CCB MEDIA PHOTO
A new Barnstable Town Council Subcommittee, which is called the Town Manager Search Committee, meets about the best way to conduct a town manager search. From left, Human Resources Director Bill Cole, with his back to camera, makes a presentation about hiring processes, as Town Councilors Paul Hebert, Ann Canedy, Eric Steinhilber, Sara Cushing and James Crocker, along with at large members Phyllis Miller and, not pictured, John Crow, listen.
HYANNIS – Barnstable Town Manager Thomas Lynch will receive a letter strongly encouraging him to apply for his job. Assistant Town Manager Mark Ells will receive a similar letter, encouraging him to apply for Lynch’s job.
Barnstable Town Councilor Eric Steinhilber, who chairs a new Town Manager Search Committee, is writing the letters on the instruction of a new Barnstable Town Council subcommittee tasked with recommending a process for a town manager search.
“The committee was tasked to make a recommendation to the full council if there’s to be a town manager search, what process would we recommend, keeping it all in-house or having an outside consultant to make sure we’re casting a wider net in the best interests of the constituents of Barnstable,” Steinhilber said.
The subcommittee, which held its second meeting last night, voted to recommend that the town council set aside a budget of $25,000 to hire an outside search consultant and open up the search for a town manager nationwide and even worldwide.
The committee also voted to send the letters to Lynch and Ells stating that they are encouraged to apply to the top job.
The subcommittee will bring its recommendations to the full 13-member Town Council at its next meeting on September 3.
The council will decide how to proceed on the town manager job.
Barnstable Town Council President Jessica Rapp-Grassetti of Cotuit formed the subcommittee she dubbed the Town Manager Search Committee earlier this summer. The committee follows in the work of a previous committee Rapp-Grassetti formed to write a new job description for the town manager.
Lynch’s contract expires on June 30, 2016. Earlier this summer, he said he let Rapp-Grassetti know he was interested in renewing his contract. But instead of beginning a process of negotiating a new contract for Lynch, Rapp-Grassetti opted to form a Town Manager Search Committee.
The town councilors who are members of the Town Manager Search Committee besides Eric Steinhilber of Hyannis, who is chairman of the subcommittee, are Sara Cushing of Marstons Mills, who is vice chairman; Ann Canedy of Barnstable Village; James Crocker of Osterville and Paul Hebert of Centerville. There are also two at large members of the subcommittee, John Crow, who is president of the Osterville Civic Association and Phyllis Miller of Cotuit, who is vice chairman of the Barnstable Land Acquisition and Preservation Committee.
Hebert and Cushing both said they were concerned about the process of making a recommendation prior to a decision about whether Lynch would keep the job.
“If the position is available, that directs how we function,” Cushing said. “We haven’t ascertained if the town manager wants the job.” She asked, whether “the mere fact of the expiration date,” that the town manager’s contract expires on June 30, 2016, makes the job “available.”
“What defines availability?” Cushing asked.
“The end of the contract,” Canedy said.
James Crocker was the sole vote against the recommendation, saying the full council should first decide whether to renew Lynch’s contract.
“We’re really talking about the top job in Barnstable. What we have to do is decide how we reach the next contract offering and that’s the part that has some give and take to it in my mind,” Crocker said.
Steinhilber said the subcommittee was clearly tasked with making a recommendation to the full council.
“We’ll see how the process unfolds. We’re a subcommittee. We’re recommending a process. The driving force is a completely open, transparent process not only for staff, individuals here in town hall, the constituents, the press,” he said.
Before making the recommendation, the subcommittee heard from Barnstable Director of Human Resources William Cole about personnel search process and from Johanna Boucher, Chief Procurement Officer for the Town of Barnstable, about the process for hiring a search firm.
Cole said the town council would not need to hire a search firm if they plan to have an in-house candidate take the top job. “If the desire is to promote from within, you wouldn’t need a consultant,” he said. But he said that his position was opened up to a wide search and he, as an in-house candidate, still applied for and was hired for the job.
Hebert said that Lynch has done an excellent job and that opening up the search process could create “turmoil” in town hall.
He, along with Crow and Miller, recommended that letters to Lynch and Ells indicate they are strongly encouraged to apply.
Canedy said the decision is not personal to Lynch. “This isn’t about one person. . . . His contract is up. He may or may not wish to have it extended. He hasn’t indicated one way or another. And so we have to be prepared to . . . He is almost 70 years old. We have to at some point look beyond Tom to the future,” Canedy said.
Crocker cautioned committee members not to speak of individuals or their age but to keep the conversation general.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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