St. Johnsbury is looking for a new Town Manager — again. That job has seen both turnover and turmoil, but things have calmed down under the current Manager, John Hall, who is retiring.
The St. Johnsbury Select Board recently held a special meeting to decide how to find his replacement. Selectman Alan Ruggles proposed to form a committee to conduct the search without outside help. He says the Vermont League of Cities and Towns has handled the administration for past searches, helping to compose the job description, placing ads, and sorting through applications.
“And then they basically went through our job description ad and ranked the resumes based on that, and I think with what we have on the board and the people in town I would like to get included I think that we can do that ourselves and save a few dollars for the people of St. Johnsbury.”
The VLCT charges up to $5,000 to administer a search, leaving the decision-making to select boards. Ruggles wants to save that money. But in the course of the meeting, it became clear that even without the VLCT, finding a good manager costs not only money, but time. Time that some select board members, including Kevin Oddy, say they don’t have.
“From my take, I would much rather use one of the professional organizations because currently the board is extremely busy," Oddy says. "We’ve recently passed the ability to change our budget from a calendar year to a fiscal year so we are busily preparing or trying to prepare an eighteen-month budget in addition to the manager search.”
In the end, the board voted unanimously to sign on again with the VLCT, so they will be working with Abby Friedman, who directs the Municipal Assistance Center. She says towns don’t get as many applications as they used to, and often have to compete for candidates. Managers, she says, need both skill and diplomacy.
“They have three or five bosses to answer to, they have a lot of people to manage, and all the things that happen in towns, so they are responsible for the operation of town government, so they have tough jobs.”
St. Johnsbury can take some time to find the right person. Current Town Manager John Hall will leave the post next April to carve out more family time. The League is helping two other towns, Brattleboro and Springfield, conduct searches as well.
