Consultant Says Barnstable Town Manager Search Process is Flawed

CCB MEDIA PHOTO Members of the Barnstable Town Manager Search Committee, including town councilors Paul Hebert, Ann Canedy, committee vice chair Sara Cushing, and committee chair Eric Steinhilber, and at large member Phillis Miller, met last night. At large member John Crow of Osterville is not pictured. Town Councilor James Crocker was absent.

CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Members of the Barnstable Town Manager Search Committee, including town councilors Paul Hebert, Ann Canedy, committee vice chair Sara Cushing, and committee chair Eric Steinhilber, and at large member Phillis Miller, met last night. At large member John Crow of Osterville is not pictured. Town Councilor James Crocker was absent.

HYANNIS – An executive search consultant told the Barnstable Town Manager Search Committee last night that they had compromised their search by not determining first whether Town Manager is interested in keeping his job.

UPDATE: Barnstable Town Manager Thomas Lynch writes letter to Town Council stating that he would not be applying for his job when his contract expires. See Story.

In the meantime, in response to a letter from the search committee, Assistant Town Manager Mark Ells wrote a letter this week saying he plans to apply for the job.

“The situation is muddy,” said Richard Kobayashi of the Collins Center of Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Kobayashi said he had read about what is happening with the search through media and in the meeting minutes and committee’s charge.

He also said that it is well known in the field that the town of Barnstable has always promoted from within and hired internal candidates.

He said good candidates will not want to apply to the position without a clarification of whether the job is available.

Barnstable Town Manager Thomas Lynch’s contract expires at the end of June. Lynch says he asked Town Council President Jessica Rapp-Grassetti for a contract extension in July and she said she would get back to him but never did.

But Rapp-Grassetti says that she asked Lynch to write a letter expressing whether he wants to keep the job but he never did.

Rapp-Grassetti formed the search committee with the charge of determining whether to hire an outside consulting firm or having an internal search. The search committee last month recommended hiring an outside firm to conduct a global search.

In a split vote at the Barnstable Town Council meeting on September 3, a majority of councilors voted for a global search with an outside firm.

Bringing in the Collins Center to find out what services they provide was the first step in that process.

But in addition to hearing about the services of the Collins Center, which has recently conducted town manager searches in both Mashpee and Brewster, search committee members heard Kobayashi’s opinion on what was going on in Barnstable.

Town Councilor Paul Hebert, who serves on the search committee, was the first to bring up what he said has already been a bumpy process.

“We’ve had a rocky road,” Hebert said. He said the current town manager has been given very high marks in his review but it has not been determined whether he is interested in extending his contract.

“I want you to be clear what a hornet’s nest this is,” Hebert said. “The public is ready to devour us.”

Kobayashi suggested the committee take some time to clarify the situation before going out for a search.

He said a search generally takes about 120 days. “You have plenty of time,” he said.

But Eric Steinhilber, the chairman of the search committee, said the committee had been directed to go forward with a search and should not take a step backwards. He said the town manager had already had ample opportunity to let the council know whether he is interested in the job.

Kobayashi said that is not usually the way the process works.

“I haven’t seen the contract, but customarily the notice goes the other way,” he said, indicating that it is typically the council’s job to let the town manager know whether his contract would be renewed.

Kobayashi said in order to get the best candidates, it is important to be clarify whether the job is available.

“I’m thinking about downstream in terms of taking on the responsibility of assembling a top notch pool for this committee and for this council. Send a signal that it’s time to move on, new person, new energy, new issues on the agenda. Or go with the status quo. But the signals are all muddled. It may be clear to people who are in this room or in this building but in the external world, it is all muddled,” Kobayashi said.

Town Councilor Ann Canedy asked whether Kobayashi’s opinion was based on what he had read in the media. She later said that she believed the media coverage had been “biased.”

Kobayashi said it was from the media, but also the committee’s charge from Rapp-Grassetti and from meeting minutes from the town council.

Upon hearing Kobayashi’s opinion, Town Councilor Sara Cushing said she would not be comfortable asking the town council for a $20,000 appropriation to hire a search firm to go forward with what appears to be a flawed process.

She made a motion for the search committee to ask the full town council to direct Rapp-Grassetti to send a letter to Lynch asking him whether he is interested in extending his contract or applying for the job.

The motion was approved unanimously.

Rapp-Grassetti, who was in the audience for the committee meeting, said she would need direction from the committee on what exactly the letter should say.

Steinhilber said he would draft a letter to distribute among the search committee to discuss at the committee’s next meeting on Tuesday, September 29, at 6 p.m.

Rapp-Grassetti said in order to give proper notice of the matter on the town council agenda, it would need to go before the town council at its meeting on October 1.

Near the end of the meeting, Steinhilber, still seeking to move forward with the search, asked committee members whether they were interested in hiring the Collins Center or talk other firms.

“I think we should put that on hold,” Canedy said.

By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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