HR Director that's correct yeah I no I must have said something not not that they weren't filled they they those positions didn't exist which was a little bit of a jaw-dropping moment for me um so she had uh more of the HR responsibility in the town manager role because they did not have an HR Director um she clearly did a a lot of research on lunenberg um and she was um very upfront and very honest about the challenges that we have and realistic about these can't be fixed overnight um so when asked you know what can you expect to sit here and say you've done in a year you know it's not everything's all honky Dory um and I I think she was you know very very polished presenter um John so he has many many years in the municipal sector he has come up through the ranks um so he's you know he's got his feet really planted in in Municipal he he sees it I think from you know a different um Viewpoint he although he hasn't been you know done a townwide budget he's managed his department and operating um capital budget um as well as the Enterprise fund um and let me just check so this you know he's looking to to continue his his advancement um in his career and so this this would be the next um logical step for him so again I think all three were very good um and yeah I think I'll just end there all right um I want to again uh as it's been said several times I want to thank the screening committee for the work that they did um to provide us with three qualified candidates and I also want to thank the work of of John and Community Paradigm for all the leg work that they did uhu so that way we could be as prepared as possible uh coming into the interview process I think that my colleagues have well captured um uh generally I think um um my impressions of how the interviews uh went so I will also go in order and just add additional uh content um um interviewing um Miss Allison uh I I think you know there were um looking at let me step back from that as well another thing as well is I'm adamantly opposed to Googling people before you interview with him so I went into the interviews um not having Googled anyone uh I also as many people know I'm not on social media and so I don't see whatever is out there uh and so I really went into this I think the best way to hire is off of resumés and uh interviews and then to do some uh reference checks and research after you've conducted those interviews um so going into it with that mindset uh I also went into with the mindset that all three candidates were qualified I trusted the screening commit uh committee's work uh and accepted that all the candidates we were meeting with uh were qualified for the job meeting with Miss Ellison uh I think that um she seemed to have a a deep breath of knowledge uh when when it came to organizational um um management I think that her background in education really stood out as being uh a very thoughtful uh almost science-based approach to um to management um it it seemed as if uh she had um justification uh for some of what looks to be short tenures in different communities uh that was plausible and that made sense to not be uh as alarming as I think it looked at first I think that she was methodical in how she presented herself I think Pace wise it was a very even Pace um and you know part of what I was looking for was trying to imagine you know this board is going to change over time um there's a lot of boards with a lot of personalities there's a lot of people uh and how well miss Ellison would be able to work with that uh and I think that uh certainly there was a a demonstration in the interview at least of ability uh to manage um people and processes uh and that's what really I think stood out to me the most in the interview with with Miss Allison uh again deeply thoughtful uh in in her approach the interview with Ms Warren uh Diamond um I um I think that Ms Warren Diamond presented very well I will say that lawyers ought to present very well uh they go through three years of training in which they are it's focused on presentation um and so I think that um how it how she came across um was was certainly she presented very well um I I draw distinction myself and looking at the I've heard some comments about being very well prepared she was by far the most prepared in terms of research into the town of Lunenburg U compared to the other candidates um I for me that was not NE necessarily A a big plus um I think it was noted but I recognize that you know if you have a full-time job as as one of the other candidates you have a family you probably don't have the time uh to be able to invest in watching you know four or five months of Select board meetings uh as perhaps miss Warren diam uh was um I think that I had a lot of questions about the accuracy of her resume um and um and and where where the skills were acquired that she professed to possess um I think that when you look at résumés you can use your identify okay this person worked in this environment they probably acquired the skills from that uh situation uh I um I think that again as Warren diam presented very well um I I think there was a bit of a disconnect for me um between uh the skills that were professed um versus the the skills that were demonstrated I will say miss Warren D was very upfront about some of the challenges that she had working in her last position um I don't believe that recognition of error is the same thing as acquisition of skills to be able to proceed differently I think that being aware of of being problematic or having problems does not mean again that somehow you've acquired the skills to do it differently you're just aware that what you did before um maybe didn't work so um Miz uh Mr wood small um I think you know again the interviews were going late uh for most of us you know by the time we got to Mr wood small it already been a 12-h hour day for us uh or 11 12 hour day Mr wood small presented very well I think his resume and his presentation demonstrated several things um number one being professional development um mentorship being a value um work life balance being an important value uh I think that you know future Town manager whoever we hire um you know people work and they have a life and and and it's important for Community to be aware of how much work can get done in a reasonable work schedule so that way resources can adequately be provided I think Mr wood demonstrated uh in the interview that he prioritizes building teams he prioritizes um based on his work experience um managing projects um managing people a lot of those soft skills uh that go a long way uh with departments I think that in the experience of being a department head you know what his resume and what uh the interview demonstrated uh was a continual process of learning uh continual acquisition of new skills to be better at the role he was in and so I think his resume demonstrated you know several years and and you know four or five years in one position uh acquisition of new skills to graduate into the next it all kind of followed and it all flowed very well and it and it also presented a lot of stability uh in terms of um it's hard to being a rooll for 13 years unless you're doing something right um and and working with multiple Town managers uh so I I think Mr wood small generally although he um does have U background as a DPW director uh it it came across as the next logical progression in his career um could be a role as a town manager uh and I think he certainly demonstrated that he would be capable um certainly in in in his first year developing a townwide budget um there would be some challenges but I think that lunenberg having observed how our previous Town manager compiled budgets uh it was very heavily uh contributed to by department heads uh and so I think that um there's going to be a small learning curve but I think that Mr Woodall demonstrated a high capacity um to acquire uh new Knowledge and Skills all right thank you Michael Ray I largely agree with uh most of the feedback that's been shared already but I will go through and read all of my notes as well so for Angie Lopes Ellison my impression of her and her character was that she was very grounded in her values and her Integrity I think that really came across in the interview I appreciated her honesty and thought she had a very collaborative and team-driven leadership style that was very clear um like has been noted before she definitely has the most experience in a town manager role in her explanation of her employment history um was good for me uh she's also said said many times that she's looking for a home so I know that um in terms of longevity in a role that's something that she's looking for as well I like that she has a goal oriented approach to budgeting I thought that was really interesting um she definitely has strong finance and budgeting skills a lot of experience with that um she has experience with large projects uh including a sewer treatment facility and a new fire department building that she worked on uh I thought she had a very good approach to HR focusing and really prioritizing professional development and succession planning and she seemed to be really good at um doing public engagement in Outreach she told us about how she got I think it was 490 people to show up to a town meeting when they were normally just hitting their Quorum of 10 residents which I found to be very impressive so on to Jennifer Warren Diamond I agree she clearly did a tremendous amount of research uh she had a very good idea of what the challenges we're facing are and what she would be dealing with when starting with us she understood the need to balance both committee and staff resources to manage projects I'm kind of jumping around here with my notes um she had a good focus on professional development of Staff uh for example um she talked about getting staff the training they need or want to advance their careers um and in terms of her character and how she presented herself I thought she was very confident she was a strong Communicator she had a tremendous amount of energy and she had a really good sense of humor as well and I think honestly she was probably the strongest interviewer um like Renee noted she had to work without any dedicated HR or Finance staff I think that's pretty impressive uh she had a good approach to maintaining morale uh she talked about regularly organizing staff events um and she seemed to really understand the import of being present in the community so going to community events talking to Residents just being present um that's something that's really important to me and she seemed to really prioritize that and I appreciated that all right on to John Woodson he has worked as a department head for over a decade uh so preparing Department budgets for over a decade and he's worked in municipal government for over 20 years he hasn't been a town manager right but he does I think have a really unique perspective into how a town manager can best support departments and their staff uh and I do think that's a huge strength that perspective he also has learned what makes a good town manager what makes a bad Town manager over time through his own personal experience working under Town managers and I think that perspective is very valuable I think he'd be able to develop strong relationships and maintain those relationships which is really important to me over time with department heads of course uh staff members board members and residents um he seemed to be a very honest person in terms of his personality he's clearly a hard worker he's clearly results driven uh he he definitely has the most project management experience that was clear as well and he has a lot of experience leading people over a decade as a department head again like I said uh managing a 34 person Department he knows how to invest in his people and their careers and prioritizing that is important to him as a leader he also said something that I really appreciated too uh that I took note of about how he'd go about the budget process by making sure everyone gets their Fair increases which I just see as another example of how his perspective as a department head is very valuable and would be valuable as a town manager so I think all these candidates are qualified uh I personally would be comfortable hiring any of them so do members have a preferred candidate at this point yeah we all have a preferred [Laughter] candidate are you looking for us to say who our preferred candidates are yeah we're at that point now um um John Mr um wood small okay I think I came in tonight with an opinion that I've been going back and forth between my top two which are um John and Jennifer um I think you know having I did do a lot of research I did do research into the candidates beforehand um I would be comfortable with with any again as as um Mr chair said with any of the candidates um but those are my top two at the moment okay here you could hear me no I'm sorry I can try again I can start again sorry Dave um I came into tonight with two that I've been going back and forth between um um John and Jennifer um I'm not sure I really have a clear Forerunner in my mind at this moment um I guess that's okay so they're equally tied you call them both your preferred candidate is that what we want to say instead of and this right in this moment right now okay that's fair I would say that for me while I did say that everybody would be qualified I think John is not my top choice because I don't I think in the position that we're in right now we need somebody who's been Town manager not somebody learning Town manager and that is going to be however however qualified he has with everything getting up to here still I think there's a learning curve that goes with that that I think we need somebody to hit the ground running so for that my first choice would be Angie Ellison and then Jennifer after that and they're they're fairly close but I I my concern and I said that when I said about the energy you know there's a certain demeanor that you get a sense of of when somebody has energy and when somebody has too much energy and that could be taken in a wrong way um and that would be my only my only Tre you know trepidation about Jen and I think that Angie has shown in a much broader uh set of skills in different environments and as as the vice chair said you know I think her background in education really helps in dealing with even though she's not going to be part of the school department still brings a a good sense of what that department might need uh in working in collaboration with them so I would say you know Angie first and then Jen for me so we have to rank them right we have to we can only move on forward so I was looking you know into subtleties that would tilt the scale one way or the other for each candidate um Angie and Jen are my are in my top two and I'll come back to them um the reason that Mr Woodall is not is um similar to what Mr Alonzo said we have a lot of new people in town and key positions who are going through um you know their first uh budget cycle now um I just don't think it's the right match and the right time um it's not a knock at all against Mr Woods Maul's um skill or capability it's just a risk that I'm not comfortable with just given all of um the current situation so um I was you know deciding for my top choice between Angie and Jennifer and um ultimately where I landed was to have Jennifer as my first choice and Angie as second Mr chair if I can I think I need to make my instead of both I feel like I need to um I had put together a scoring template based on what I think are are my most important criteria U morale and retention project completion budget and transparency communication and collaboration vision for lunenberg public engagement and crisis management um this is just my own scale that I was using because I was having a hard time because I like I said those top two that in my opinion I was having a hard time differentiating between the two um when I put everything in I do have Jennifer as my one number one and John as my number two I thought um with Angie again I thought she was a strong candidate um I did have some concerns about her prior employment and leaving um and I also had some concerns about her budgeting process um she mentioned that she only presented the town manager's budget um and the department heads only presented to her and didn't bring the budget and the residents essentially only saw one budget for me that was concerning um I think the department heads should be able to present to the fincom and to the people to see what their requests are uh that was my biggest concern there um with John I thought again he was a strong candidate he was as I said my top in my top two um but again I think because we do have so much so many new employees here especially on our finance team um we need someone that has been in this role previously um and with Jennifer I do have the same concerns about her um potential tendency to dominate conversations that could clash with our culture but I think she realized that you know she she did address it she addressed it with um watching our meetings and how her our meetings differed between West Boon's um so those are my thoughts okay so let's just and then I'll say for for the record I've gone back and forth between Jen and John um I think they are definitely the top candidates in my mind uh and like I said I've gone back and forth and uh right now at least seems that we should at least consider where the majority is here so I want to just take a second to go through all this again so Renee J is your top choice and Angie is your second correct Tom it's flipped around Angie is your top choice and Jen is your second yep and Amanda you said that Jen is your top choice and John is your second correct and then Michael Ray just John um my second choice would be Angie Angie okay so just seeing where we are here for a second hold on one second all right so it seems like Jen has at least the top choice of Amanda and Renee and me as well because for me honestly Jen and John are tied it's very difficult for me to pick between the two of them and say that one is going to be my top choice and one is my second choice uh but it seems like she has that uh angelene has one Top Choice and two second choices and then John has one Top Choice and two second choices so we can go based off of a candidate who has the most top choices um to narrow it down and see if people are willing to support the candidate that has so I'm assuming Tom that you would be willing to support Jen as well since she's your second choice uh if that's yeah I mean if that's the way it would go sure MH and then Michael Ray how about you you seem to have pretty strong feelings about this yeah I I did um you know one of the things that I did last night after the interviews is um I did go back and and look at West Boon's meetings with the select board and town manager and I went back to the summer uh well really the spring and skimming through uh several meetings you know I I'll highlight a couple things that I saw um one of the things that came up was there was uh I noted in public comments what I thought was a a lot of residents coming to the select board over matters that could have been addressed by a town manager um you know one of those incidents that there was a incident that occurred over the summer in which the town manager uh issued um for an event that was not that the select Bo was neither invited to uh nor uh had any action related to the town manager um um I want to get Jen Jen basically issued a citation uh for a outside third-party group on behalf of the select board with ever Consulting the select board um I think that that's problematic um you know an action like that to me if if a board issues a citation it has some weight to it and and town managers should not be issuing citations on behalf of Select boards without their awareness or knowledge um there was an an incident uh in which a young man uh in it appeared to be in his 20s came forward and in commented on a on a problem at the cemeteries in which they had removed plantings from headstones and how this was causing problems uh another resident came and spoke to uh issue at the senior center uh in which there was Bingo every Friday and then a directive came down that Bingo was no longer allowed to happen it was illegal because it was gambling um and then there was a move um to then move the Bingo from Friday afternoons to Tuesdays which of course a lot of people were up in arms about and you know when the town manager was asked about it her response was to the effect of well the Council of Aging has control over the programming their programming takes priority it just seemed a little out of touch um with what was being stated um and and the general takeaway um there were a couple statements that were made related to some line striping some other stuff that were that came across with a sense of authority that based on my years years on this board I I now know were false um so you know my takeaway was that a lot of um there seemed to always be an answer to every question um but those answers weren't always correct uh and those answers weren't always said with authority I noted that the select board uh was commenting on some documentation related to uh cannabis host Community host agreement it seemed as if they had um requested amendments at several meetings that weren't made um and then the response they got back just seemed to be inadequate um so I I didn't you know I I didn't um I'm not I I recognize that that JY came across with us is very strong I think reading through her resume how it reads to me is that she worked in administrative roles uh as as basically a secretary until 2022 um I don't I I think that people can progress in their careers from um you know being an administrative assistant an executive assistant into higher levels of responsibility um but I think that the the job as described at the Housing Authority uh I also looked up how the Housing Authority is structured in wer and I don't think the position that's listed on the resume actually exists um I think that what I did find was an administrative role um that is very similar to what was described in the resume so my takeaway was I think the resume was a bit inflated uh to answer your question Mr chair um I I'm not I can't support um Jen being our next town manager all right but I can support the other candidate firmly a no so that would be a 4 to one vote then it sounds like for Jen if that's how the board works well yeah we'll go through the other two candidates as well cuz um angelene and John seem to be both tied for a second in the rankings so did you list a second I don't recall you a second I did I I said angelene did a second okay but I mean I you know we're a board you know I defer to the majority of the board um you know it's always great to have five five to zero votes um but you know 4 to one is okay I I cannot bridge that divide for me personally um but I I I also respect that I'm one member of five um you know my time here is short I think three members will be working with um one of these candidates for much longer than me um you know so I I certainly defer to the board I understand that um personally I think out of all the votes that we take this is probably the vote that should have a 5 to zero vote um but you know that's just my opinion um but I would like to just press pause here for a minute and just ask Mr petran um what's your experience like um interviewing candidates and getting to this point and seeing a board that seems to be maybe a little divided at the this point the question comes down to making a decision yeah and you know um I don't want to lecture you know but you you know and and you've worked through a lot of difficult issues already as a board so you just need to make the decision um what I've had boards in the past where you know it's a divided vote and that's that's it we do ask for a um a vote to um once that vote is taken to have a unanimous vote if possible if not just move forward I mean if the vote is 41 it's 41 um and I'm hearing that you know maybe asking for a 50 might not you know um you know uh be the case here um but that's you know that's a decision you all need to make at this point right um so the guidance is you got to continue discussion and if there is a motion you know to a point in a second take the vote and move forward um sounds like you you've done an excellent job in highlighting many of the you know um uh the the issues of the candidates I'm not sure talking any further through them is going to necessarily sway you know uh anybody's mind as to who's one and who's to so um my recommendation is move to the fot fair and I do also want to ask you mainly for the public you and I have discussed this and it was brought up in a public comment so I'd like you to address this in your experience experience what is it like if a community decides to not move forward with anyone that's brought to them uh and they go out for a second round what happens what's that experience like it's different in every situation um and um uh this was a difficult search to begin with you know for several reasons we had talked about at length I think at the screening committee um you know location and and other pieces um and but you've got you've all stated you've had three creditable candidates here you know that was moved forward by the screening if um you don't if you decide that you can't come to an agreement tonight and you want to go back out now you've got that that piece hanging over that the board couldn't come to an agreement you know and would you get new candidates sometimes yes uh sometimes no you know the market is very competitive right now you know all of a sudden it's become competitive out there a lot of openings you've had two communities in this area you know um announce openings um very recently so they'll be on the market you know as well um and so I'm not sure it's going to regenerate a different you know group of candidates you know going forward all right thank you for addressing that Mr Mr chair I I I'm hoping I'm going to make the next comment I am hoping that you're asking that question as a purely rhetorical question and that that is not on anybody's mind no I was just going to address that that I don't support doing that at all but it was in a public comment uh at the beginning of this meeting so I wanted that to be answered mainly for the public I think the public comment was that should go back to the committee I don't know what that meant to be very honest I don't really know that I want to know what that meant like do you want the the committee to make a decision they did we we we put four three candidates so uh as far as discussing them I mean I would ask I mean I I I'm I I'm want to say I'm surprised that's not a good word I mean but maybe that's the best word when you're having a cold uh I mean we are in a we're in a spot where we have new people in lots of different positions and uh again I was somebody who wanted to bring Mr Woods Mall forward as Mr pretam would say uh but after re interviewing twice I just don't think that lunenberg is in a position where we could have somebody learn the position when we have a finance director learning the position but we're going to have a superintendent learning the position uh or coming into a new position and you know lots of new employees I just it makes it very precarious if this if we were replacing somebody who we knew was going to retire we did a search and everybody else was going forward I I think Mr Woods MIT would be an excellent candidate and that's why I wanted him to come forward but I just would have a hard time to say that this is the this is his Moment Like This is the time and this is the location right and I will I I will modify my um vote of one my first choice to uh angelene um and not John I mean I don't know if that changes anything but yeah but I I will join Tom in that it um doesn't seem to because I think Jen just has the most number one rankings so I guess at this point the real question is how comfortable are we with a 4 to one vote versus a five to zero vote it would be good to have the support of everybody I think yeah um I mean I mean I you know if I may ask Mr chair um you know for the members who didn't list um angelene as their number one um you know I I vocalize how how I would feel about maybe one of the other candidates but could there be consensus around angelene no no all right so it would also definitely be a four to one vote not that it would definitely but my strongest concerns my strongest concerns are with Angie based on um my research that I have done um and just my own personal feelings okay I wouldn't feel comfortable changing my vote not to say that I wouldn't support it if the entire board felt that way so it sounds like we're at a similar situation now with both Jen Jen and Angie four to one but the opposition to each of those candidates would be comfortable if that's what the board so decides well I don't think Angie is in the same position as she only has two first places anyway right right exactly so that's why all right well it seems but how many how many last places did Angie have how many last plac well I don't think anyone really said that I wasn't tell well if if they gave you two then you know the last one yeah it's kind of deduction thing I didn't deduce that um I can if we really want to um I know yeah sorry I'm not really good at doing this Math on the Spot here my notes are like fairly uh but I believe it's two yeah off the top of my head it's two yeah pretty evenly split so it's seems like at this point that Jen is probably the candidate who has the most support of the board and should go forward do you guys agree seems that way unless Renee has I'm I'm comfortable with that yeah all right well I think that's where we landed why you need a motion yep I know I'm going to ask is there a motion to enter into contract negotiations with Jennifer Warren diamond is that what we should okay is the motion to appoint pending successful NE go to negotiations to go then we have to have another typically the motion is to appoint pending successful contract negotiation you can do it either way but that's typically the motion is there a motion okay uh I move that we appoint Jennifer Warren diam as Town manager pending successful uh negotiation second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I I those oppose no no the motion passes 4 to one great all right we have one piece of business to attend to before we enter into the executive session and that is uh vote to open the annual town meeting warrant on Wednesday January 15th and close the warrant on Monday March 17th um so this is the usual vote to set the deadline and ceremonially open the warrant which isn't actually required by Statute um but we're also reviewing a request that Carter is making uh to set an internal deadline for Warrant articles that are not citizens petitions and that deadline would be set for January 31st um so just to highlight some of the key dates here town meeting is Saturday May 3rd the warrant would be mailed Wednesday April 16th to the printer on Thursday April 13th the warrant would close on March 17th for the finance committee their public hearing would be March 13th and the voting would be on March 20th and for the select board we're down as voting on March 11th but we'll have a standing agenda item to discuss and potentially vote on articles as they come in so that we're not doing it um all in one day um so Carter do you want to talk to that internal deadline request that you're making here sure uh first um all Town board's department heads have known since December 19th that budget submissions and warrant requests were due on the 20th of uh January extended to 21st because of Martin Luther King day so this should not be coming as any great and they've had two reminders since then so this should not be coming as any great surprise uh the reason we're suggesting that this uh if you will internal deadline be set is that the finance committee has expressed um a bit of frustration over being able to get their report completed in time so that it can be published in the warrant booklet that has to be set on mailed out uh so after working with uh the chair of the finance committee and uh Town Council we came up with this idea of an internal deadline that departments that want to submit stuff afterwards they don't have to go go get citizen petitions but it may not make it through the regular Hoops of being able to get all the full select Board review and recommendations finance committee review and recommendations just because of the deadline that the finance committee has to meet to have their public hearing and back everything up uh so this um has been reviewed uh with with schools uh finance committee Town Council and it was sort of the best mid-range that we could sort out um I will suggest that uh when you get round your next Charter review you do look at some of these dates to line them up a little bit better uh because they really don't work well internally and I don't think this come in any great news to you though those of you who've dealt with the finance committee over the last few years happy to answer any questions but um you know I think we fully fleshed out both Chris's and town councils of you and also uh you can see that uh finan committee um has uh built their budget timelines and so all departments will have that tomorrow morning as well I'm fine as long as we keep to it if we're going to make a rule internally that nobody says last minute well I and then they come up with some dog my homework excuse so as long as we're going to say nope it's not going to happen I'm fine uh for the time I'm with you sir I will do my best to honor that uh that sentiment any other feedback or support of it yeah I'm in support I agree same thing I think we need to if we make a rule we need to follow it um but it sounds like this is what you know townwide would be the best decision moving forward so I'm in support all right cool all right with that are there any questions on the general timeline or all right so is there a motion to open the warrant on Wednesday January 15th and close the warrant on Monday March 17th with that internal deadline as described by the interim Town manager so moved second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously and the warrant is officially open all right Mr chairman may I it's not on the agenda it doesn't necessarily require an agenda item uh but given your decision here tonight given your next meeting is January 21 which is pretty tight deadline uh I'm wondering if this board would be open to scheduling a meeting for January 28th should you need it it's it's always easier to cancel it uh but depending upon how contract negotiations go and everything it might be nice to have that extra meeting on the on the calendar should you need it yeah I'm fine with that if everyone okay with it I'm fine as well does it uh I'm fine as well okay all right thank you Carter I think U what was mentioned U Mr chair at the last meeting is that um um s m is going to be absent on the fourth and uh s Alonzo is going to be absent on the the 10th um I always say it is very hard for this board to meet for uh eight weeks straight yeah and that we may want to consider um if we're adding another meeting if that actually occurs that we may want to consider removing a meeting in February I know it's already a short month and we do have an appointment right now with the municipal building design committee scheduled for on the fourth yep that's right so that's an important one um I can consider that I'll have to look and see the agenda um but Renee let me just get this Rene you're not going to be here on the 4th and then Tom you're not going to be here on the 11th yes let's that it yes all right thank you all right with that I move to enter into well before you do that you may you may want to have a closing public comment before we go into executive session oh we can do that um I think there's somebody who wants to is there I don't see any I don't know who you're pointing at but zo Zoom oh on Zoom my apologies all right go ahead Mr Bowen it should be unmuted am I unmuted yep we can hear you okay very good so I'm just concerned that you're going into a contract talk um with um with your candidate for Town manager and there hasn't been a motion made that in the event that those contract talks stall or ar able to be uh agreed upon or fulfilled because you know the candidate's not satisfied with the direction of the contract um would would it be good to be able to have the person who is second uh as the runner up to be able to enter into negotiations with them and I think that question would go to the consultant I don't think that's necessarily a question for the board just my thought and that's all I I really had to say and uh I think that uh overall everything's been uh really good um quite satisfied Direction thanks Mr bone and I will actually ask Mr petran that question if you want to answer it sure you've chosen a candidate move forward uh come to an agreement with that candidate you can always come back if you can't come to an agreement you come back to another meeting and make another decision to try to say to a second candidate at this point oh we're holding you on deck that doesn't work in you know this type of World um so that decision can be made you know um you know after the fact all right thank you thank you all right any other public comment in the room chairman yes Mr Rogers um I do you mind coming up to the podium just just ask for John just ask for John's mic that one over just ask for John's mic right thank you I initially had some uh trepidations about the 17th of March being Irish and being St Patrick's Day and I would just caution everyone that the best intentions sometimes get muddied and uh so let's be aware of that fact the 17th that stands in and uh Aon gobra all right thank you Mr Rogers island forever I'm I'm not sure whoever wrote that deadline in the charter may have not have been [Laughter] Irish all right I move to enter into executive session re-enter Open Session After exiting executive session pursuant to mgl 30 uh subsection 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares I'll second that but I do question about why are we coming back to open session I the same for the purp yeah we have to adjourn since it's an exec say you can adjourn after you could say not to come back to public session that's normally what we've done but all right whatever we we've adjourned many times s from executive yeah all right fine anyway you said it the way we said it we'll come back and say good night to everybody yeah beautiful was there a second yes y all right this will be a roll call vote Renee I Tom I Amanda hi Michael Ray and an i for myself we were officially an executive session thank you